Triad Inversions

A triad is 3 notes played at once, its first inversion is the bottom note moved up 1 octave. Interestingly, this operation changes very little about how we hear the chord quality. For example a major chord and its first and second inversion sound almost identical, even though they have different bass notes. On the chromatic circle, this shows up as essentially the same shape with a different starting point.

Inversions are often interchangeable for the original chord, and are used to create smoother bass lines in chord progressions. A chord's inversion preserves the chord quality, and shows up as the same shape and color in the MusicWheel's interface.