Don't let chord inversions bamboozle you. It's simply the case of shuffling the notes around

Martin Tyler plays a Jazz arch-top onstage. He is wearing a striped blazer (a little like a stockbroker) and fretting a chord.

We get different voicings of a chord when we shuffle the order of the notes around. Though we still have the same chord harmonically speaking, it will have a slightly different character.

We can also arrange to have the Root, 3rd, 5th, 7th (or any other extension) at the top or bottom to facilitate chord melody arrangements or Bach-style moving basslines. In the classical world, this practice would usually be called ‘inversions’ of a chord.