![D-over-F-sharp slash chord](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/D-over-F-sharp_slash_chord.png)
In
music
Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...
, especially modern
popular music
Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...
, a slash chord or slashed chord, also compound chord, is a
chord whose
bass note
In music theory, the bass note of a chord or sonority is the lowest note played or notated. If there are multiple voices it is the note played or notated in the lowest voice (the note furthest in the bass.)
Three situations are possible:
# ...
or
inversion
Inversion or inversions may refer to:
Arts
* , a French gay magazine (1924/1925)
* ''Inversion'' (artwork), a 2005 temporary sculpture in Houston, Texas
* Inversion (music), a term with various meanings in music theory and musical set theory
* ...
is indicated by the addition of a
slash
Slash may refer to:
* Slash (punctuation), the "/" character
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* Slash (Marvel Comics)
* Slash (''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'')
Music
* Harry Slash & The Slashtones, an American rock band
* Nash ...
and the letter of the bass note after the
root
In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the sur ...
note
Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to:
Music and entertainment
* Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music
* ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian
* ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened version ...
letter. It does not indicate "or".
For example, a C
major chord
In music theory
Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the " rudiments", that are needed to understan ...
(C) in
second inversion
The second inversion of a chord is the voicing of a triad, seventh chord, or ninth chord in which the fifth of the chord is the bass note. In this inversion, the bass note and the root of the chord are a fourth apart which traditionally qual ...
is written C/G or C/G bass, which reads "C slash G", "C over G" or "C over a G bass". If E were the
bass it would be written C/E or C/E bass (making a
major chord
In music theory
Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the " rudiments", that are needed to understan ...
in
first inversion
The first inversion of a chord is the voicing of a triad, seventh chord, or ninth chord in which the third of the chord is the bass note and the root a sixth above it.Walter Piston, ''Harmony'', fifth edition, revised and expanded by Mark DeVo ...
), which is read "C slash E", "C over E" or C/E bass. Some chords may not otherwise be notated, such as A/A. Thus, a slash chord may also indicate the chord form or shape and an additional bass note.
![Ab-over-A slash chord](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Ab-over-A_slash_chord.png)
In popular music, where the exact arrangement of notes is less important than some other forms, slash chords are generally used only when the specific bass note is important. A common example in guitar based music is in the I-V-vi
progression, in which the V chord is a passing chord. By placing the third of the V chord in the bass, a descending scale, also known as a
walkdown
In country music, walkdown is a bassline which connects two root position chords whose roots are a third apart, often featuring an inverted chord to go between the root notes of the first two chords. See: slash chord. A walkup would be the conv ...
, is created in the bass. For example, in the key of G major this would be the chords G, D/F, Em. That progression has the descending bassline G, F, E. This type of slash chord contains
diatonic
Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize Scale (music), scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, Interval (music), intervals, Chord (music), chords, Musical note, notes, musical sty ...
ally occurring notes. In traditional Classical notation it would be written using
figured bass
Figured bass is musical notation in which numerals and symbols appear above or below (or next to) a bass note. The numerals and symbols (often accidentals) indicate intervals, chords, and non-chord tones that a musician playing piano, harpsic ...
symbols. Another commonly used type of slash chord in chord progressions is the minor key progression i – i/VII bass – iv/VI bass – V. In the key of A minor, this chord progression would be notated A minor, A minor/G, D Minor/F, E major (or E7). This descending
bassline
Bassline (also known as a bass line or bass part) is the term used in many styles of music, such as blues, jazz, funk, Dub music, dub and electronic music, electronic, traditional music, traditional, or classical music for the low-pitched Part ( ...
moving diatonically from i to V is a stock feature in popular music that is used in numerous songs.
In easy arrangements
Some arrangers use slash chords to avoid writing chords more complex than triads, to make arrangements easier to play for beginners. Thus, in a song in the key of C major, when the arranger wishes the chord-playing musicians to perform a ii7 chord, rather than write Dm7 (which some beginners might not be familiar with), the arranger could write F/D. This enables a beginning chord-playing musician to perform a Dm7 chord even if they are not familiar with the fingering for seventh chords. The use of slash chords can enable beginning musicians to perform quite complex chords. For example, even though a beginner may not know what a
dominant seventh
In music theory, a dominant seventh chord, or major minor seventh chord, is a seventh chord, usually built on the fifth degree of the major scale, and composed of a root, major third, perfect fifth, and minor seventh. Thus it is a major triad t ...
flat ninth chord is, they will be able to play this chord if it is notated in slash notation, as long as they are familiar with the
diminished seventh
In classical music from Western culture, a diminished seventh () is an interval produced by narrowing a minor seventh by a chromatic semitone.Benward & Saker (2003). ''Music: In Theory and Practice, Vol. I'', p.54. . Specific example of an d7 ...
chord. In the key of C, a G79 chord could be notated in slash notation as B°7/G (or B°7/G bass).
In jazz
Some sources notate slash chords with a horizontal line,
although this is discouraged as this type of notation can also imply a
polychord
In music and music theory, a polychord consists of two or more chords, one on top of the other. In shorthand they are written with the top chord above a line and the bottom chord below,Policastro, Michael A. (1999). ''Understanding How to Build ...
. While almost all pop and rock usages of slash chords are intended to be read as a chord with a bass note underneath it other than the root of the chord, in
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
and
jazz fusion
Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, ...
, sometimes a chord notated as F/A is intended to be read as a polychord; in this example, the polychord would be an F major chord (the notes F, A, and C) and an A major chord (the notes A, C, and E) played simultaneously. To avoid ambiguity in a jazz or fusion chart, some arrangers use the notation "bass" to indicate when the second note (after the slash) is a bass note. Thus, F/A bass indicates an F major chord with an A bass note, whereas F/A may indicate a polychord with an F major chord and an A major chord.
See also
*
Chord chart
A chord chart (or chart) is a form of musical notation that describes the basic harmonic and rhythmic information for a song or tune. It is the most common form of notation used by professional session musicians playing jazz or popular music. ...
*
V9sus4 chord
A suspended chord (or sus chord) is a musical chord in which the ( major or minor) third is omitted and replaced with a perfect fourth or a major second. The lack of a minor or a major third in the chord creates an open sound, while the disson ...
*
Chordioid A chordioid, also called ''chord fragment'' or ''fragmentary voicing''Rawlins, Robert, et al. (2005) ''Jazzology: The Encyclopedia of Jazz Theory for All Musicians'', p. 86. Winona: Hal Leonard. . or ''partial voicing'', is a group of musical note ...
References
Further reading
*
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Chords