Slash Chords Everything You NEED to Know Video Lecture - The Ultimate Guitar

there are two things that always deserve
a good slashing the tires
I'm the BMW belonging to my mom's new
boyfriend and also chords so today we're
talking about slash chords which
basically I remember I was confused by
this when I first started looking up
chord charts and I would see like a C /
G or a D slash F sharp really simple
answer to this but we can you actually
gotta take this in a few different ways
to start talking about more how valuable
it is to learn where the notes are and
stuff like that and how what notes going
to what chords so real easy answer you
have a letter a slash and another letter
right it's like a C / video basically
what that is
it means the C chord if you don't want
to get too far into it and you just want
to do this as easy as possible just
forgive that there's a slash and there's
a letter after that just take the first
one of C / G is just a C major chord but
the real answer is the letter to the
right the note to the right of that
slash is what the bass note should be
okay so we have really the root note
versus the bass note okay
on guitar oftentimes the root note is
the bass note so what that means is
again this traditional C major chord I
got third fret a string second fret of
the D string open g string first fret of
the B string open E string the notes
that go into a C major corks are c ii ii
from the d string is e and g now for
this particular chord voicing we have
another c and another e ok the cool
thing about guitar is that you don't
really just any instrument you don't
have to have just one of each of those
individual notes represented we have six
strings most guitars have six strings so
we can have six potential notes played
even if we're doubling them up right so
this is a three note chord called a
triangle alright now the next thing we
talk about is an inversion an inversion
is where the root or the bass note isn't
the first note okay so kind of like I
said in the C major chord the root note
and the lowest note happen to be the
same thing a C okay
we also said that any combination of
CEng will make a C chord it could be 12
C notes 1 e note and 15 G notes all
going to be C chord right but let's talk
about a C / G so all we need to do is
find a lower g note
make the bass note the lowest note in
this chord from this voicing is a really
easy one to do this that I like to use a
lot third fret on the e-string is g e F
F sharp G okay so if you make a C major
chord but instead of using your ring
finger for the third fret a string use
your pinky and then put your ring finger
on the G note on the E string you get a
C / G chord okay so this is an inversion
of a C major chord
alright now another inversion we could
do would be having the e in the root and
that's actually pretty easy to to do is
the right with a regular C major chord
you just hit the open E string okay so
that would be a seed / e alright so
we've got and just to kind of hear the
difference we have a regular C chord a C
/ G and a C / iya
okay so it might not be a whole lot of
difference but in certain compositions
and arrangements on guitar and other
instruments really where the bass note
ends up happening occurring can be can
be really huge as far as how that sounds
so again it can also be kind of
confusing because like okay I play a C
chord what does that mean I do want to
play this C Gorda do want to play this C
chord this C chord there's a lot of
options that you can have to play a C
chord so it's up to you and your own
creativity in which voicings that you're
comfortable with to choose which C chord
to use but doesn't really give you more
information if you're just looking at a
chord chart so when you have slash
chords a lot of times that's like a
really solid hint of which voicing that
that chord chart is calling for like a C
/ G chord almost 99% of the time it's
usually calling for this chord voicing
or G's in the bass demo okay so another
one you'll see a lot is maybe like a D
major chord right so and another reason
that this chord has probably / more than
any other chord in guitar history guitar
lore is because when you think about
maybe like another chord that goes with
the D major chord a lot a G major chord
one of the reasons this calls for a
slash board more often than not is
because we think about it if you play
this D major chord D or I've got open D
D B my root note my bass note just a
regular traditional D major open chord -
g string which is an a3 on the b string
which is another D and then - I'm a high
string is an F sharp so we have all D's
F sharps and A's but I'm only playing
four strings I'm a guitar in the four
highest strings okay when I play AG
major chord oftentimes you're gonna play
all six strings okay so we also have the
two thicker strings that are aiding that
G major in volume so specifically in a
solo acoustic guitar arrangement you
actually lose a good amount of volume if
you're playing pressure wise evenly a D
major chord for strings in G major chord
six strings so what you'll see / a lot
is taking a D major chord with an
f-sharp in the bass note right so again
you can read this it's just gonna be d /
