3 Special Slash Chords That You Can Use Too

[@DavidBennettPiano]

Learn piano or guitar for FREE with Timbro: timbroguitar.com/davidbennett 🎹🎸

[@StockyScoresRaoraPantheraFC]

I thought "Peaches" was in F Sharp Major...

[@BugRib]

Thanks for another awesome video! Would love to see you do one on songs that use genuinely "incorrect" chords to good effect!

[@ND62511]

For each type: 1) I think a cool variant of the “4th chord over 5th degree” slash chord is if you make the 4th chord a minor 4 chord. You get this odd combo of a V - I resolution and a iv- I resolution that works really well, and if you were to think about it as one big chord, it would be a Dominant 11 flat 9 chord, which I’ve mentioned before that Dominant flat 9 chords are a favorite of mine 2) Oddly enough, I prefer to use a different type of slash chord for the Royal Road chord progression. I typically write tunes in minor keys, and the Royal Road progression in a minor key is: ♭VI - ♭VII - v - i I usually like to make that v a V7 to strengthen the cadence, and the the slash chord I put in is a V7 over the Natural 7th degree, which is it’s 3rd. The reason I do so is because it creates some nice chromatic motion with the bass note of the latter 3 chords; ♭7 of the ♭VII, to ♮7 of the the V7, to 1 of the i chord. 3) I remember watching a Charles Cornell video about the One Piece opening that utilizes a slash chord in a similar way: in the video, he mentioned how you can really easily create a sus chord by playing the chord that’s a whole step below the note of your choice. It’s a technique I want to try more in future tunes.

[@Marre2795]

- I like 5/1. I know a couple of Norwegian songs that use this. It's basically just used as a major 9 chord (Can also be a dominant or minor 9 with no third if the 5 is minor). - Another one is the "cheat half-diminished" chord. In Am, it's Dm over B. It can be used like the 2 in a minor 2-5-1. - Not sure if it counts, but I like the sound of the Dominant 7 flat 9. It's a blend of a diminished 7 chord or as a standard dominant chord. I like using it as a secondary dominant to the 2 chord, so VI7b9. In C major it's Bdim7 (or any of its inversions) over A. - I also like using iv/V, It functions like the 5 chord, just like the IV/V, but more spicy. - Flat 3 over 1 is a minor 7, and 3 minor over 1 is a major 7.

[@NassosConqueso]

Great work! The first one (IV/V or IV over 5̂) is what John Covach calls “soul dominant” because of its regular use in that genre.

[@Rich-on6fe]

The first one: four over five: the notes make up a pentatonic scale. I think this is one of the things that makes it feel so delightful.

[@pup64hcp]

The V11 is also used in Isn’t She Lovely, to great effect.

[@triad5766]

The V11 is probably in every single Stevie song, and in the whole R&B genre in general lol

[@pup64hcp]

@@triad5766 true! very jazzy

[@Flobyby]

That last chord is also the second one (at least as I hear it) for In The Air Tonight. It can be used as a remanence of the tonic minor when we moved to the fifth degree. A cool and mysterious sound. So in my mind it's more equivalent to Em/A than G/A :)

[@ZuronVanSurus]

Alright one of my absolute favorites is the mu chord. For example a Gsus2/ B. Hauntingly beautiful sound!

[@whycantiremainanonymous8091]

"The Long and Winding Road" is a good example, but McCartney's solo "With a Little Luck" hammers this resolution in much more prominently.

[@Expired_Twinkie23]

loving the piano visualization, super helpful in conceptualizing the chords

[@althealligator1467]

6:42 The first slash chords that come to mind are: - I/5 or vi/3 (the cadential 6 4) - V/1 or V7/1 in major (Under Pressure and Maybe I'm Amazed) or III/6 or III7/6 in minor (my favourite example is that one scene where he's sad on the roof of that church in Spider-Man 3) - VII/1 which can also be viewed as a i°maj7 chord (the Misty chord)

[@spindriftdrinker]

Carole King has these particular substitutions in almost all of her iconic early 1970s hits.

