What actually is an inversion?

The same chord with a different note in the bass. A C major triad is C, E and G; put E at the bottom and it is first inversion, put G at the bottom and it is second. The notes and the harmony are unchanged — what changes is the bass line, which is why inversions are the main tool for making chord changes move smoothly.

Why are there three different notations?

Because they come from different traditions. Figured bass is seventeenth-century and is what you meet in classical theory; slash chords come from lead sheets and are what you meet in pop and jazz. They describe exactly the same thing, and most musicians fluently read one and stumble over the other, which is why this shows both.

How many inversions does a chord have?

One fewer than it has notes, plus root position — so a triad has root position and two inversions, and a seventh chord has root position and three. There is no fourth inversion of a seventh, because moving the last note up returns you to root position.

Is second inversion really restricted?

In common-practice classical harmony, yes — it appears in a small number of defined situations rather than freely, because a fourth above the bass was treated as needing resolution. In popular and jazz harmony it is used without that restriction. Both are correct within their own idiom, and the mistake is carrying a rule from one into the other without noticing.

Chord Inversion Generator

Most people learn chords in root position and then discover that almost no real music uses them that way. Inversions are what make a bass line move smoothly and what stop every chord change sounding like a jump. This draws a chord in a stated inversion and gives you all three ways it gets written down, because they appear in different places and confuse people separately.

Include seventh chords (these have a third inversion; triads do not)

Include root position as well as inversions

Notation shown

Your chord will appear here.

What this generator does

Draws a chord and an inversion, then gives you the notes in order from the bass upwards, the bass note itself, the figured-bass symbol used in classical notation, and the slash-chord name used in lead sheets. Those three notations describe the same thing and appear in different worlds, which is why a musician who reads one often cannot read another. Seeing them together is the fastest way to connect them.

How to use this tool

Choose which chord types and which inversions you want in the draw.
Press Draw.
Play the chord with the bass note given — the bass note is what makes it that inversion.
Draw again, or work through a set for practice.

Understanding the controls

Chord types: Triads have three inversions counting root position; sevenths have four. Including sevenths roughly doubles the difficulty, because the third inversion of a seventh puts the seventh in the bass, which sounds unstable and is used deliberately.
Inversions: Restrict the draw to the inversions you are working on. First inversion is by far the most common in real music, second inversion is used in specific ways rather than freely, and third inversion only exists for sevenths.
Notation shown: Figured bass, slash chords or both. Figured bass is what you meet in classical theory and harmony exams; slash chords are what you meet in a lead sheet or a chord chart. They mean the same thing and most musicians only know one.

Worked examples

C major, first inversion: E G C. Bass note E. Figured bass: 6. Slash chord: C/E.
C major, second inversion: G C E. Bass note G. Figured bass: 6-4. Slash chord: C/G.
G7, third inversion: F G B D. Bass note F. Figured bass: 4-2. Slash chord: G7/F.
Why it matters: C to F in root position moves the bass down a fifth; C/E to F moves it up a semitone. Same chords, completely different bass line.

Common use cases

Piano students learning to play chords in any inversion from a chord symbol
Guitarists working out which shapes give which bass notes
Reading practice for figured bass, which appears throughout classical repertoire
Understanding slash chords in lead sheets and pop charts
Voice-leading exercises, where the whole point is choosing inversions

How this generator works

The chord is built from its root and quality by stacking the intervals that define it, then inverted by moving notes from the bottom to the top — the first inversion puts the third in the bass, the second puts the fifth there, the third puts the seventh there. The figured-bass symbol is derived from the intervals above the bass note rather than looked up: a first-inversion triad is a 6 because its upper notes sit a sixth and a third above the bass, which is what the numbers have always meant. The slash name is simply the chord over its actual bass note.

Randomness and fairness

The root, the quality and the inversion are drawn independently within whatever you allowed, using the browser's cryptographic random number generator. Nothing about the resulting chord is random — once those three are drawn, the notes, the bass, the figure and the slash name all follow deterministically. A seed makes a practice set reproducible, by switching to a deterministic generator rather than the cryptographic one; it is not cryptographically secure, and nothing about a chord exercise needs it to be.

For how randomness is produced across the whole site, see how Generate Random works.

Assumptions this tool makes

Inversions are counted in the standard way: root position, then first, second and third.
Figured-bass symbols are given in the abbreviated modern form used in theory teaching.

Limitations and good to know

Notes are given as names in order from the bass, not as a voicing. How you actually space them across the hands or the neck is a separate decision and often the more important one.
Doublings are not specified. Which note to double in four-part writing is a harmony question with real rules, and this does not address it.
Figured bass is given in its modern simplified form. Historical figured bass carries accidentals and additional symbols that are a much larger topic.
There is no audio and no stave notation.
It does not tell you which inversion to use in a given progression, which is what voice leading is about.

Common mistakes

Thinking an inversion changes the chord: It does not. C/E is still a C major chord — the same three notes with a different one at the bottom. What changes is the bass line and the stability, not the harmony.
Counting inversions from the note order rather than the bass: Only the lowest note decides the inversion. E G C and E C G are both first inversion, because both have E in the bass.
Using second inversion freely: In common-practice harmony the second inversion is used in a small number of specific situations — passing, cadential, pedal — rather than as a free substitute. In pop and jazz that restriction largely does not apply, which is worth knowing before you take a rule from one world into the other.
Reading a slash chord as two chords: C/E is one chord, C major, with E in the bass. It is not C then E, and the slash is not a division.

Practical tips

Practise moving between two chords choosing the inversion that moves the bass least. That single habit is most of what voice leading is.
Learn to see the figure and the slash name as the same information. Musicians who read charts and musicians who read scores are usually describing identical chords in mutually unfamiliar notation.
On piano, play the bass note in the left hand and the rest in the right. It makes the inversion audible in a way that a solid block chord does not.

Troubleshooting

The figured bass symbol looks wrong: The modern abbreviations drop numbers that are assumed — a root-position triad is written as nothing rather than 5-3. If you are used to the full figures, that is the difference.
Third inversion never appears: It only exists for seventh chords, because a triad has no fourth note to put in the bass. Include sevenths in the draw.

Privacy and your data

Nothing is entered and nothing is stored. Chords are drawn in your browser and analytics records only that the tool was used along with which inversion was drawn — never a practice set.

Frequently asked questions

What actually is an inversion?: The same chord with a different note in the bass. A C major triad is C, E and G; put E at the bottom and it is first inversion, put G at the bottom and it is second. The notes and the harmony are unchanged — what changes is the bass line, which is why inversions are the main tool for making chord changes move smoothly.
Why are there three different notations?: Because they come from different traditions. Figured bass is seventeenth-century and is what you meet in classical theory; slash chords come from lead sheets and are what you meet in pop and jazz. They describe exactly the same thing, and most musicians fluently read one and stumble over the other, which is why this shows both.
How many inversions does a chord have?: One fewer than it has notes, plus root position — so a triad has root position and two inversions, and a seventh chord has root position and three. There is no fourth inversion of a seventh, because moving the last note up returns you to root position.
Is second inversion really restricted?: In common-practice classical harmony, yes — it appears in a small number of defined situations rather than freely, because a fourth above the bass was treated as needing resolution. In popular and jazz harmony it is used without that restriction. Both are correct within their own idiom, and the mistake is carrying a rule from one into the other without noticing.