f-sharp you just say d / f-sharp would
be another way to speak that to read
that chord but oftentimes it'll look
like that so maybe I start with this
voicing right here where I've got third
fret of the E string 2nd fret of the a
string open D open G 3rd fret of the B
string and then it'll go to a d / F
sharp chord which looks like this again
my rate my ring finger just kind of
anchored there and now my pointer
fingers on the f-sharp on a low E string
which is going to be the same as the
high E string up here and my middle
finger is 2nd fret on the g string so
that kind of creates
a little more of an even sound because
it is essentially equal equally
bass-heavy and arrangement as this g4
instead of maybe getting a higher you
know kind of you know higher pitched
sound just playing the bottom four
strings right also too it's a great way
to transitionally move from one thing to
another again not not just in acoustic
solo arrangement performances but in all
types of music a lot of times will be
faced with ascending and descending bass
notes so one thing you might see it like
let's let's go back to a C chord example
C major to a minor okay two chords
you'll always see paired together maybe
in between you want to grab a note on
the way there so we have the C major
chord we're gonna end up with this a
minor chord in between maybe we want to
grab the note in the C scale that's
gonna take us to a minor c b a okay so
if we take this regular c major chord
and then we just hit this B right here
like this and then go to a minor again
for this we're gonna call this a C slash
B chord my middle finger is on the 2nd
fret of a string that's a beef my ring
finger is on the 2nd fret of the D
string alright so see C /b
a minor okay it was like a a descending
nature to a baseline and then different
chords okay now this is kind of an
interesting one because if you take a
seat
slash it and then put a B well a B note
isn't technically in a C major chord if
you added a B note to a C chord you
actually get a C major seven chord so
this is where it can be a little
confusing where it's like well this is C
/ B chords it's a C major chord like
what what actually is this it's really
just kind of like your your perspective
that you're coming at it with because it
technically yeah it's a C major seven
chord but if it's written as the C /
beer that's really telling me oh it
wants me to take the bass and move it
down instead of maybe playing C major C
major seven a minor you know again
that's kind of like an inefficient way
to do it you can always use common sense
and try to figure out these chord
progressions and kind of see what's
easiest but that's an example of when
the the note on the right side of the
slash isn't actually in the chord that
is being displayed on the left side of
the slash same thing with like a G major
chord right a G major 7 chord is just
taking a G chord and then adding it and
the F sharp to it well you can do the
same thing where you instead of going to
a D slash F sharp you just kind of add
this and I've sharpened on the way to
maybe an E minor chord you'll see that a
lot as a transitional element in between
them sometimes you can just kind of see
like all sorts of things really really
just get creative that's why this is
more of a lesson in knowing where your
notes are where they lie in a scale and
then maybe just trying to you know
invent your own ones like maybe if we
have like a B major over like the third
like a G right it's like okay well
that's kind of an interesting sound I'm
getting and you don't have to have a
very advanced core vocabulary to just
try doing different things and then
being able to notate it either for
yourself or to play with another
musician to kind of work on that kind of
thing all right
now you also want to mention that
sometimes we'll see another type of
slash chord that's called a Polly chord
and this is more of like maybe like a
jazz singer or even like a piano thing
where you'll have
maybe like like 1/2 over an A to C up
and down like that that's really called
a Pollock where we have two different
cores kind of happening at the same time
so maybe like a piano player is playing
like an F major in his left hand lower
and then an a major in his right hand or
her his or her right hand higher right
and playing them the same time that's a
little bit more of an advanced concept
that as beat our players we don't really
see too often notation wise but it's
just something that can cause confusion
at beyond that so / cores are definitely
a great thing to have an understanding
of because you run into them all the
time and also just kind of a reminder to
be thoughtful about maybe when you're
just playing a regular open chords or
whatever kind of chord progression you
have that you can really just start
adding different notes outside of the
court that you're playing to keep
different types of sounds whether it be
through a transitional component or
something kind of creative
[Music]
all right so definitely if you have any
questions or if I missed anything that
you want to that you want me to add on
to it hit me up in the comment session
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will talk to also you thanks a lot