Third Inversion Chords

In the third instalment of this series, Richard Barrett demonstrates how third inversion and slash chords can lead the way in popular music

- Richard Barrett

Previously, we've looked at what happens when you swap around the notes in a triad and put the 3rd at the bottom (first inversion), or the 5th at the bottom (second inversion). In this next instalment, we'll look at third inversion chords. To create these, we add a dominant (aka flat) 7th to a triad/chord and move that to the bottom. In practice, these are generally notated as slash chords. For example, in an A/G chord (see Example 1), the 67 (G) is moved to the bottom. Like suspended chords, this definitely feels like its leading somewhere - try following up with a D/F# (D first inversion) and you'll recognise a very popular chord move, heard across multiple genres.