Slash chords for auto-accompaniment on PSR-E400 series!

[SciNote]

Has anyone ever discovered this before?  Has this ever been discussed here?  I know there have been discussions on other parts of the forum about what a slash chord is and how to get the auto-accompaniment to play them on the higher-end keyboards, but I don't remember seeing anything about them discussed for the PSR-E series keyboards, and I never thought that these keyboards were capable of them, but they are!  I generally do not use auto-accompaniment, but I just discovered this accidentally on my PSR-E433 while researching an answer to another question related to single finger chords on an E463 in another part of the forum.

A "slash chord" is simply a chord that is denoted by the chord symbol, followed by the slash, followed by the note that is supposed to be played on the bass.  So for example, if you are looking at a piece of sheet music and see the chord symbol "C", that tells you to play a C major chord, and that the bass note should also be C, as there is nothing to say otherwise about the bass note.  But if you see the chord symbol "C/G", that tells you to play a C major chord, but for the bass note to be a G.

Normally, what I've seen is that on the PSR-E series, if you play the full, complete chord while in auto-accompaniment mode, you'll always get the root bass, no matter what inversion you play the chord.  So, if you play C,E,G, or E,G,C, or G,C,E, you'll always get a C major chord with a C bass.  But what I discovered is that there are certain 2-note combinations that can trigger a slash chord on the PSR-E series -- or at least on my E433.  When I play a C and the G a fourth below the C together, I get a C major accompaniment, but with the bass note being G.  If I play a C and an E a minor 6th below the C together, I get a C major accompaniment, but with the bass note being an E.  Seems to work for minor chords, as well, at least in some cases, as playing C and Eb a major 6th below the C -- I believe -- got me a C-minor chord with an Eb bass.  I haven't tried other combinations.  And I'm sure that more intricate slash chords, such as C with B for the bass, may not be possible, because the keyboard might recognize those notes in a different fashion (I think if you play a C and the B right below it together, you'll be in easy-play mode and get a C7).

Like I said, I don't ever remember seeing this discussed before.  Certainly feel free to post if you know of other note combinations that trigger non-root bass notes, and let me know if anything I posted above is incorrect.

[casiokid]

Is not the E433 recognising the chord as a 6th chord(s) which are always played and triggered in Root Position?

[SciNote]

I believe you are right about 6th chords needing to be in root position, but I'm pretty sure the keyboard requires you to play the entire chord to generate a background on a 6th chord, not just a couple notes.  The easy-play feature that generates full chords by playing just a single key or cluster of keys generates major, minor, 7th, and minor 7th chords, but not 6th chords.

The C6 chord is a four note chord of C,E,G,A, but I was only playing two notes.  I got the C chord with the G bass by playing a G as the low note, then a C a fourth above the G (the next highest C above that G).  I got the C chord with the E bass by playing an E as the low note, and a C a minor 6th above the E (the next highest C above that E).

These note combinations were definitely not a 6th chord, and not in root position for any kind of C chord, as a note other than C was being played as the lowest note.

However, I believe I did get a C minor with an Eb bass when I played an Eb and the next highest C (a major 6th above the Eb) together.  In reality, that is close to an Eb6 chord, but not quite, as there would also have to be a Bb in that chord to be a complete Eb6 chord (Eb6 is Eb,G,Bb,C), and I don't believe I heard that Bb note being played by the auto-accompaniment.  I think I was just getting the notes of a C minor chord (C,Eb,G) being played with an Eb on the bass.  I'll have to double check that one.

[EileenL]

It sounds like you are using AI fingering which dose produce the effect you are describing

[SciNote]

Well, remember, the PSR-E series does not have different auto-accompaniment fingering modes, like AI fingering.  It has one mode -- it can simply be either turned on or off.  It then looks at the keys that you're playing in the auto-accompaniment section of the keyboard to determine what to do.  If you're playing a single note, it treats it as an easy-play major chord.  If you play a note along with the white key right below it, the black key right below it, or both, then it treats it as easy-play 7th, minor, or minor-7th chords.  And if you're playing a full chord of one of the types it recognizes (major, minor, 7th, minor 7th, 6th, sus4, sus2, 7sus4, and several others), then it plays a background based on that chord.

These 2-note combinations that I discovered do not fit in to any of those categories, and I do not remember reading about them in the manual or anywhere else.  Playing a G and the C above it is not a chord -- it is an interval.  Technically, I guess it could be considered an inversion of a C5 chord, but that is not what the auto-accompaniment played with that interval -- I got a C major chord with a G bass.  Playing an E and the C above it is also just an interval.  And these intervals are not part of what is listed in the combinations of keys that are required to get easy-play chords, such as hitting the key and the white key right below the main key to get a 7th chord, for example.

I've just never seen anything about these combinations of notes to get a slash chord anywhere before.  Since it only requires hitting 2 notes to get an entire background, I'd say this is an extension of the easy-play chord feature, though it does require knowing a little bit about the structure of actual chords to use.

[SciNote]

Here's a post on the topic from May 29, 2018 by andyg:

"I have an E443. It has no problems recognising on-bass or 'slash' chords, assuming that the chord is basic, ie major or minor and that the on bass note is one of the notes in the chord.

So C/G is (from left to right) G C. C/E is E C. Cm/Eb is Eb C.  Cm/G is not possible. Several of my students have used these chords in exam pieces where 'On Bass' is specified in the music.

Things like C/Bb are, of course, not possible. By the time you're capable of playing this type of chord, you deserve to be playing something better than an E class!

IMHO, anyone not needing Multifinger Mode is probably best advised to use AI Fingered Mode. Compulsory for all of my students who 1) all get taught to play chords unless there's a real reason not to and 2) all get taught how to use AI mode properly, just as soon as they have a keyboard that features it.

With AI Mode as good as it is and most Genos owners playing chords, maybe Yamaha weren't too fussed about putting a more advanced Multifinger Mode in?"

So, it looks like this has been discovered before, though it still does not appear to be widely known.  It was posted in the "Secrets You Won't Find in the Manual" section of the forum.

Here's the web address of the thread: https://www.psrtutorial.com/forum/index.php/topic,45081.msg355065.html#msg355065

I found it by simply searching for "slash chord" using the search function of the forum.

[andyg]

I echo what Scinote said (and I can remember us both saying it a few times  before!)

The E4xx have always been able to play certain 'slash chords'. Major or minor, where the bass note is one of the three notes in the triad. So C/G is easy, just play a C over a G. But that's it. Try playing C/Bb, for example, and the 'multifinger' intelligence takes over and you get C minor.

If you need more advance chords, you need a more advanced keyboard, say in the 7xx or 9xx series, using AI Fingered Mode. And yes, if you play your own chords you should use that mode by default, as it's transparent to normal chords and only 'kicks in' when you need something more complex. 'On Bass' mode is much more limited.

FWIW, having spoken to the compilers of the exam syllabus, it is acceptable to use the AI Fingered versions of something like C/Bb, even though the book might say 'use On Bass mode'. That wording is used as not everyone is lucky enough to have AI Fingered Mode on their instrument!