“Squeeze’s Glenn Tilbrook knows a thing or two about using inventive and interesting chord voicings”: How you can swap the notes in a chord to give it a different feel

Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze on his knees, onstage with his white Stratocaster: Tilbrook knows a thing or two about using inventive and interesting chord voicings in the band’s songs.

When we learn about creating a chord from a scale, we list the notes in order of appearance: Root, 3rd, 5th.

However, swapping this order around can sometimes be really effective. Shifting the 3rd (or b3) to the bottom gives what classical composers call a ‘first inversion’.