General Music Chat

These 3 chords all have something in common. After naming them you will see.
QUIZ: What is it?
as fret tabbed, in standard tuning:

1) X20220
2) 244200
3) 000000

polytonality is one thing in common. with a gtrst playing these shapes and a bass player supplying different roots they can function and be heard/viewed as several different chords.

so, all these voicings can be viewed several ways.

and another thing they have in common is that these voicings all includes 4ths (11ths).... i.e. making them "sus" chords.

1) X20220 =
Bm7 add9 add 11
.... or Em7 with B in bass add11 add13
....or how about an A7sus w B in bass
....and against a low G played in the bass it could be viewed as GMaj6 w B in the bass add9 add#11

2) 244200=
F#m7 add11 (F#m sus add7)
....or Bm7sus add 9 in bass
....or DM7/F# add 9 add 13

3) 000000=
most obvious choice is Em7 sus
....but you could also call that and use it as an A7sus add 9
...or how about GMaj6 add 9.
...for added bonus points, this voicing (best played as harmonics at 12th or 5th fret) works nicely over a "C" bass note producing a cool CMaj7 tonality that includes the 9th and 13th.


soooooo, what do we have for today's contestants?

a great exercise in polytonality for bassists is to play two harmonics on the g and d strings at a few different places.

let's start w harmonics at the 5th fret which yields those same two pitches...G and D.

then, as they ring out... you play a fretted bass note under them on the A or E string. then play "name that chord".

a few that i like:
playing an Eb on the A string = Ebmaj7
w an F on the A strng= Fadd9 add13

then play some of the other two note harmonics on the G and D strings (4th fret, 7th fret) and play bass notes against those and name the chord. hours of good clean fun!

Will he ever come out of those bushes and answer his own dang question?