Chord Of The Week 31/12/16 - a Bbadd9/F arpeggio from "Father Figure" by George Michael

bigjon

In Memoriam George Michael, Father Figure was the second single I ever bought (the first was the re-issue of Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty), after I obtained a record-player at the age of about 16. Today's chord comes from a rhythm fill played by a classical guitar just after the guitar solo, following the first post-solo lyric line "Greet me with the eyes of a child"

It is hard to notate as a chord because it is played as an arpeggio with several sequential notes on one string, but my best effort is

Bbadd9/F: x x 3 3 3(4-3-1) x

Starting on beat 1 of the bar, play all the notes marked on the second string at frets 3, 4, 3, 1 in order with the rhythm quaver, two semiquavers, quaver, then play the note at fret 3 on the third string as a quaver, finally play the note at fret 3 on the fourth string as a minim.

I haven't included the Eb note at fret 4 on the second string in the chord name, as it's played so briefly in between the main quaver rhythm. It sends the chord into Bbsus4 territory for a millisecond, but the notes played on the quavers of D (3rd), D (3rd), C (9th), Bb (root) and F (5th) spell out a second-inversion Bbadd9 chord with the 5th in the bass. The sustained 5th note at the end builds up the air of mystery in the song which started with the Phrygian Dominant opening riff (the mode is constructed by starting the harmonic minor on the 5th of the scale, so it creates a non-resolving Dominant tension where lines are built on the V chord of the home key without ever resolving to the I chord)

You can hear the arpeggio at 4:18 in this video

I've stuck with the original mix rather than the 2010 remix on the official VEVO channel - seems to me they took a lot of the original lushness out when they remixed it.

bigjon

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