What's the deal with these chords.....

D

DeathKnell

New member
Hi there, i just have a quick question.. I'll use these tabs as an example.

http://www.e-chords.com/cifra.asp?idMusica=16076&keyb=true&aba=2

(Down So Long by Jewel)

If you scroll down to the bottom you can see all the chords used, however.. I still don't understand the logic behind chords i've come accross with the / between them.

(in this case the C/B and the Am/G)

From what I gather.. the 2nd letter indicates the starting note.. however is it normal to change the voicing of the initial chord (without indicating in the chord name) like has been done in this? it doesn't appear to any sort of inversion that i have come accross so far and has thus confused me.

Basically, if i dont have the sheet music to double check... what should i presume is implied by chords with the / between them...


thanks..
 
The second letter indicates the lowest note of the chord. If there's no slash, the root is just the root note, for example, C is C-E-G with the C at the bottom. A slah and a note name after it indicates that that note is to be the lowest rather than the root.

So, C/B means you play a C triad but with a B in the bottom instead of a C. So it would be B-E-G. You might have the C in there too, but you would put it up higher in the stack of notes so that it's not the root, and often you can leave it out.
 
Sometimes it's good to ignore the bass note, and leave it to the bassist. Creates an interesting contrast between the stronger chord on guitar, and the more dissonant bass line.

For example if you go B-E-G on guitar for C/B, then you're really playing an inversion of Em, but if you hit the regular ol' C with the bassist on B, that really hits you.
 
I was told by my keyboard player that those chords are more for the piano, that he plays them because he can play chords with both hands simultaneously. If he plays with a guitarist and bassist, think of the chord as a fraction, the bass plays the "denominator" and the guitarist the "numerator". Funky explanation, but it works. I find that when playing those chords, sometimes they are hard as hell to play as written on the guitar, and usually leave off the bass note (although it takes away from the tone a bit).
 
Just leaving the bass note off will often not work well, because the different bass note is often there for a reason harmonically, and things sound quite different than the odrinary chord. For example, a G/A functions as a suspension... if you consider A as the root, G is the seventh, B is the 9th, and D is the 4th, so it's an essentially an Asus4 with a nice tasty 9th in there. Playing a G without the A there will not sound right, especially if you play the low G.

Most of the commonly-used slash chords are actually pretty easy to play o guitar. If you know your standard inversions, there's three of the seven possibilities for a different bass note. The most-used ones are probably the second in the bass (like the G/A I mentioned above), the third in the bass like the C/E chord that started this thread, and the fifth in the bass.
 
The slashes can also be used for a "walk-down", which would work on piano or guitar. Take the progression C C/B Am
Basically you'd play a regular C chord, but then "walk-down" the bass note from C to B on the 5th string, and then resolve to an Am.
This also works with G G/F# Em (sometimes they'd write is as G /F# Em)
 
So.. would every '/' chord have a truer technical name? this is more of a convenience thing for those who haven't dedicated the less used chords to memory?
 
i always just call them "C over G" (for C/G)
in some cases it can just be an inversion (if it's a simple 5th of the triad on the bottom).
other cases it can be just a modification of the cord. ie. changing a C triad to C/B would be the same thing as a CM7 chord.

in your link, the reason they designate you play an E, G and a B and omit the C may be because the melody is on a C and the moment. It's just a way to play around with the chord and get new sounds.
 
DeathKnell said:
So.. would every '/' chord have a truer technical name? this is more of a convenience thing for those who haven't dedicated the less used chords to memory?
Click to expand...

Sometimes. Good luck writing C/E in any other form.... Emin6(drop5), perhaps? Can you explicitly drop a note in proper modern chord notation? I'm not sure....

For others, yeah. A C/B could technically be written as a Cmaj7, though you'd need printed music if you want the bass line to actually do what it would do if C/B were written....

And, of course, you could always write C/E, assuming you are in the key of C, using roman numeral chord form, e.g.

_
| 3
| 6


(crude approximation of a roman numeral I with a 3 by the top half and a 6 by the bottom, indicating that the notes are the third and sixth scale steps relative to the root, e.g. the first inversion.)

Similarly, C/B could be written as a I with a superscript 7, followed by 2, 4, and 6 in a vertical column... I think.... Kinda rusty at that notation, since pretty much nobody uses it except for teaching chords. Used to see it back in piano lessons in grade school or so....
 
gordone said:
The slashes can also be used for a "walk-down", which would work on piano or guitar. Take the progression C C/B Am
Basically you'd play a regular C chord, but then "walk-down" the bass note from C to B on the 5th string, and then resolve to an Am.
This also works with G G/F# Em (sometimes they'd write is as G /F# Em)
Click to expand...
Or G D/F# Em in "Freebird" and countless other songs...
 
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