[@Jtmcad14]

Yes!! Jazzman was the first song I thought of that uses the G/A substitution.

[@spindriftdrinker]

@@Jtmcad14 Good example. "Where You Lead" is another.

[@composer7325]

Excellent video, David, thank you and a very happy Christmas to you and your family..

[@whycantiremainanonymous8091]

The progression in "Peaches" can also be heard in one of George Martin's themes for Yellow Submarine.

[@VladimirChe80]

F/G for me is "How deep is your love", last chord in verse

[@JohnnyOskam]

Basically you can put any root note from the key under any chord of the key for various effects. Other examples are passing from vi to IV you play vi/V. The ii and vi can be embellished by playing I/ii or V/vi. The major 9 sound is also great to embellish chords for example I-V/I-I or IV-I/IV-IV.

[@omersetty5155]

'Lady Stardust' by David Bowie is a great example of the 4th chord over the 5th degree (D/E). And in 'Every Breath You Take' by The Police, the 4th chord is in 3rd inversion (C/Bb) [although it's not the 5th chord in 3rd inversion like in the video] in the beginning of the bridge

[@axlhyvonen461]

I just simply love these videos of Yours, so thank You very much for all of them and luckily there have so many of them lately😊

[@benjieming505]

This kind of chords is also found in "isn't she lovely" and "leave the door open". You should consider more videos ;) Thanks for your work btw :)

[@MisterM2402]

That first one - the 4/5 to 1 - sounds like a cadence used in Easy by The Commodores. Not sure if it's the right one but sounds pretty familiar, from the end of the chorus.

[@DavidBennettPiano]

Yes you’re right! Great example 😊

[@jasonlamar6347]

Good one. The 1970s is a good decade to look for these among recording artists.

[@matcoffidis1135]

Another great video. I love those chords cause they challenge me on guitar with different fingerings to get that right bass note represented.

[@barryprofessionalmusicianc832]

McCartney used a "slash" chord in his opening of "With a Little Luck!" Thanks for the video❤

[@bettyswunghole3310]

C/D on the guitar (played XX0553) is quite a nice one, I think.

[@SpartanLaserCanon]

Thanks for this video. I have always wanted to know how to better use slash chords. I heard slash chords in music school, but I never learned how use them well. I also love a lot of Japanese chord progressions I have heard so far and it seems like many Japanese musicians like to spice up chord progressions more than most North American musicians.

[@Symphonicrockfran]

A/G on guitar is amazing. Lady-O by Judee Sill is my favorite example

[@jacobkilstrom]

I thing a much better example of a bVII/i chord (which I would like to call tonic-eleventh) is the brigde including the instrumental part before it in "Eleventh Earl of Mar" by Genesis! It goes on much longer and nearly feels like a resolving despite its roll to build up tension.

[@JalenJaguar]

I feel like such an avid learner Having made it to a lesson so early! 🍏

[@DavidBennettPiano]

Welcome!

[@Fire_Axus]

your feelings are irrational

[@CharlieWoolhouse]

Love a song called ‘heavy metal drummer’ by Wilco which goes from D to D/C then C to A and it works really well

[@Prycebrinkerhoff]

Imagine getting a David Bennett ad before watching a David Bennett video. Couldn't be me

[@zakblackhawk204]

Ever since SMB3, i've been a big fan of Bowser's use of chord substitutions.

[@dylanthekoreanteacher]

Thank you so much! Learned a lot as usual :)

[@Leo.Brodie]

David, thank you for all your videos on chord progressions! Slash chords are so important. You tend to notate chord progressions using Roman numeral analysis, which allows the progression to be played in any key. But Roman numeral notation doesn't lend itself to indicating slash chords (because the slash is used in a different way in this notation). What do you recommend as a good way to note slash chords (when it's not just indicating an inversion)? Thanks!

