How to Play Chords Like Jeff Buckley,

Part 2:SLASH CHORDS

In this lesson we'll analyse some more of Jeff Buckey's guitar playing sound, and work
out how we can incorporate a little bit of that sound into our own playing and songs. I'll
be concentrating on two very prominent details of his chordal playing, which are his use
of slash chords and his guitar parts that revolve around moving shapes to different
positions on the the fretboard.

Slash Chords
A slash chord is most simply defined as a chord with a note other than root in the bass,
with bass defined as the lowest pitched note of the chord. This note is usually another
note in the chord (the 3rd or the 5th, like Am with a C bass note) and can also be a note
from outside the chord (like D with an G in the bass).
Slash chords are written as two notes with a slash in the middle, like D/F#, G/D or
Em/C. The first one represents the chord and the second one represents the bass note. We
say G/B as "G over B" because it's a G chord over a B bass.
When playing with a bass player, the note he plays for a chord will determine what note
the listener perceives as the bass note. What I mean by this is that if we, the guitarist, play
a C/G chord BUT the bass player still plays a C note underneath it, then to the listener it
still sounds like a regular C chord with a C in the bass. On the other hand, if we play a
regular C chord but the bassist plays on F underneath it, it will change the entire
character of the chord, and we call that sound C/F. We're playing a C over the bassist's F.
For those that are into theory, some Slash chords can also be written as extended chords.
For example, C/F can also be heard as Fmaj9.
1 5 7 9
F (C E G)
C/F
e|----0-----B|----1-----G|----0-----D|----2-----A|----------E|----1------

Slash chords that use a note from the original chord as the bassnote are more common in
popular music, and are used a lot by people like Elton John and Dream Theater. In
D/F#, the F# is the 3rd of D, so the chord is still a regular D, but it takes on a different
character because of the different bassnote.

D/F#
e|----------B|-----3----G|-----2----D|-----0----A|----------E|-----2-----

That covers everything you need to know about slash chords! Let's look at how Jeff
Buckley uses them in his songs.

Example 1
Example 1 is from "Lover You Should've Come Over" (1:24) and shows how to use
slash chords to create linear motion in the bassline. This means the bassline moves to the
next note above or below the previous one. This section features the chords Bm - D - G.
However by making the bass note of the D chord chord an A, we get a descending
bassline of B - A - G. Try it out yourself:
Bm D/A G
e|-------2----------2----------3---------------------------------------------|
B|-------3----------3----------3---------------------------------------------|
G|-------4----------2----------0---------------------------------------------|
D|-------4----------0----------0---------------------------------------------|
A|-------2---------0---------------------------------------------------------|
E|-----------------------------3---------------------------------------------|

The idea of this is that the bassline sounds much smoother so the chords flow better. It's a
similar concept to voice-leading.

Example 2
Example 2 is from "Lilac Wine" (1:15) and utilises the same idea of motion in the
bassline. The simplified chords would be G - G7 - C - D7, which is a standard I - IV - V
chord progression. It is made more interesting in this song by using a descending bassline
that plays the notes G - F - E - D. Notice how this bassline is playing the notes in
descending order. Try this out:
G G/F C/E D7
e|----------------------------------------------------------|
B|---0--------0--------1---------3--------------------------|
G|---0--------0--------0---------5--------------------------|
D|---0--------0--------2---------4--------------------------|
A|--------------------------------5-------------------------|
E|---3--------1--------0------------------------------------|

Note that this isn't the actual part that Jeff plays in the song. He plays the simplified
chords and the bass player plays the low notes. We can do this anytime when we write
songs by arranging for the bass player to play notes other than the Root of the chord,
such as the 3rd, 5th, or 7th. In the example from "Lilac Wine," F is the b7th of G7, and
E is the 3rd of C.
Generally when we do this in our sounds, a clean sounds work well, and not playing too
many low notes on the 6th or 5th strings will also make it sound cleaner as there will be
less clashing with what the bass player is doing. Listen to "Lilac Wine" and you'll hear
the ideal sound I'm talking about.

Example 3
Example 3 is from Jeff's version of "Hallelujah" (1:13). It is an 8 bar long sequence of
chords that uses two slash chords (G/B and B7/D#) to create a smooth ascending
bassline. Each chord is played for 1 bar, except the 2nd and 3rd chords which are both
half the duration. Listen to the recording for the timing and arpeggio patterns.
G/B C D Em C D B7/D# Em
e|------3-------0-------2-------0-------0-------2-------2-------3----------|
B|------3-------1-------3-------0-------1-------3-------0-------0----------|
G|------0-------0-------2-------0-------0-------2-------2-------0----------|
D|------0-------2-------0-------2-------2-------0-------1-------2----------|
A|------2-------3---------------2------3-----------------------------------|
E|------------------------------0------------------------------------------|

(with capo on 5th fret)

The G/B sounds great because the bass note is just a semitone away from the bassnote of
the next chord, C, meaning that the chord change sounds smooth and is also easier to
play. The use of the B7/D# is really cool because it creates a chromatic bassline between
the D and the Em chords. It's also easy to get to from the D chord because only two
notes change. This means it links really smoothly between these chords. Try to remember
this shape next time you're playing a B7 chord!
Considering the bassline is really good way of improving your sound, both when playing
chords solo on guitar, as well as when writing for a full band. In solo guitar arpeggio
parts having a smooth bassline makes the shapes easier to play and sound more melodic.
When writing for a full band, having the bass player play notes other than the root can
really add another dimension to a chord progression. To get started on this, come up with
a simple chord progression and try changing the bassnote of one of the chords to a note
that isn't the root, for example the 3rd, 5th or 7th of the chord.

