How to play B/F#

MonkeyKnifeFight · Nov 8, 2008

So i just bought a bunch of Hal Leonard guitar chord books (mostly because the motown one had lots of Stevie Wonder chords). One of them has the song 'Mony Mony'. So for the main part where it goes:

Code:

F#                                                   B/F#  F#
Here she comes down sayin mony mony

So I know what vibe it's going for but i'm not sure how to make it on uke. I'm not sure i understand slash chords. Do they just not really translate to uke? A normal B chord already has an F# in it when i play it like 4322. But does a slash mean that the root note needs to be an F#? That seems hard on a uke.

So i guess my main question is whether slash chords can be translated to uke or do you have to do something else?

Thanks!
Chris

PS in case it's not clear i know nothing about playing guitar or any instrument besides uke. so slash chords are a total mystery to me

EDIT1: BTW before you say use the search i think i've seen the other threads on the topic. But on a re-entrant uke isn't the C string almost always going to be the low string. So it seems like lots of slash strings would be hard to do (basically anything */F,G,A,B would be like way up the neck).

seeso · Nov 8, 2008

MonkeyKnifeFight said:
So I know what vibe it's going for but i'm not sure how to make it on uke. I'm not sure i understand slash chords. Do they just not really translate to uke? A normal B chord already has an F# in it when i play it like 4322. But does a slash mean that the root note needs to be an F#? That seems hard on a uke.

So i guess my main question is whether slash chords can be translated to uke or do you have to do something else?

Thanks!
Chris

The note after the slash in slash chords denotes what should be the lowest note in the chord. It's important to stress correct terminology here. The lowest note in a slash chord is not the "root" note. The root note in any chord never changes. If the slash chord is A/G#, for example, your root note is still an A, but the lowest note is a G#. The way I usually say it is, "A chord with a G# in the bass."

There's not much you can do with some slash chords on an ukulele. In your Mony Mony example I would just play the B chord 4322 and be done with it. Technically, that voicing is a slash chord already. It's a B/D#.

If you really wanted to, you can play your F# as 6664 and your B/F# as 8676. That way your lowest note is an F#.

N.B. - If the note after the slash is a note that does not occur in the chord normally, I'd put it in there somewhere. For example, for a D/E chord I'd play something like 2420.

It's a case by case basis, but you're usually cool if you just play the first chord. If you're playing along with other people, they can cover that low note for you.

yodiepants · Nov 8, 2008

Last time I talked theory I got pretty well hassled. But I'll give it another go.

(And of course, pop music has different theory considerations than ye olde 17th century church music... but...!)

This could be transposed to C, F/C for easier braining. When you play a C chord, F chord, C chord with the easier fingering, I don't think you'll get the "right sound" that goes with the song. But if you held the high C and fingered the F chord, which would give "a C F C," it would make the right "motion." Really, the sound comes from the E-G to F-A in the C-E-G, C-F-A. So, transpose up and tada, it works!

(I don't know if this will make any sense at all. But I think if you use
6669 - 8679 - 6669
it will sound awesome. )

MonkeyKnifeFight said:
So i just bought a bunch of Hal Leonard guitar chord books (mostly because the motown one had lots of Stevie Wonder chords). One of them has the song 'Mony Mony'. So for the main part where it goes:

Code:

F# B/F# F# Here she comes down sayin mony mony

So I know what vibe it's going for but i'm not sure how to make it on uke. I'm not sure i understand slash chords. Do they just not really translate to uke? A normal B chord already has an F# in it when i play it like 4322. But does a slash mean that the root note needs to be an F#? That seems hard on a uke.

So i guess my main question is whether slash chords can be translated to uke or do you have to do something else?

Thanks!
Chris

PS in case it's not clear i know nothing about playing guitar or any instrument besides uke. so slash chords are a total mystery to me

EDIT1: BTW before you say use the search i think i've seen the other threads on the topic. But on a re-entrant uke isn't the C string almost always going to be the low string. So it seems like lots of slash strings would be hard to do (basically anything */F,G,A,B would be like way up the neck).

How to play B/F#

MonkeyKnifeFight

Member

seeso

Super Duper Moderator (Retired)

yodiepants

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