Playing Slash Chords

Hello once again! I recently had a discussion with a colleague about the importance of being a solid rhythm guitarist. Chord vocabulary, among other things, is big part of developing as a rhythm guitarist so I thought this would be a great opportunity to discuss slash chords. A slash chord is any regular chord with something other than the root note as the lowest note. Examples: D/F#, G/B, D/A, Em/G The first note is the chord and the second note is the bass note. For instance, the most common kind of slash chords are when we move the 3rd or 5th of a basic triad to the bass note. So for example, if we have a basic D chord we can move the 3rd (F#) or the 5th (A) to the bass note we'd have a D/F# or a D/A. As explained in the video, one of the many benefits to using slash chords is that we can create more favorable voice leading, especially in the bass movement. For example, if we were to have a basic I - V - vi - IV progression (G - D - Em - C), we could change the D to a D/F# thus in turn creating a falling bass line from G to F# to E. Something to keep in mind is that you might be playing along side a pianist or bass player. Make sure not to clash with the other instrumentalists.