Lesson 47: Non-Root-Bass Chords
This lesson teaches "slash chords", which are chords which use
another note
besides the chord's root as the
bass note.
Before taking this lesson, you should know:
When a chord is actually played in pop music, usually a
bass note is
played along with it. The bass note is a low-pitched note a good
pitch-distance, usually an octave or more, below the other "mid-range" chord
notes.
The bass note is the
most important note in the chord for creating the
chord's overall "feel". Usually, the bass note is the
chord's root (the
pitch the chord is named after); when this happens we say that the chord is in
root position. But sometimes, some other note, a
non-root bass
note, is played as the bass note instead.
There is a
special chord symbol called a
"slash chord" to show
when the bass note is
not the root. In a slash chord, the symbol
before the slash can be
any chord symbol, and the note-name
after the slash is the
non-root bass note. For example, this
chord symbol:
C/E
... is a
C major triad played in the midrange, along with an
E
note as the bass note. We use the word "over" for the slash, so we
say the above chord as
"C over E". Here's a more complex
example:
B♭m7/A♭
The above is
"B-flat minor 7 over A-flat".
Inversions vs. non-chord bass:
When the non-root bass note is
one of the notes of the midrange chord,
this is called a chord
inversion. But the bass note might not be a note
from the midrange chord at all; i.e., a
non-chord bass note.
You want to
notice which one you have—an inversion or a non-chord
bass note—when you're
analyzing or
creating slash chords,
because non-chord bass notes
work well only in more specialized
situations, compared to inversions.
Chord Symbols for Playing vs. Analyzing
Sometimes a
single chord (which is really, after all, just a certain
set of pitches) can have
two different chord symbols, and one symbol
might be better for showing
how to play the chord, while another symbol
might be better for
analyzing the chord (understanding how it
sounds). For example, here's a chord symbol for
playing:
F/D
This is simple to play: just an
F major triad (f, a, c) in the
midrange, over a
D bass note. But if you combine these, then
what
you actually hear is the notes:
d f a c
This is a
Dm7 ("D minor 7th") chord. Since it's a root-position chord,
Dm7 is probably a better chord symbol than
F/D for
analyzing this chord.
Sometimes even a
non-chord bass note can turn out to "analyze" as a
more complex root-position chord. Here's an example:
C/D
This appears to be a
non-chord bass note, because the bass note
D is not a pitch in the
midrange C chord. But, the combined
notes (which I'm re-ordering to help the analysis) are:
d, g c e
This is one of the possible voicings of the
D7sus4(9) chord, which is a
chord we haven't studied yet, but
D7sus4(9) is probably the best chord
symbol for
analyzing this chord (showing how it
functions in a
song).
Next:
If you understand slash chords, then you can see one actually used in a song
in
Lesson 48: Embellishing Tones.
