How to Play Altered Bass Note Chords or Slash Chords - Part 1/2 Video

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How to Play Altered Bass Note Chords or Slash Chords - Part 1/2

Freeandeasyguitar.com Hey, what’s up freeandeasyguitar.com, this is Aaron Gallagher. I’m going to try and teach you guys a little bit right now a lesson called, some people call them slash chords and some call them altered bass note chords but you’re going to ran into them a lot as a beginner guitarist and as you advanced. And I now that they give me kind of—they confuse me when I first them when I was playing so I want to kind of explain them to you guys and show you why they are really a lot easier than they seem. Okay, so when you're looking at tabs, sometimes you’ll see a chord that says like a D and has a slash after it and it has F#. Now, when I first started playing the guitar, I thought that that meant I should play a d chord than switch to an F# really quick. What that actually means, the first—so you have your slash, okay. the chord to the left of your slash that want to come first is actually the main chord the—so if it's a D/f#, you make a D chord. Now, a D chord—technically, your only suppose to play the bottom four strings, okay. the reason for that is it gives it—the chord gets it's name from the 1:15 note which is the bass which in this case is your D string because on a D chord, your suppose to strum the bottom four, that’s the D chord. That gets its name because this base note is your one, two, three, four string up which by itself is tuned to D. that’s a D chord, okay. Now, when you add that slash, that means you’re playing a D chord but the base note is no longer going to be a D, it's going to be something else. So if you have a D/F which is the most common one that I see then means you go take this D chord and you’ve got to find an F# base note. Now, if you come here to your low E, your low E string—nothing is turned to an E, okay. The first step goes up from E to an F and the next step goes from an F to an F#. So your second fret on your low E is an F Sharp note okay. So if you make that D chord and you strum the bottom four, it's a D. Now, if you wrap this thumb around and cover that second for the appearance strum and strum them all, that’s now a D/F# but your D chord with your F, sharp base note, okay. So you can tell the difference. It's really subtle. It's a D, the D/F#. Now, some of you will say, Well, Aaron, my thumb, my hands aren’t big enough. My thumb will wrap around. There’s an easy fix for that. All you do is you take your pointer finger which is usually in your D chord on your G string, that’s your third string at the second fret, move in over to the second fret of your low E and take this little finger in here. Lift it off the high E and put it now where the pointer finger was originally and that’s another way. if you don’t like this high in sounding open which I think it sounds cool, you don’t have to put your pinky finger down in the third fret. So, D/F#, D chord, D/F# okay, so that’s hopefully a decent introduction to them. all the slash chord is or an altered base chord is—the chord to the left of the slash, the first chord you see is the actual chord your going to make and then the slash—the chord to the right of the slash F# and Am or what we name on be a sharp or a flat is to play note B. What that is going into is the base note. I want to try and walk you through some of the major chords and then some of the inversions you’re going to see. You’re usually only going to see three inversions because the first, the third and the fifth note are the ones you can see the inversions of. If that doesn’t make a lot of sense to you, don’t really worry too much about it. It’s more of theory. You can check out some of the theory lessons on freeandeasyguitar.com and I’ll do some more lessons when how bar chords work and how the notes work, that’s n the website too. That will kind of hell you with this lesson if you watch that first, okay. that basically showed you that there’s 12 notes, A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G. so E, F, second fret F#, G, G#, A, A#, D, C, C#, D, E# and then back to E again. Okay, that’s a different video. So let’s start. We’ll just go in order of the A chord. The A chord is generally like this. if you don’t know an A chord is, I’m going to send you a link to this chart that I found on cyberfret.com. It’s really great and there’s a lot of good information on that website. So I’m going to send you a link to that. It would be in the info box on youtube and the information will be down below on freandeasyguitar.com. So, okay that is you’re a chord. One inversion you’ll see is an A/C# because the C# is the third note of that chord. So what your going to do for this one is you want to have your pointer finger—I’m sorry your pinky finger on the fourth fret of you’re a string up here, okay. And now, it's going to be very difficult for a beginner to put your two fingers—three fingers up here on this A and stretch your pinky down. What I suggest, is you tae that pointer finger, you group it down tight and you just hold it down across the bottom three and then that bottom—the highest string. It doesn’t matter just hold it down then reach that pinky up. Okay, that is an A/C#. The other one you’ll see is A/E. sometimes slash chords are really easy because you have an A chord which in theory, you don’t play the low E string, right because the fifth string right here, the second string at the top is you’re A string. That’s how the chord gets its name. That’s an A chord, okay. a lot of people when they strum, they just get all six strings which is fine but technically, if your getting all six strings, your base note is at low E. so that’s an A/E chord, okay. When you see this chart, that ciberfret.com has, it’ll help you a lot. So you’re a varies A. you’re A/C# and you can have you’re A/E which you use an A chord but you but also in the strings. The next when you have is your C chord. So the C chord is the bottom five strings and it gets its name because on this A string, A open, first fret A sharp, second fret is a B, third fret is a C note and that is where you play your C chord. So, the first variation—well, obviously you have your C chord, your first variation is a C/E. all that means is, you make the C chord and strum all six strings. So technically, if I’m strumming the bottom five is a C, all six, it's a C/E, okay. A C/G just means that your C chord, they need a G based of. So the way you get your G base note is you lift this ring finger up, put it on the third fret of your low E, your pinky comes in where the ring finger was. If you’re starting to get confuse and you’re saying, 7:45 make a C/G? Remember, the left of the slash is your chord and your C chord, to the right of the slash is your base note. So C/, we have to find a G base note and go to your low E string, E, F, F#, third fret is a G note, okay. So there’s your C chord and move this up to the six string, pinky comes, you have your C chord with your G base so you can play the low E, that’s a C/G. For the D chord, you have your D, your standard D, you have your D/F3 which is your D chord with your F# base note and that’s what we’ve talked about in the beginning. I don’t think you can go over that again and then you a D/A chord. Just like earlier, the D chord standard. Now if you want to make it A, your fifth string is an A string so you just strum the bottom five strings and that turns your D chord into the D/A. left of the slash is your chord, right of the slash is your base note, just the A—so D/A, okay.

