How To Read Slash Sheets


Slash sheets provide an overall structure for playing chords. This page will tell you how to read them.

Here is a slash sheet:

You’ll see the chord name, in this case “C” as the chord. The four diagonal lines represent the overall strumming being used. In the case of the slash sheet above, this would mean to strum the C chord four times until we reach the next measure.

A measure is notated with a vertical line that separates each slash. In the example above, you will only see the C chord one time out of four measures. The slashes in this case indicate the rests involved. In other words, with the slash sheet above, you will only play the C chord one time, and then rest three times until the next measure.

That’s really all there is to a slash sheet.

Here is another one that will show a full progression:

This indicates that the chords shown are to be played four times each measure, switching chords when indicated to do so.