More Chords
Movable shapes is a concept that loosely means taking one chord shape on the fretboard
and moving it up and down by ear, often with use of open strings ringing with the chord
shapes.
Using open strings is a really easy way of creating complex, interesting sounding chords.
You can try just taking regular bar chords and lifting your first finger of the high E and B
strings to create some cool sounding chords. Try this exercise of taking a power chord
with the root on the 5th string, and move it up the neck while including the B and E
strings.
e|-----0------0------0------0------0------0-------0----------------|
B|-----0------0------0------0------0------0-------0----------------|
G|-----4------5------6------7------9-----10------12----------------|
D|-----4------5------6------7------9-----10------12----------------|
A|-----2------3------4------5------7------8------10----------------|
E|-----------------------------------------------------------------|

Play through these chords and notice how different each chord sounds from our regular
barre chords. This is the core of the concept I'll try to show you in this lesson, as many of
Jeff Buckley's songs use this idea. For the theory-minded people, the above chords
would be written as: Bmsus4, Cmaj7, C#m7, D6/9, E5, Fmaj7#11 and G6. Essentially
they are just more colourful version of the power chords, with the open strings supplying
the colour.

Example 4
Example 4 is from "Eternal Life" (00:45). It resemble a standard G chord moved up two
frets and is played as follows:
e|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
B|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
G|--------------------0----------------------------------------------------|
D|--------------0----------------------------------------------------------|
A|--------4----------------------------------------------------------------|
E|--5----------------------------------------------------------------------|

The open D and G strings function as the 4th and the b7th respectively, making it an
A7add4 chord. There is a semitone between the notes on the A and D string that gives
this particular shape its tense sound, and it sounds lot hipper than a standard A7 or Asus4
chord.
We can get a similar result by doing the same thing with a C major chord.

C Dadd9add4
e|-------0--------0-------------|
B|-------1--------3-------------|
G|-------0--------0-------------|
D|-------2--------4-------------|
A|-------3--------5-------------|
E|------------------------------|

Try this with other shapes and other positions too, there are nearly unlimited possibilities
here. Also remember the A chord from "Eternal Life" and try to use that in your own
playing.

Example 5
Example 5 is from "Grace" (1:11), and is the chords used in both the verse and bridge of
the song. The song is played in drop-D and the shape we're moving about here is a 3
string power chord on the lowest 3 strings. We move down chromatically from F like so:
e|-----0------------0-----------0----------------------------------------------|
B|-----0------------0-----------0----------------------------------------------|
G|-----0------------0-----------0----------------------------------------------|
D|-----3------------2-----------1----------------------------------------------|
A|-----3------------2-----------1----------------------------------------------|
D|-----3------------2-----------1----------------------------------------------|

The chords written out in full are Fmaj9#11 (no 3rd), Em and Eb#5b9. On the last chord
the high E string sounds a little harsh so is probably best left out.
You can take this idea and move it about to different positions to come up with our own
chords. Here is the same shape applied to different positions. This is still written in dropD.
G6 A9 Cmaj7 Dsus4add69
e|------0--------0-------0--------0-----------------|
B|------0--------0-------0--------0-----------------|
G|------0--------0-------0--------0-----------------|
D|------5--------7------10-------12-----------------|
A|------5--------7------10-------12-----------------|
D|------5--------7------10-------12-----------------|

The A and the C chords sound really colourful with the open strings, and the D chord
sounds really unique. Some positions work better than others here due to some clashing
with the G string (try the 11th fret and hear for yourself!). If we start adding the 3rd on
the G string then we can get even more chords. I'll write this one out in standard tuning.

Imagine playing a major barre chord and lifting your first finger off the top two strings.
Here are my two favourites:
F#7add11 Badd4
e|--------0---------0----------------|
B|--------0---------0----------------|
G|--------3---------6----------------|
D|--------4---------9----------------|
A|--------4---------9----------------|
E|--------2---------7----------------|

These chords work great with arpeggios because of the way the open strings sound
against the fretted notes can create some unusual harmonies.

Example 6
The chorus of "Mojo Pin" (1:41) has a similar vibe and uses the same Fmaj9#11 chord
as above (by the way, don't worry about memorising these long technical names, it's
really just a fancy F chord). The main chords used are:
Fmaj9#11 D7sus2 D6/9
e|------0-----------0-----------0------------------------|
B|------0-----------1-----------3------------------------|
G|------0-----------2-----------4------------------------|
D|------1-----------0-----------0------------------------|
A|------1-----------0-----------0------------------------|
D|------1-----------0-----------0------------------------|

The last two chords are almost the same, with the two notes just shifted up two frets.
Despite their simplicity, these chords sound huge on the recording, and that is partly due
to the amount of open strings and different notes used. These chords sound so much
bigger than just playing F - Dsus2 for the chorus.

Conclusion
There are a lot more examples that illustrate the same concepts that I couldn't fit here, and
they'll all be in part 3. Try to start using slash chords in your own playing today, as well
as trying to come up with new sounds by taking simple shapes you already know and
moving them to new fretboard positions. Alway remember to use yours ears and let those
be the judge of whether or not something works!