7th chord inversions

In order to visualize the fretboard, it's a good thing to learn the chords and their inversions.

Below you can see a Dmaj7 chord in root position and it's three inversions. What does it mean?

• Root position: root in the bass
• 1. Inversion: 3rd in the bass
• 2. Inversion: 5th in the bass
• 3. Inversion: 7th in the bass

All the four chords contain the same notes, i.e. the root, 3rd, 5th and 7th of Dmaj7 (D, F#, A, C#).

Dmaj7 in root position and it's three inversions. On strings 2, 3, 4 and 5 (click to enlarge).

What to do next?

Construct the root postition 7th chord and it's three inversions for D7, D-7, D-7b5.

Tip:

The difference between Dmaj7 and D7 is just the 7th. (Dmaj7 = major 7th; D7 = minor 7th).

The difference between D7 and D-7 is just the 3rd. (D7 = major 3rd; D-7 = minor 3rd).

The difference between D-7 and D-7b5 is just the 5th. (D-7 = natural 5th; D-7b5 = diminished 5th).