Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Here's a chord chart I made

#1

***EDIT - Unless someone finds a glaring mistake, I’m going to consider this the final edit. Because there are literally thousands of drawing objects in the document, it took 30 minutes just to edit a few lines of text. If I do any more of these, I’m going to try Photoshop.

This revision replaces “Inversion” with “Position.” I also removed X, Y, and Bar position names from the minor and 7th pages since I realized they don’t really make sense there.

BanjoCombinedChordInversionchart.pdf (318.3 KB)

Also, here’s the Excel Spreadsheet that shows randomized chord names timed to the change speed of your choosing. You’ll need MS Excel and you’ll have to enable macros when you open it.

ChordRandomizer.xlsm (15.4 KB)

So, to my surprise, I couldn’t find anything like this available online. (Of course, watch someone show me where to find it on this site :stuck_out_tongue: )

Anyway, this ended up taking WAY longer to create than I thought. My plan is to make additional pages for minor, 7th, and eventually other chord variations. I may be more inclined to spend the time if others find this page of major chords useful.

Let me know if you find it useful, and more importantly, if you have any recommendations on improving it. Also, if you could double check it for mistakes, that’d be awesome!

Thanks!

1 Like
Effective Practice
#2

yeah it might come in handy. if it is correct.
1 question
is it not root. 1st inversion. 2nd inversion. to get the 3 inversion you have to add 7th tone of the scale.
not sure in new to all kind of music, playwise and theory :slight_smile:

#3

It’s my understanding that the word “inversion” in this context is just a fancy way of saying “different ways to make the same chord.” Honestly, the idea of theory is pretty new to me, too. I’ve only recently started getting really serious about banjo, so I’m kinda green, too.

Here’s Alan Munde’s Fretboard Geography lesson where he and Ben talk about the different inversions where Alan calls them 1, 2, and 3. It’s great stuff that I listen to in the car from time to time to keep it fresh in my mind.

https://banjobenclark.com/lessons/fretboard-geography-part-2-banjo

#4

yeah its much to grasp for sure. i looked here and i bought hes book, since its said “made really easy” :stuck_out_tongue:


look at 6.20
still atm im uncerten i get it right. thats why i dont wanna say this or that.

#5

Really nice Mark. I’ll def print and keep in my binder.

#6

Well color me confused. I have no idea why he’d say “If the 7 is in the base…” The 7th note of the major scale isn’t part of the major chord. A major chord is made up of the 1, 3, and 5 notes. So, for G, you have G, B, and D. If you include the 7th note of the scale in the chord, you’d have a G Maj7.

I’m thinking he just misspoke there. @Mr_G, any chance you can check out the 6:20 mark of KB1’s video and clear up what’s going on there?

#7

OK, I just couldn’t help myself. I went ahead and created the Minor and 7th chord charts and rolled them all into a single file. Here it is.

BanjoCombinedChordInversions.pdf (318.3 KB)

Also, I forgot to mention that I made these chord charts to accompany an Excel spreadsheet I posted yesterday. You can find that here.

ChordRandomizer.xlsm (15.4 KB)

If you have Excel on your computer, open the Excel spreadsheet and enable macros if it asks. Then, it will randomly list chords at whatever interval you set (in seconds.)

I hope I’ll put as much time into actually learning chords as I have making these tools. :stuck_out_tongue:

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#8

I just listened to a snippet of the vid, but doesn’t make sense if he’s talking only a major triad: http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/42

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#9

Thanks Ben. Maybe I need to update my chart to say “shape” rather than “inversion” to eliminate confusion. I don’t have the energy for that tonight.

#10

Whatever you call it, I’m already learning from it so thanks @Mark_Rocka!

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#11

I think “inversion” is the right word. You got your root position triad and the various inversions. You could also do inversions of chords beyond triads (7’s, 9’s) but regardless, I think your use of the word is correct.

BTW, Any chance you could make a chord chart like this for a jaw harp?

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#12

So I looked at Ben’s link and if we only deal with the triad. It’s root, 1st inversion and 2nd inversion.
Maybe MrG will adress this in the future. Neverless love you took the time and made it Mark

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#13

Great chart, dude. Extremely helpful. I think it you change it to “shape” or “position” it would make it perfect!

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#14

Yes its gonna help me a ton. Now I can practice just doing that. If I only can get that D shape happen under
5 sec . So I can get a bit of flow

#15

OK, my first post in this thread has been updated with the final draft (I hope) of the chord chart. I’m thrilled folks are finding it useful!

#16

LOL! That’s awesome!

#17

Hey Mark,

Yes, you are right on that. For example -

The C triad on a piano is C - E - G. Middle C moving in a right direction to G.

There are a couple of inversions and I’m not sure which is first and which is second, but, if you were to play E - G - C (the C above middle C, then you have an inverted version of the chord).

I think that is the first inversion of a C, but it might be the second. Ben would know in a second. Remember, this is from a keyboard perspective which I find much easier to think about because it is linear rather than up and down.

Hope that helps,

Jack

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#18

I’ve reattached the pdf since the link was broken.

BanjoCombinedChordInversions.pdf (318.3 KB)

#19

When I try to access the pdf I get this message. A glitch in the matrix or a problem on my end?

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#20

when i click on any links in this thread i get

You currently don’t have a connection to BanjoBenClark.com, and there are not any saved lessons to display. When you are online and download a lesson for offline viewing, it will show up here.

I’m signed in and have an active account

Thanks