In this fase of the course it would be nice to have a few sample songs using these chords with more basic strumming patterns.
Most of the examples have all kinds of fancy stuff going on that is a bit too complex at this point and simply strumming the basic chords doesn’t really give you the feel that you are actually playing along.
Welcome to the forum Floris. You can make strumming patterns as simple or fancy as you like.
I’ve been playing for 4 decades and when learning a new song or technique I still use basic strumming pattern until I get the groove of the song or technique down.
Justin even recommends using one down strum on the beat or all down strums at a slower tempo when learning new songs.
Thanks for the welcome!
Of course I know you can play along with basic strumming but to me playing along with a complex song using a simple pattern just doesn’t feel as good as playing along with a song that actually has a more basic pattern.
Hence the remark that it would be nice to have some songs that use these chords in a more basic way.
Sunny Afternoon noted in the ‘Practice with actual songs’ doesn’t have any slash chords, according to the chord grips. Seems a bit odd to list this.
In fact all songs listed as far as I can see are Grade 3 and above which is a bit odd for a Grade 2 lesson.
My hands are so small that for the D/F# chord, its very uncomfortable and inconvenient to have my thumb wrapped around the neck like that, so i opted for the octave up on the F#, barring string 1 and 3 on the second fret with my first finger, second finger on string 2 fret 3, and the F# on the fourth string with my third finger. Not exactly the same, but it works well enough lol
Bob Marley No Women No Cry
This one has a nice G/B slash chord in it. I am using the suggested option 2 for the G/B. It is not too bad so far. Maybe because I tend to play the folky pinky type of G. It also has a nice, full barr F that is a push chord. Those full F chords pushs are are much more of a challenge for me, so this song has landed in a good spot.
Melissa, it is perhaps wise, for the time being, to avoid using the thumb if it is painful. And your fix is indeed a substitute for D/F# and is a really useful chord in a range of songs and context. However, missing out on the low bass note F# is a shame. So here is an alternative. You can use only fingers to play the chord and omit the high F# note on the 1st string. Like so.
I was trying to understand the technical meaning of base note. My question stems from the following.
Regular C - We play notes CEG. The C on the 5th string sounds low in pitch (did i use the right term?) than C on the 2nd string. It shows up a lower frequency on the tuner. Among all the notes and srrings that are played the C on 5th string has lowest frequency So that means the regular C has a C base.
C/G (4 finger version) - We add G on 6th string. We still play 2 C notes from the regular C but the note with the lowest frequency is not the C on 5th string, it’s now the G on 6th string. So that’s why this is called C over base G.
Hopefully im not overthinking this and getting it all wrong.
You got it ! 
Can someone explain how this is a beginner lesson? I am extremely frustrated watching the video and trying to follow along, been playing for 15 years. Goes way too fast trying to pack in too much information, doing tricks he doesn’t explain, throwing in chords left and right and then moving on too quickly.
Marc @mcusuma1
My view on that lesson was basically to explain what they are and I didn’t think you had to learn and play them all,
It was really so when you come across them in the future you can look back at this lesson and see the shape.
By the way welcome to the community.
Michael
Perhaps the sound of the spoken word has confused you.
The word is ‘bass’.
Think bass guitar.
Bass note is simply the note lowest in pitch.
The word bass sounds the same as the word base. Base can mean the lowest part of something (a structure for example), a foundation, a platform etc. But that is not the word being used here and there is no ambiguity of meaning when you know the reference is to bass note not base note.
Hi Marc, welcome to the community. I think the best way to approach this lesson is to not play along, but treat it as an overview tutorial. Justin says later in the lesson that he doesn’t recommend that you try to learn all the slash chords, but just know what they are and learn as you need them for a song. Notice at the 3:00 point in the lesson video a text appears saying that this is a long video and that you probably don’t want to view in one sitting. Also notice that all the slash chords in the lesson are listed in the Learn More section of the lesson page of this tutorial video. The most important info for beginners in the lesson is that when you see a slash chord in a chord chart, you can ignore the slash and the bass note and just play the chord. I played guitar for several years before I leaned about this and I was confused about the slash chords that I saw in chord charts.
There is a good song by post Malone called circles the depending on the live version is c-b/c-f-fm or the Studio version that has b/g
Fantastic lesson and I find myself going over the slash chords back and forth to get them in my ears.
And during practice I just heard a chord progression of a song I always wanted to learn.
I have 3 questions regarding Slash Chords.
Why did Justin show us three variations of G/B but only one variation of G/F#? Is playing G/F♯ with the 2nd string open not good. If so, why? When I was exploring, it sounded a little strange to me.
Why should I mute the 5th string when I play A/E. The note is included in the chord.
In Japan, ‘Slash Chord’ is called ‘On Chord’. I wonder if it is only in Japan. Do you think English speakers in other countries would understand what it means?
Justin didn’t say explicitly, but following his logic from other examples, I guess it’s because either 1) it sounds murky, or 2) you might want to alternate between the E and A bass note (i.e. alternate between A and A/E chords), in which case not playing the 5th string makes the difference between those two chord more apparent.
Hi Mayumi @NobuMayu, I’m still a beginner myself, but I think I can offer some answers - or at least some good guesses!
I haven’t done an analysis, but I suspect that between the notes in the chord and the notes reachable on the strings, some chords simply present more ways physically to play then. As for leaving the second string open in G/F#: The second string is A, and that note is not in the G chord. It will sound bad.
As Justin points out, it is not absolutely necessary to mute the 5th string when playing A/E. As you observe, A is in (indeed, is they root of) the A chord. Justin explains this beginning at 17:30 in the video lesson on the web. Basically, he suggests that playing the 5th string A sounds murky, like you played the A chord and didn’t know you were supposed to mute the E. In other words, it might sound a bit like a mistake. But you don’t have to mute it. He says A/E is used in country music when playing with alternating base notes.
I’d never heard of this term in English, so I googled “What is an ‘on chord’”? No results came back, so I don’t think it translates directly.
