Slash chord

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In popular music a slash chord or slashed chord is a chord whose bass note or inversion is indicated by the addition of a slash and the letter of the bass after the root note letter. It does not indicate "or". (Rooksby 2004, p.20)

For example, a C major chord (C) in second inversion is written C/G, which reads "C slash G". If B was the bass it would be written C/B (making a major seventh chord in third inversion), which is read "C slash B". Some chords may not otherwise be notated, such as Ab/A (Latarski 1991, p.25). Thus, a slash chord may also indicate the chord form or shape and an additional bass note.

In popular music, where the particular 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-VIm progression. By placing the third of the V chord in the bass, a descending scale is created in the bass. For example, in the key of G major this would be the chords G, D/F#, Em. The bass of that progression is the descending scalular line of notes G, F#, E. This type of slash chord contains diatonically occurring notes. In traditional notation it would be written using figured bass symbols.

Some sources notate slash chords with a horizontal line (Latarski 1998, back matter).

See also: Slash notation.

[edit] Source

• Latarski, Don (1998). The Ultimate Guitar Chord Big Book: Over 100,000 Chords. ISBN 0-7692-3275-2.
• Latarski, Don (1991). An Introduction to Chord Theory. ISBN 0-7692-0955-6.
• Rooksby, Rikky (2004). Chord Master: How to Choose and Play the Right Guitar Chords. ISBN 0-87930-766-8.