Chord G/B

A chord consists of atleast three notes. Normally the note that names the chord will be lowest: the lowest chord in a C-major chord would be C. However, sometimes you want the notes of a chord in a different order. In those situations you write the name of the chord followed by a slash and the lowest note used. So D/F# means a D-major chord (D F# A) with a F# instead of D as the lowest note. On guitar that could be [2 0 0 2 3 2] for example.

A G/B is, as you might have guessed now, a G-major chord (G B D) with a B instead of G as lowest note. For example: [x 2 0 0 0 3].

Ignar,

Are you saying that the note that follows the slash is the bass note played?

So in your explanation G/B, the bass note of the G chord is the low E on the third fret (G). Since we want the bass note to now be B the low E string is not played and the bass note would be on the A string on the second fret (B).

Following the same logic D/F#. Bass note on the D chord is the open A string. To make the base note F#, keep the D chord but fret the low E string on the second fret making the F# the new bass note.

Am I getting it?

Thanks,
Tom

in lieu of Ignar's response, yup that's it. :)

Yes, that's exactly right.

Note though, that in a band context, the variant bass note would usually be played by the bass player and the guitarist would just play a normal chord.

A general spiel on variant bass notes:

Normal triad chords (major, minor, dim, aug) are made up of a root, third and fifth.

Generally, a chord with the 3rd as the bass note is called a 1st inversion. Your G/B and D/F# are examples of 1st inversion chords.

Chords with the 5th in bass are called 2nd inversion chords. Examples of this would be G/D and D/A.

7th chords (and other 4 note chords) can be in the 3rd inversion where the bass note is the 7th. G7/F and D7/C are 3rd inversion chords.