[@davidwalker41]

That F/G-C resolution makes me question everything I thought I knew. Well, maybe that's an overstatement but I thought the reason the V7-I worked so well is that the V7 has a tritone interval that is begging to be resolved (which you do by moving the 3rd up a semitone and the 7th down a semitone), and the V chord contains the leading tone for I (which makes you want to go there). But IV/5th has neither of those properties and yet it does sound nice resolving to I.

[@wiebenijenhuis1825]

Well, you're not wrong! The V7 chord does resolve thanks to that tension between the 7th and 4th degree of the scale. However, a regular V chord does the same thing. Its all about sonic perception and sounds that your ear can fill in for you. Sing a major scale but dont sing the octave, your brain automatically resolves it because that is what we are used to doing. The we hear that G in the bass with the F chord on top and we can practically fill in the rest of the notes of the G11.

[@paninoferretti]

The first chord heard in "Deirdre" by the Beach Boys is one of these chords

[@jamesspencer9586]

ANYTHING with a 2/1 ..SO dramatic..So poignant..It's SUCH a sound, that it deserves its own video..

[@TheDeadOfNight37]

It gave me several ideas personally, e.g. IVsus2 | V7⁶⁴², the first chord can act as V9sus4 which steps down beautifully to V7b9 before resolving

[@jamesspencer9586]

The Space Between (Dave Matthews), Crazy (Ice House), Same Asylum (Steven Wilson), etc..

[@garydsketch]

I wanna say Silent Running (M&tM) has this too, but I'm not quite sure

[@omniscientomnipresent5500]

Like a iim/I chord?

[@nwcki2017]

​@@omniscientomnipresent5500more like II major/I like D/C it gives you this lydian sound (#4 interval), in this example between C and F#

[@tonyvoxu2]

4/5 Best examples Cheers theme, and best of all How deep is your love.

[@TheKiteless]

IIRC, didn't Don and Walter in Steely Dan use the G major triad shape with A in the bass (and variations thereof such as A/B) in a lot their tunes? I think they called them "mu-major" chords?

[@althealligator1467]

It's super interesting how the first and last chords of the video are the exact same chords in the absolute (a major chord over its major second) but different chords relative to a key center. The only difference between IV/5 and V/6 is context. To be fair it's kind of the same thing with the I and V chords, they're both just straight major chords but different in context.

[@danielimagui23]

The Smiths' There is a Light That Never Goes Out uses the exact same chord progression you used as example on 0:12. In the chorus the song goes to G major and we have the chord progression I - vi - IV - V, but instead of using C major as the IV they use C/G that is the 4th chord over the 5th degree

[@Chokey_Gaming]

I genuinely love this man’s content👌

[@bertbristow7172]

The intro of Midnight at the Oasis is a sequence of slash chords, perhaps one of the longer passages towards resolution?

[@lucaspausanias2976]

My favorite "special" chords are - the "september" chord, which is a Gadd9/A, just a G/A with an A on top - the D flat maj 7 in "is it a crime" by sade, which is played in Cm so this is very surprising ; the theme plays the 11th and the 13th above which makes it sound like a more complex chord, i play it as Bbm6/Db - and the amazing last chord from thriller's last break ("killer diller chiller thriller here tonight") which is some kind of B13, but I see it as A9/B, not entirely sure as to which notes are actually played because the highest B comes from michael's voice ; it is extremely complex and still very harmonious in the song

[@GizzyDillespee]

When I'm playing blues, I call the 1st 2 examples "lazy hands"... going from IV to V7, when either the bass or the chord forgets to move with the times🤣. If someone asks what happened there, tell them you've got a lazy hand - it's like lazy eye. Then you can laugh and say no it's not - I just like that sound there. Or whatever.

[@eduardoariasvilla9213]

Siempre me ha gustado el efecto de la tercera menor. Por ejemplo, C, pasar a Eb/C y luego pasar a F/C y volver a C. Como en "I can see for miles" de The Who.

