What are slash chords?

You see a chord like C/G and you might wonder, what does that mean?

To put it simply, its a C major chord with a G bass note. So, simply play a C Major chord

how you would normally play it, and add (lets say the most common open C, string 5, fret 3)

then add a G note (which is a 4th below) or fret 3 on string 6, and voila, you have a C/G chord. This theory applies to any slash chords.

A C/G chord could also be called C Major second inversion, but more on that in a future post.