Am/E?

SpeedBump

SpeedBump

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Hi there,

I'm learning a new song downloaded from a guitar chord site, and it's telling me to play an Am/E chord. Can anyone tell me how to play this on a standard tuned uke?

Just checked, and there's two more I can't figure out - E/B and Am/B.

Any help much appreciated. Thanks.
 
Simple answer. Ignore what's written after the slash when playing ukulele. If your playing a guitar what they are telling you is play a Am chord with the lowest note played being an E. See, when good guitarists play an Am chord they will use the 5th string as bass and not play/mute the 6th string. What the Am/E is telling them is to play the E which happens to be an open 6th string. Ukulele's lack the two lowest strings of a guitar so it becomes redundant on a ukulele.

Anthony
 
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anthonyg said:
Simple answer. Ignore what's written after the slash when playing ukulele. If your playing a guitar what they are telling you is play a Am chord with the lowest note played being an E. See, when good guitarists play an Am chord they will use the 5th string as bass and not play/mute the 6th string. What the Am/E is telling them is to play the E which happens to be an open 6th string. Ukulele's lack the two lowest strings of a guitar so it becomes redundant on a ukulele.

Anthony
Click to expand...

Actually - is that the case all the time? Or just if the chords are written with guitar in mind? I'm also playing John Lennon's 'Ímagine' (from a ukulele music site) and at one point the chords are as below, and while it sounds OK just playing the chords before the slash, it's definitely better playing them both at once.

[C] No [Cmaj7] hell be[F]low us
[C] Above us [Cmaj7] only [F] sky
[F/C] Imagine [Am/C] all the [Dm] people [F]
[G] Living for [C] to[G7]day
 
in the case you just quoted Speedbump, if you add the C note to the F (2013) it is certainly the right chord for that song at that moment. As is keeping your finger on the C and lifting your finger off the 2nd string to get the Am/C (2003).
 
Thank you for that explanations. I had no idea what that meant. I appreciate it!
 
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SpeedBump said:
Actually - is that the case all the time? Or just if the chords are written with guitar in mind? I'm also playing John Lennon's 'Ímagine' (from a ukulele music site) and at one point the chords are as below, and while it sounds OK just playing the chords before the slash, it's definitely better playing them both at once.

[C] No [Cmaj7] hell be[F]low us
[C] Above us [Cmaj7] only [F] sky
[F/C] Imagine [Am/C] all the [Dm] people [F]
[G] Living for [C] to[G7]day
Click to expand...

I said that it was the simple answer. No its not going to sound just like it does on a guitar. If you want the sound of the slash chord you will have to find another way to incorporate it. What was a bass line on a guitar will have to be voiced higher.

Anthony
 
What I do with slashchords is just ignore the guitar-reason they're meant for, and check wether the note behind the slash is already in the chord. In your example (Am/E), the E-string is played open when you play an Am, so the E is already there, no need to add it.
But when I have to play, for example, a[FONT=Lucida Grande, Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] C/B chord, there is no B when you play a C chord. There are two C's in that chord (thrid fret on A-string and open C-string), so I can use one of them to add a B. I fret the A-string on the second fret to to get a C/B chord (which is actually the same as a Cmaj7).
Works for me.[/FONT]
 
ukuhippo said:
What I do with slashchords is just ignore the guitar-reason they're meant for, and check wether the note behind the slash is already in the chord. In your example (Am/E), the E-string is played open when you play an Am, so the E is already there, no need to add it.
But when I have to play, for example, a C/B chord, there is no B when you play a C chord. There are two C's in that chord (thrid fret on A-string and open C-string), so I can use one of them to add a B. I fret the A-string on the second fret to to get a C/B chord (which is actually the same as a Cmaj7).
Works for me.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that, ukuhippo. There's a couple of methods here to explore and experiment with. Thank you. :)
 
This is one reason why a ukulele is simpler to play than a guitar. When strumming a guitar you hit all of the strings some of the time, and just some of the strings some of the time. Thus the slash notation. And you eventually get to where you can remember when to hit what.

With a ukulele, hit all of them all of the time.

When you feel like getting fancy, you can alter the "hit 'em all" ukulele rule, but for the most part, hit all of them all of the time.
 
Just to be clear, "slash" notation isn't just for guitar. It's for any instrument or group of instruments that cares to pay attention to it.

So if you were a guitarist in a band, you might play the top chord in whatever inversion you wanted, and the bass player would play the note on the bottom of the slash. Or if you were playing piano, you'd play the top chord however you wanted, but play the bottom-slash-note as the bass note in your left hand.

If you can manage the slash notation on your uke, and it sounds good, then go for it. No reason to just flat-out ignore it just because you're not holding a guitar.

JJ
 
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