[@jedgould5531]

Lush and intriguing, wonderful word choices.

[@vz_music_prod]

Hi David! 3:18 Also Bridge part of The Show must go on by Queen

[@EmeraldCaveKing]

Misty by Errol Garner has a beautiful resolution from a D/Eb to a Eb around measure 21

[@learnasongwithjon]

I've always read it as the 2nd note "over" the first one. F/G "G over F" - because the G note is over (lower) than the rest - I'm coming from guitar mostly though...which is the correct way?

[@aaronp0324]

4th/5th - I heard New York State of Mind by Billy Joel

[@niekvanwensen]

I wonder where you find all these songs to show as examples for these chords/progressions. When I think of an example of the 5/4 chord I’d think of Leave the Door Open by Silk Sonic, interesting that you went with Peaches😂

[@BirchPereira]

Can't believe you didn't mention leave the door open for the five over four chord! All good. Also F/G wouldn't be a G11 chord, that would include the major 3rd. I'd call it a G9sus4 if I had to

[@knarf_]

Hello David, or anyone else who could help me. Could you tell me what application you use, that is showing live on the screen the notes played on the keyboard? Thanks for your help, All the best, knarf from France 🎸🇨🇵

[@shortyyazzie]

I want more music theory breakdowns for "Peaches".

[@meditationspiritual4011]

You are awesome ❤

[@sharpphilip]

If I weren’t working right now I’d be running to the piano to try these out. David, unrelated, but there’s a triad I often use but don’t know how to name: major second interval with a perfect fifth on top. It’s like I’m playing, say, C6sus2? But, there’s no G to really make it a Csus2-only C, D, and A. Inverted, it almost looks a D7. Any thoughts?

[@DavidBennettPiano]

Interesting chord! I would think about it as a D7 missing the third and inverted. But it’s one of those non-tertiary chords that kind of defies labelling 😊😊

[@sharpphilip]

@@DavidBennettPiano Thank you, David!

[@NicholasLashway]

Thank you for the videos :)

[@loseryoutube6132]

You should check out I Don't Know by Paul McCartney. The whole song is filled with interesting slash chords.

[@teeps8974]

Handbags and Gladrags came straight to mind for IV/V.

[@lucagalmarini5477]

Grazie maestro ❤

[@bentp4891]

Really useful, thanks

[@spicetraders]

"How deep is your Love" right before the Chorus comes to mind.... and Requiem by Mozart.

[@The_T-Bone]

5:00

[@zzzaphod8507]

Interesting video. I noticed that that you labelled the IV/V as V, but you also labelled the V/IV as V? By the way, The Long and Winding Road doesn't really appeal to me--not sure changing a chord in that song would make any difference, for me anyway 😀

[@iammaxhailme]

How is F/G different from F add 2?

[@brunocoliveira89]

The big question: is the F/G -> C a plagal or perfect cadence

[@althealligator1467]

1:35 This is really not important but I've always liked how he doesn't play Cm and then Gm, he just plays exactly what he is singing in the right hand, which is a Gm(b6) outline, all over a C note bass, which all just adds up to a Cm9 chord. Then he doesn't go directly to Ab/Bb, he just does Ab in the right hand under the word "road," which is just a good ole' chill IV chord, under the whole arrangement rushes in on those syncopated Ab/Bb chord, suddenly making the chord way more tense.

[@wadesummers4102]

Love the sweatshirt.

[@luta6893]

You just made me look up on Google maps how long it takes to get from the Royal Road to King's Cross in London.

[@DreamsongsProductions]

When I see slash chords that's when I wish I composed more on piano. Much easier than guitar with slash chords.

[@zzzaphod8507]

Usually, unless you are interested in playing chords like Saul Hudson of G N' R. Those slash chords are best done on guitar.

[@edsknife]

It's basically like using add2, but the note is down an octave.