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Freeandeasyguitar.com

Hey, what’s up freeandeasyguitar.com, this is Aaron Gallagher. I’m going to try and teach you guys a little bit right now a lesson called, some people call them slash chords and some call them altered bass note chords but you’re going to ran into them a lot as a beginner guitarist and as you advanced. And I now that they give me kind of—they confuse me when I first them when I was playing so I want to kind of explain them to you guys and show you why they are really a lot easier than they seem.

Okay, so when you're looking at tabs, sometimes you’ll see a chord that says like a D and has a slash after it and it has F#. Now, when I first started playing the guitar, I thought that that meant I should play a d chord than switch to an F# really quick. What that actually means, the first—so you have your slash, okay. the chord to the left of your slash that want to come first is actually the main chord the—so if it's a D/f#, you make a D chord.

Now, a D chord—technically, your only suppose to play the bottom four strings, okay. the reason for that is it gives it—the chord gets it's name from the 1:15 note which is the bass which in this case is your D string because on a D chord, your suppose to strum the bottom four, that’s the D chord. That gets its name because this base note is your one, two, three, four string up which by itself is tuned to D. that’s a D chord, okay.

Now, when you add that slash, that means you’re playing a D chord but the base note is no longer going to be a D, it's going to be something else. So if you have a D/F which is the most common one that I see then means you go take this D chord and you’ve got to find an F# base note. Now, if you come here to your low E, your low E string—nothing is turned to an E, okay. The first step goes up from E to an F and the next step goes from an F to an F#. So your second fret on your low E is an F Sharp note okay. So if you make that D chord and you strum the bottom four, it's a D.

