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- Moon River Basic Chord Chart
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Download theory supplements, midi files, chord changes and full note-for-note transcriptions of every lesson.
- Moon River Reharmonised
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Download theory supplements, midi files, chord changes and full note-for-note transcriptions of every lesson.
Love these live seminars!!!
Thanks Celia – I’m glad you enjoyed the session!
Also the 10-second skip back button is now showing.
Cheers and talk soon :–) Hayden
I understand slash cords as a descending baseline as in measure 13. What are the guidelines for starting the C major chord on the E. Could it be started on G. What other pieces might utilize this technique? Thanks
Hi Edwin,
Good question here.
It’s just a half step in between the root of the F chord, and then C/E, and so these two voicings are very smoothly connected by the half step movement (root moving from F to E). If you play C/G in that instance you will hear that it isn’t as smooth as moving from Fmaj to C/E.
We can play slash chords over any note of the chord, but they are most common over the essential chord tones (R-3-5-7), in particular the 3rd and 7th are very common.
We have many other pieces that utilise the technique, here are a few to check out:
https://www.pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/someone-to-watch-over-me-tutorial/ https://www.pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/skylark-tutorial/ https://www.pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/like-someone-in-love-2/
For major chords, you will notice that most often the slash chord is using the 3rd as the bass note, for minor chords it’s also common to have the major 7, to minor 7, to minor 6 which is also known as “the minor line cliche”.
Personally, the most important consideration when playing slash chords is to create a smooth step wise bass line, this is typically achieved by moving the bass line in half steps, and so often this will dictate which note to use under the slash chord.
Here are a couple of other tutorials that you might find useful:
https://www.pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/slash-chords/ https://www.pianogroove.com/blues-piano-lessons/leading-tones-in-gospel/
I hope that helps Edwin.
Study the lessons above and you will see some patterns on when and how slash notation is best applied.
Cheers, Hayden