[@_knave]

Its just as they say, "When you can steal it, that's when you know its good"

[@TheSarkyGamer]

I haven't read many of the comments on here, but am guessing I am not the only one who thought, when he heard the "F/G > C" resolution at the start, the words "Sing a song of sixpence for your sin"

[@redearthpaul178]

F/g to C sounds like the 'cheers' theme tune foem the 80's

[@SparkyBobOmb]

I instantly recognized the A-flat/G-flat chord as “Piranha’s Lullaby” from Mario 64.

[@balmain-i3e]

These types of chords are ALL OVER Todd Rundgren's music. You just have to cover him in your future videos at this point 😂

[@stephenmcg4299]

Why is G/A a vi chord in C rather than a V chord?

[@DavidBennettPiano]

Context really, a V chord wouldn’t contain the sixth degree and if the context of C Major has already been established, a chord with A in the bass will likely sound like the vi

[@joephillips2049]

To me, that G/F chord is just synonimous with Care of Cell 44 by the Zombies

[@ravisolanki3794]

Sir arpeggio chords petern

[@pauldurftig3167]

Wait...isn't the G/A chord not also a 4th/5th chord in D major? So it doesn't work as a 5th chord here? Quite debateable... :D

[@scottmatznick3140]

Hey man, what's your name? It's me, timbro!

[@martinrosschou]

I play guitar, I love Am/F#

[@eltieum]

Yeah, it's a F#min7b5, or half-diminished.

[@thpthp]

Old things becoming new again. 4 over 5 was such a staple of the 70s that I've spent years trying to get away from it in my songwriting. Carol King did it so much that her band referred to it as "C over K'. I think 4/5 does create a 'dated' sound. But if that's what you want, it's great!

[@dougllewellyn4620]

There's a Radiohead song in there somewhere. Daydreaming? Weird Fishes?

[@alexneill8338]

I had to read that title four times before I realised that it has nothing to do with Guns N Roses

[@aaronp0324]

😂😂😂

[@delgadopacheco.gabriel]

Fourth, I guess?

[@alecfowler2261]

For an embarrassing amount of time I thought Slash chords were named after Slash the guitarist. 😅

[@tominoakachudak]

Get together by Madonna? But not sure.

[@Luria42]

This Chord Progression looks like the theme from Doki Doki Literature Club

[@mikima7143]

Yooooo. Am I first???

[@DavidBennettPiano]

I think so!

[@Belletje72]

Damn it!

[@SamBrockmann]

Yo. Who cares?!

[@DavidBennettPiano]

@@SamBrockmann it is the highest honour!

[@SamBrockmann]

@@DavidBennettPiano , is it though?

[@BruceEEvans1]

Ooh!! Ooh!! I usually watch your videos with the point of view that you don't have much of anything new for me, just s different way of saying it, which of course is quite useful. But you really have my mind buzzing with new ideas here. I need a piano. Quick! And a group to play with. That sounds arrogant. I apologize. I didn't mean for it to be so.

[@ShadareaRapt]

the words

[@SamBrockmann]

Thing is, the Beatles took that idea from numerous blues and jazz records.

[@BaccarWozat]

(Looks at thumbnail)... Elton John, Bowser (not the one from Sha-na-na), Paul Macca... none of these is Slash.

[@ric8248]

"the tiny dancer chord.." jfc

[@Fire_Axus]

F/G sounds the same as G/A.

[@wai0937]

Second!

[@wai0937]

Shoot I mean third!

[@jwbworld4589]

Second

[@sjbechet1111]

Jack Black - I don't get it, why is that egregious, overblown narcissist even considered a musician? Is there are more vacuous, nebulous fraud in entertainment? The company he keeps in this video have almost certainly stepped in greater talent.

[@jamesmurray6883]

It's possible that people mistake him for a musician because he's an egregious, overblown narcissist.

[@Luria42]

This Chord Progression looks like the theme from Doki Doki Literature Club

[@Luria42]

This Chord Progression looks like the theme from Doki Doki Literature Club