Root movement 2

You can use any note in the chord as a bass note.

For instance, a D major chord is made of three notes: D, F#, and A. So you can make three different D major chords – D (root in the bass), D/F# (3^rd in the bass), and D/A (5^th in the bass). The name of the chord is always on the left side of the slash; the bass note is always on the right.

In order to identify the notes in a chord, you need to know your key signatures. Here’s a couple of links to  posts that will help with that.

http://davewallmusic.com/how-to-write-chord-progressions-a-pro-would-love-part-10-circle-of-5ths/

http://davewallmusic.com/how-to-write-chord-progressions-a-pro-would-love-part-11-the-order-of-sharps/

 

Progression variety

This idea gives you more possibilities for different root movement in conventional progressions.

 

So for the following progression…

 

G – C – Amin – Emin – D – G

 

…you could have G – C/G – Amin – E/B – D/A – G

 

The root movement for the first version is simply the roots: G – C – A – E – D – G. Nothing wrong with that. But the next time through the progression you could use the second version, whose root movement is: G – G – A – B – A – G.

The second one is more like a scale. This isn’t necessarily more interesting than one that jumps around more. It just expresses something different (more grounded, relaxed, solid, directed; choose your adjective).

This might be closer to what your lyrics are expressing. This technique gives you a resource for supporting those lyrics more effectively, and for creating variety.