Playing Guitar ‘Slash Chords’ On The Ukulele
November 13, 2007 · Print This Article
Despite the increasing amount of tab and chords for ukulele on the internet, we still have to rely on guitar chords for most songs. If you’ve done this a lot, you’ll have come across - and possibly confused by - chords that look like this: D/F#. These are known as ’slash chords’.
On the guitar, it’s almost always the case that the lowest note played is the root note (the note the chord is named after). Slash chords are used to indicate where the lowest note is not the root of the chord. The first part of the slash chord is the chord played and the second part is the lowest note. In the example D/F#, the chord is D and the lowest note is F#. So it could be played like this on guitar:
It’s often not the case on the ukulele that the lowest note is the root. As there are only four strings, we have to take the notes wherever we can find them. So, what do you do on the uke when you come across slash chords?
That depends on what the bass note is. If the bass note is part of the chord, you can ignore it and play the usual chord shape. If it isn’t part of the chord, you’ll have to add it in somewhere.
Here’s a typical guitar chord progression with a few slash chords:
C - C/B - C/A - C/G - G - C
The first slash chord in this sequence is C/B. B is not part of the C chord so you have to add it in (A string second fret).
The same is true with C/A - there is no A in a C chord so add the open A string.
There is, however, a G in the C chord. So at that point you can play the usual C chord. Giving us this progression:
If you’re not sure how chords are made up and what notes they contain, check out How To Play Ukulele Chord Progressions - it’ll give you a real understanding of how chords work and what you can do with them.
Thanks for that, I’d seen guitar chords with the slash and wondered how they would be transfered to the ukulele.
BTW, your ‘How to play ukulele chord progressions’ is excellent. It cleared up a number of things for me. I’m just getting into music theory and having something that relates directly to the ukulele was very useful.
Thank you thank you thank you. I’ve been looking for ages for a simple explanation of slash chords. All the other sites and books just say “not generally relevant to the ukulele”.
I’ll second the plug for your chord progressions book by the way.
I also had this question. You find this on http://www.chordie.com quite frequently. You’re the best!
Good stuff.
Basic chord theory is not that difficult, but it seems people want it in small chunks like this. So great that you offer that, among all other things uke!
I posted my ponderings about chord theory in this thread just now: http://ukulelenurkka.arkku.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=1254
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(I’ve posted this and more in Finnish before, not that many people read Finnish fluently, I’ve come to realize…
Thanks for the comments guys. It’s great to see people find it useful.
[…] out with a series of ’slash chords’ which need a little reworking on the uke (you can read about how to do it here) and is a little fiddly to play. But, other than that, it’s fairly plain sailing through the […]
I just found the chords for a Fiery Furnaces song that’s loaded with slash chords, and this post saved my life. Thanks a lot Al!
does anyone know the chords Dminsus2 and Fminsus2
its from bright eyes, first day of my life
I’m not surprised you couldn’t find those chords, neither of them exist. Sus chords can’t be major or minor. What they might mean is Dmadd9 (7557) and Fmadd9 (0543)
I’m not looking to delve into music theory just yet, but a guitar song I’m trying to learn on my new uke uses very basic chords, except for one slash chord. Luckily for me, it happened to be one of the ones in the example picture (C/B). Thanks for that, man.
Glad to help, Derek.