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I'm trying to play a song, and one of the chords is G/F. I tried to look it up on this site, but it's only showing G/F#, not G/F. So is G/F a typo? Why is it not listed on this site?

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2 Answers

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Here's the chord you are looking for.

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G/F means "G-chord with an F in the bass". But technically, this isn't a G-chord at all, because G-chords don't have an F in them. They do, however, have an F#. G-chords with an F rather than an F# are actually G7 chords, not G chords.

More generally: When you see a chord notated, like "G" or "Am" or something, the assumption is either that you'll play the the root of the chord in the bass, or that it doesn't matter if you play an inversion. If the songwriter specifically wants you to play some other particular chord tone in the bass, s/he will write "chord name/some other note", like "G/F" or "Am/E". Such chords are called "inversions".

So a G/F# is a G-chord, but specifically an inversion of a G-chord with the F# in the bass. Since a G-chord with an F in it is actually a G7 chord, you might have more luck looking for G7/F. Or you could just roll your own by taking a G-chord and moving the bass note down two frets.

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The G chord doesn't have an F#, just G B and D. The Gmaj7 chord has the F#. And just because the composer put an F or F# in the bass, that's no reason to think that the F is wanted elsewhere in the chord. – VarLogRant Apr 2 '11 at 11:58
You're right, the G-major triad does not contain the F#. Depending on context, though, one might assume its presence. Anyway, my point was really that adding an F to a G-chord, even if only in the bass, makes it a G7 chord, which may help to explain why the OP was having a hard time finding it---s/he may have been looking in the wrong place. – Alex Basson Apr 2 '11 at 12:16
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The G chord doesn't have an F# in it, but the key of G does. – neilfein Apr 2 '11 at 12:43
"The G chord doesn't have an F# in it, but the key of G does." G major does. G mixolydian doesn't. That's the fun of keys vs. scales. – Anonymous Apr 3 '11 at 4:21
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@protect: Sure, that B (5th string, 2nd fret) is already being played in the standard G chord. But it's not the bass note, meaning it's not the lowest note in the chord. Take away the low G, though, and you've got your G/B. – Alex Basson Apr 10 '11 at 12:53
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