Slash Chords Explained: same old chords, different look

How to play slash chords and know their harmonic function.

Even though a slash chord looks different, there is a good chance you actually know what it is and how to play it! A slash chord is not anything new or mysterious, it is just a different way to write chords. Actually, it is a way to write specific voicings; a major triad on top of a bass note. That is exactly how you read it too, E/C is E triad over C bass note.

Each slash chord (triad over bass note) is actually an already existing chord, just in a specific voicing. Here are the possible slash chords over a C bass note:

*This chart explains and expands upon the chart found in Mark Levine’s “The Jazz Theory Book”.

Db/C --> C Phrygian (3rd mode of Ab Major scale) or if you are thinking of it as DbMaj7/C, then Db Lydian (4th mode of Ab Major scale)

D/C --> CMaj7(#11), C Lydian. But actually, it has all of the notes of D7/C so maybe more like D Mixolydian. (These both come from G Major)

Eb/C --> Cm7, C Dorian

E/C --> CMaj7(#5), C Lydian Augmented (3rd mode of A melodic Minor)

F/C --> F Major

Gb/C --> C7(#11,b9) , half-step/whole-step diminished starting on C or C Altered (7th mode of Db Major)

G/C --> CMaj9, C Major

Ab/C --> Ab Major

A/C --> C7(b9), more precisely C13(b9) (the C7 is implied because there is a major 3rd and b9, and major chords don’t have b9 so it has to be a dominant). Use C half-step/whole-step diminished

Bb/C --> Csus9, C mixolydian

B/C --> C˚Maj7, C diminished with a Major 7th. C whole-step/half-step diminished.

Slash chords can be expanded to contain more notes, and in that case they are known as polychords. Instead of having a triad over a bass note, you can have a triad over a triad. Or even, like Stravinsky in “The Rite of Spring”; a dominant 7th chord over a triad. https://youtu.be/3vwq1AyYGzo?t=40

The simple slash chords we previously talked about can be used to create a pedal point which means that the bass player plays one note while other chords are happening on top. This is a super common tool used in the beginnings or introductions of jazz standards. The beginning of “On Green Dolphin Street” from the album “Kind of Blue” features a pedal point after the piano intro. At 0:33, an Eb pedal point is played in the bass and the left hand of the piano while the chords EbMaj7/Eb, Ebm7/Eb, F7/Eb, EMaj7/Eb (D#) are played. https://youtu.be/xGVdAlxlp18

And what about the beginning of Van Halen’s “Jump”? A pedal point! The whole first minute (what a boring song for a bass player). https://youtu.be/SwYN7mTi6HM

The opposite of a pedal point exists as well, like the common descending bass played on “My Funny Valentine” by Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart. https://youtu.be/ni9Cp9mOOOg

In the first 4 measures, the bass plays a descending line starting on C, then B, Bb, A to outline the changing Cm sound (Cm, CmMaj7, Cmin7, Cmin6). So, in this case, the upper structure can remain the same, a Cm triad while the bass adds the different colours, by playing these inversions. This is much more interesting than having the bass play a C for 4 bars while the chord is essentially the same. And, notice how on the B section of the song, the bass player plays an Eb pedal point for the first 4 bars! (actually they are playing a double stop, Eb and Bb, a fifth).

*The term double stop means playing two notes, on two different strings, simultaneously on a stringed instrument (Violin, Viola, Cello, Double Bass)

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