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Don't let slash chords confuse you
too much. No, they are not the chords that
the guitarist from Guns and Roses uses, they are
something different. A slash is this: /, so a
slash chord should have one of them in its name.
These are all slash chords: G/B, C/Bb, F/G,
Cmaj7/E. The symbol on the left of the slash is a
chord and the symbol on the right is the bass
note. So the slash chord G/B means that you have
to play a G triad over a B bass note. If I wanted
you to play this chord, I would probably say;
"Play G on B" or "play G over B." There are
basically two types of slash chords: one is an
inversion of the chord itself, this makes the bass
note (notated on the right of the slash) the 3rd,
5th or 7th of the chord. In the other type of
slash chord, the bass note functions as the actual
root of the chord. There is a gray area where
these two types of slash chords overlap. |
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Triad
Inversions |
| The first type of slash chords we will deal
with are just simple triad inversions. Simply by
voicing any triad with the 3rd or 5th in the bass
will yield a slash chord. Ex: A simple C major
triad voiced with the third, E as the bass note
will yield a C/E slash chord, voiced with the 5th,
G as the bass note will yield a C/G slash chord.
When the triad has as the bass the root, it is
said to be in root position. With the 3rd in the
bass, 1st inversion and with the 5th in the bass,
2nd inversion. |
| Bass Note |
Inversion |
| 1 |
root position |
| 3 |
1st inversion |
| 5 |
2nd inversion
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| Play each inversion below. The roots are in
black for reference: |
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root position |
1st inversion |
2nd inversion
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The previous chord examples are just a few
of the many triad voicings that can be
constructed, see if you can come up with some more
voicings of major triads. After you figure some
more of the major voicings out, try to come up
with the minor shapes also. |
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Bass Movement
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| Why would you want to use the inversion
anyways? - These kinds of slash chords are
often used to simply create chromatic bass
movements in your chord progressions. Take a look
at the chord progression below: |
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| Although the bass movement works fine, we
can create a smoother bassline by playing the G
chord in 1st inversion. This will make the
bassline for the first two chords descend
chromatically: |
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| Lets take this concept a step further. Play
the "before" version... |
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| And now the "after" version. Check out how
the bassline is completely chromatic for the first
four chords: |
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root position |
1st inversion |
2nd inversion |
1st inversion |
root
position | |
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| The first inversion major chord (3rd in the
bass) is probably the most commonly used of the
inversions. While triads in root position and in
their inversions are the rule in pop and rock, you
aren't likely to find triads in root position very
often in Jazz, the 1st inversion major triad
however can be found from time to time. Check out
the example below: |
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I used the previous chord progression in
one of my own songs, "When Love Greets You."
Click
here to hear it. |
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| Creating contrary motion - I'm going
to show you how we can use slash chords to create
contrary motion. In the chord progression below,
the chords all descend in whole
steps... |
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| And once again the "after" version. While
the chords descend in whole steps, the bassline
ascends creating some musical
interest. |
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root position |
1st inversion |
2nd
inversion | |
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Seventh Chord
Inversions |
| Seventh Chord Inversions: Just as
triads can be inverted, so can seventh chords. The
3rd, 5th and 7th can all be used as the bass note.
As seventh chords are four note chords, we get the
choice of four notes for our bass notes:
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| Bass Note |
Inversion |
| 1 |
root position |
| 3 |
1st inversion |
| 5 |
2nd inversion |
| 7 |
3rd inversion
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| Some of the inversions work better than
others. While the maj7th chord in first and second
inversion sound beautiful, the 3rd inversion (7th
in bass) sounds horrible. I couldn't even come up
with a decent example for this lesson (give it a
shot anyways, you never know). While the 3rd
inversion for the maj7 chord sounds pathetic, the
3rd inversion of the dominant 7 chord (b7th in the
bass) is somewhat common. Generally the inversions
of the maj7 and dominant 7 chords are used more
commonly than the inversions of the min7 chords,
the min7 chord in first inversion simply turns
into a maj6 chord. Ex: Amin7/C = C6. Try out the
chord progression below and you'll hear how
beautiful and spacious the maj7 chords in 1st and
2nd inversion sound. Oh yeah, I'll explain the
Bb/C chord a little later, try not to think about
it too much for now: |
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root position |
1st inversion |
get to it later |
2nd
inversion | |
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Complex Harmony
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| Creating complex harmony using slash
chords - While the first kind of slash chords
we worked with were simply inverted triads or 7th
chords used to create a desired bass movement, the
next type are something all together different.
With triads and 7th chords, the bass note (on the
right of the slash) is either the 3rd, 5th or 7th
of the chord, in the next examples all the bass
notes will be the actual roots. Before we start
making some harmonically complex chords, let's
first make some 7th chords by using the slash
chord technique we studied in the previous
examples. Examine the following Amin7 chord. If
you look carefully you will find that the top
three notes form a Cmaj triad. Therefore you can
think of an Amin7 chord as a C triad simply placed
over an A bass note, that's right: Amin7 =
C/A |
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I moved the bass an octave lower than it is
notated so we can hear the actual C triad over the
A bass note. |
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| As you discovered in the last example, 7th
chords can be thought of as slash chords. I took
the diatonic 7th chords of the C major scale and
notated them as slash chords. Above the chord is
the standard notated 7th chord name, below is the
slash chord name: |
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I wrote the last example just to simply
show you that you've been playing slash chords all
along and might have never realized it. Before we
move on to more complex harmony I need you to
learn some simple triad shapes. The shapes are
going to get put on top of various bass notes and
open up into some pretty heavy chords. Generally
major triads get used way more than minor triads
for this kind of thing so I'm only going to cover
them. Learn the following major triad shapes,
roots are in black: |
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3rd string root major
triads |
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4th (and 1st) string root major
triads |
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2nd string root major
triads |
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Before we get going on the cool stuff on
the next page, make sure you have the previous
triads down. Don't worry, this page will be here
waiting for you..... |
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Slash Chords Part 2
>> |
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