Lesson 8

   Lesson 8: Inversions, Figured Bass, and Lead Sheets

Lecture Notes:

• In finding a chord look for the lowest note to find the root note.
• The difference between the root and the bass is that the root is the foundation of the chord. On the other hand, the bass is the lowest note of a chord.
• There are three types of inversions of a chord: Root Position, 1st Inversion and 2nd Inversion.

Inversions

• The root position is stacked in thirds and it has the rote note at the bottom.
• The 1st inversion will have the third (3rd) at the bottom as the bass followed by the rest of the chord above it.
• The 2nd inversion will have the fifth (5th) at the bottom as the bass followed by the rest of the chord above it.

Image from:

https://dictionary.onmusic.org/terms/2943-root_position

Figured Bass

• Figured Bass is finding what inversion the chord is in based on the intervals above the bass.
• Always remember that 5/3 is  Root Position, 6/3 is 1st inversion, and 6/4 is 2nd inversion.

Image from:

http://westrowanmusictheory.weebly.com/w5-triadic-inversions.html

Figured Bass 

• There are 3 main things that Lead Sheets tells you:
• 1. Root
• 2. Quality
• 3. Inversion

Image from:

https://viva.pressbooks.pub/openmusictheory/chapter/chord-symbols/

Here's a YouTube video from the YouTuber: "PianoGroove". In this video, he shows you how to read lead sheets. He covers what lead sheets are, why they are laid out the way they are, and the best way to interpret them. 

Here's a YouTube video from 12tone. In this video, He talks about figured bass and how it works. He shows you how to identify them through various chords and how to write them.

In this video, I am playing Diatonic triads in inversions using the keyboard. The key's that was used were C# major and it's relative minor A# minor.