Now, if you wrap this thumb around and cover that second for the appearance strum and strum them all, that’s now a D/F# but your D chord with your F, sharp base note, okay. So you can tell the difference. It's really subtle. It's a D, the D/F#. Now, some of you will say, Well, Aaron, my thumb, my hands aren’t big enough. My thumb will wrap around. There’s an easy fix for that. All you do is you take your pointer finger which is usually in your D chord on your G string, that’s your third string at the second fret, move in over to the second fret of your low E and take this little finger in here. Lift it off the high E and put it now where the pointer finger was originally and that’s another way. if you don’t like this high in sounding open which I think it sounds cool, you don’t have to put your pinky finger down in the third fret. So, D/F#, D chord, D/F# okay, so that’s hopefully a decent introduction to them. all the slash chord is or an altered base chord is—the chord to the left of the slash, the first chord you see is the actual chord your going to make and then the slash—the chord to the right of the slash F# and Am or what we name on be a sharp or a flat is to play note B.

What that is going into is the base note. I want to try and walk you through some of the major chords and then some of the inversions you’re going to see. You’re usually only going to see three inversions because the first, the third and the fifth note are the ones you can see the inversions of. If that doesn’t make a lot of sense to you, don’t really worry too much about it. It’s more of theory. You can check out some of the theory lessons on freeandeasyguitar.com and I’ll do some more lessons when how bar chords work and how the notes work, that’s n the website too. That will kind of hell you with this lesson if you watch that first, okay. that basically showed you that there’s 12 notes, A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G. so E, F, second fret F#, G, G#, A, A#, D, C, C#, D, E# and then back to E again. Okay, that’s a different video.

So let’s start. We’ll just go in order of the A chord. The A chord is generally like this. if you don’t know an A chord is, I’m going to send you a link to this chart that I found on cyberfret.com. It’s really great and there’s a lot of good information on that website. So I’m going to send you a link to that. It would be in the info box on youtube and the information will be down below on freandeasyguitar.com. So, okay that is you’re a chord. One inversion you’ll see is an A/C# because the C# is the third note of that chord. So what your going to do for this one is you want to have your pointer finger—I’m sorry your pinky finger on the fourth fret of you’re a string up here, okay. And now, it's going to be very difficult for a beginner to put your two fingers—three fingers up here on this A and stretch your pinky down. What I suggest, is you tae that pointer finger, you group it down tight and you just hold it down across the bottom three and then that bottom—the highest string. It doesn’t matter just hold it down then reach that pinky up. Okay, that is an A/C#. The other one you’ll see is A/E. sometimes slash chords are really easy because you have an A chord which in theory, you don’t play the low E string, right because the fifth string right here, the second string at the top is you’re A string. That’s how the chord gets its name.

That’s an A chord, okay. a lot of people when they strum, they just get all six strings which is fine but technically, if your getting all six strings, your base note is at low E. so that’s an A/E chord, okay. When you see this chart, that ciberfret.com has, it’ll help you a lot. So you’re a varies A. you’re A/C# and you can have you’re A/E which you use an A chord but you but also in the strings.

The next when you have is your C chord. So the C chord is the bottom five strings and it gets its name because on this A string, A open, first fret A sharp, second fret is a B, third fret is a C note and that is where you play your C chord. So, the first variation—well, obviously you have your C chord, your first variation is a C/E. all that means is, you make the C chord and strum all six strings. So technically, if I’m strumming the bottom five is a C, all six, it's a C/E, okay.

A C/G just means that your C chord, they need a G based of. So the way you get your G base note is you lift this ring finger up, put it on the third fret of your low E, your pinky comes in where the ring finger was. If you’re starting to get confuse and you’re saying, 7:45 make a C/G? Remember, the left of the slash is your chord and your C chord, to the right of the slash is your base note. So C/, we have to find a G base note and go to your low E string, E, F, F#, third fret is a G note, okay. So there’s your C chord and move this up to the six string, pinky comes, you have your C chord with your G base so you can play the low E, that’s a C/G.

For the D chord, you have your D, your standard D, you have your D/F3 which is your D chord with your F# base note and that’s what we’ve talked about in the beginning. I don’t think you can go over that again and then you a D/A chord. Just like earlier, the D chord standard. Now if you want to make it A, your fifth string is an A string so you just strum the bottom five strings and that turns your D chord into the D/A. left of the slash is your chord, right of the slash is your base note, just the A—so D/A, okay.

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