How Elton John uses Inversions 

He also sang most backing vocals. Amazing

I can’t wait for the Mii Channel biopic

@@DavidBennettPiano lol

2022: The lick

@@gi5897 2023: Mario Kart lick

@@Aurora-oe2qp 2024: Apple alarm sound

I'll gladly take the pride,but it was in fact Ophir who pointed it out. I'm the confused danish bloke 😅

3:16 Hey David, are you sure that inversions count as line cliches? I always heard that the entire chord needs to stay put while only one note changes for it to be a line cliche... Just checking, because I'm kind of confused

@@Stewerrvideos Thanks :)

Pedro kenzo a line cliche can be just one note changing, and often is, but can also be any time when chords are voiced to create a line on top that ascends by step or a line on the bottom that descends by step

Stewerrvideos ha! Oh yeah, sorry about that. Correct person credited now!

Yes!!☮️❤️

We use inversions all the time it’s called relaxed strumming

Love the show, but can't agree that inversions don't cross guitarists' minds. In fact, while strumming, one is constantly switching inversions. How about up-stroking the 3 high strings, quickly followed by down stroking the 3 low strings, followed by up-stroking the 4 middle strings, followed by down-stroking the 2 low strings, followed by down-stroking the 3 high strings, etc etc etc etc etc etc etc. No shortage of inversions at all!!!!!!!

@@hawaiirealmedia5610 I agree 90%. Depending on where and how you strum will be an inversion, but there will be big not jumps between each new inverted root of you use the strumming method. A simple example to counter this is like when you go G - D - Em with the simple open string chords to put your thumb on the F# when playing the D. Secondly, this is just personal opinion, but thinking about inversions when writing a song using a guitar only comes after you wrote the song, normally you'd just play some chords and see what melody you can make out of them.

I'd say any somewhat "advanced" guitarist knows about and uses inversions, and quite often at that. If you look at advanced guitarists, regardless of genre, it's a no-brainer obviously, but even in loads of super common and conventional pop/rock guitar songs there are inversions. I mean take Stairway to Heaven for example, in the arpeggios in the very beginning there is a D major in first inversion (an F# being the lowest note). But notes (and thus chords) are far easier to visualize on a keyboard than on guitar, and thus easier to mess around with. Not to mention easier to play. Guitarists are often kind of conditioned to common chord shapes (the standard open and bar chord shapes), and to think of the root as the lowest note that's being played, because it's pretty much what the instrument is designed for. Takes a while to break out of that "box", yet a lot of great guitarists never did, but they're not less great because of that.

Right, because Jimi was able to play the 2 lowest strings with his thumb, that freed up his fingers to play all kinds of things other people hadn’t tried before.

John Mayer also has the thumb advantage.

Also most of jazz guitarists

Not only that, he also inverted the guitar being left-handed ;) Sorry, I could not resist this stupid joke.

@@DarkSideofSynth have a stupid thumbs up. Or is it an inverted thumbs down.

Agree. Best Elton example.

Yes, I was plodding through this on piano and thinking "Jeez, this is a very inventive, unusual song!" Then I picked up my guitar capoed at 1st fret and suddenly I was playing a run of the mill G-C-D thing. Between placing it in Ab and the inversions it sounds very original.

Well, he has been milking it for 30+ years....

@@foljs5858 Elton milking it? I don't agree.

@@foljs5858 you have to be kidding.

true, however I don't associate inversions with Elton John. It's a common thing among pianists. As a pianist myself, I'd never play all chords in the root position. You always try to move your hand as little as possible

Yes!! Give us more Please, David

Thanks for watching 😊😊

@shvgvrqv because there's so many inversions you can use

And now I wanna take the time to get really well acquainted with my guitar

It's doable on guitar, but not nearly as easy as on a piano, particularly if you want to play something other than the root in the bass.

It’s super common to play a D/F# inversion though and you can invert a C major chord by playing the open E with it

@@robertpratt1020 This is true. However, I was just trying say it isn't as black and white as the video makes it seem, it's not impossible to play any inversions on guitar, and it's not completely possible to play every chord inversion on piano. But you are 100% correct, it is still easier on piano. Oh, and for context; I am a fan of DB, I just wasn't too keen on his explanation during that part of the video.

I'm a completely untrained musician, but I'm pretty sure that I play inversions on guitar because I just mess around with shapes, not really knowing what the chords are.

Good call. I understood the point but it was a little hard to hear with normal speakers

I said it above, but I think Angus and Malcolm own the title deed on D/F#.

He’s mixing slash chords with Inversions.

Thanks Jon! I agree with you... a lot of people have latched on to what I said about guitar! I'm not saying of course that inversions can't be played on guitar! I'm just saying that they are less accessible, which is true. 😁

@@DavidBennettPiano yeah, it seems a lot of guitarists misunderstood that part!

God only knows if that's true

In an interview he said, in reference to Someone Saved My Life Tonight: "It's an inverted chord, not a root chord. I got that from 'God Only Knows.' Being a piano player, I latched onto that immediately when I heard it."

Yes. Have heard him say it.

Also, classical music and sometimes playing the organ in his early days, and a love of Gerswin would have had a huge effect. Gershwin was a huge influence on both Brian & Elton.

@@scottbrown635 nice pun bro 😅

And Lennon's "Isolation" basically has the same line cliché as "Life on Mars".

Thank you! I'll have to check that Paul David's video out 😊

God only knows

Yessss, Brian was a genius at using inversions. God Only Know, Wonderful, Don't Talk, Let's Go Away for Awhile, and so many others

Thanks!

Thank you!

Thank you! 😃😃😃

Thanks Ben!

Great example! Pinball Wizard is a favourite of mine

"Pete Townsend is practically the king of pedal point" Tony Banks: *exists* A NEW FOE HAS APPEARED! Seriously tho, Pinball Wizard is a great track tbh

@Aquatarkus Tony Banks is hugely underrated! In my opinion he is the best prog rock keyboard player, yet he never gets the recognition of Kieth Emerson or Rick Wakeman.

Absolutely. Every video I watch it's like a coin being taken to my patchy scratch-map of music theory. New video = a new piece of the pattern gets filled in

Thank you! 🙂👍🏼

@@DavidBennettPiano You could make a song out of them, like Billy Joel's "We didn't start the fire" :)

Thank you! 😃

That is true... I just think that, due to the way the guitar is laid out, inversions are not as accessible.

I think it has less to do with them being inaccessible and more to do with the fact that guitar players just don’t typically think much about the bass, because they are rarely playing the bass. They’re trained to be, effectively, the right hand of the piano - the bass player will handle the left hand. Piano players, of course, are trained to play both parts from the jump.

@@bodhibeats8257 Inverting chords has nothing with the bassist or left hand, other than that they may have to adapt accordingly. Like David said, the guitar is tuned to make conventional chord voicings comfortable and many guitarists play chords based “shapes” and don’t know enough theory to figure out an inversion.

@@jonde4445 I think we’re saying the same thing. Guitar players learn to play chords based on shape and don’t think much about what note is in the bass. 🤷‍♂️

@@bodhibeats8257 Yeah for sure, but even if you know theory, the standard tuning of a guitar makes it physically more difficult to reach the frets you need for inversions.

Thank you!

Ted Greene as well

😂

One thing I know for sure is that Allan would have finished the beer rather than let anyone hold it. :)

Thanks! 😃😃

Thank you! 🙏🙏

Thank you! 😃😃

Thanks! 😃