What the heck is this chord?

ijonty

According to the tab, the simple progression is:

Dmaj7 Fmaj7 Em7 A7
Dmaj7 Fmaj7 Em7 A#7

But that A#7 doesn't sounds right to me. I'm trying to do a cover and currently when I play this on keys or guitar, it's off. Any ideas folks? It's driving me nuts.

https://youtu.be/0YIWd2umIYQ?t=90

stratman3142

It sounds like the progression starts with a couple of times on Dmaj7   Fmaj7   Em7   A9.
I think an A9 sounds smoother than a straight A7.

Then, later on, I think the A#7 mighty be a A#13. In other words, an A#7 that includes the 9 and the 13.

But I could be wrong.

Bellycaster

0:58 is a good place to hear the Guitar Chord.

It sounds like X12333, which would mean with A# as the root, it has a b5 and a 13, so A#13b5?????

Try the chord yourself see what you think. The Guitarist might just be playing XX2333 and letting the Bassist put the root note in.

stratman3142

Bellycaster said:

0:58 is a good place to hear the Guitar Chord.

It sounds like X12333, which would mean with A# as the root, it has a b5 and a 13, so A#13b5?????

Try the chord yourself see what you think. The Guitarist might just be playing XX2333 and letting the Bassist put the root note in.

I think you might be right about the b5. The 13th inversion I tried excluded the 5th so I didn't hear that.

However, in your inversion, I'm now wondering whether the Bb on the 3rd fret 3rd string might be an A on the 2nd fret 3rd string.

So that would make it x12233, which would be a Bbmaj  13b5

Bellycaster

It's a tough one @stratman3142 I reckon I can still hear a Tritone though and I don't think he's playing the Root note on the A String, that's what makes me think it's xx2333.

I like the song though, got a decent groove.

Roland

Bellycaster said:

0:58 is a good place to hear the Guitar Chord.

It sounds like X12333, which would mean with A# as the root, it has a b5 and a 13, so A#13b5?????

Try the chord yourself see what you think. The Guitarist might just be playing XX2333 and letting the Bassist put the root note in.

Or it could be C9/Bb. The Bb is already there in the chord, on the 3rd string, and the bass note simply doubles it.

Bellycaster

Roland said:

Bellycaster said:

0:58 is a good place to hear the Guitar Chord.

It sounds like X12333, which would mean with A# as the root, it has a b5 and a 13, so A#13b5?????

Try the chord yourself see what you think. The Guitarist might just be playing XX2333 and letting the Bassist put the root note in.

Or it could be C9/Bb. The Bb is already there in the chord, on the 3rd string, and the bass note simply doubles it.

I did try a C9, but I then started focusing on what note the Bassist was playing and then reverted back to thinking around Bb.

You might well be right.

ijonty

Thanks all, really appreciate it.

I can't try your suggestions tonight as I'm not at home, but will do tomorrow.

From other bits in the video, he seems to be playing up the fretboard, maybe around the sixth fret. Does that help clarify any of your theories?

Roland

Dmaj7 x57675
Fmaj7 x87555
Em x75757
A7 575655
C9 878x88

stratman3142

I'm still stuggling to hear exactly what's going on with that last chord.

What's confusing is that the keyboards at 25s and 42s seem to be playing something like Abmaj7 (with a Bb in the bass). Maybe there's a slight conflict in the chords between the keyboards and guitar making it hard to hear exactly what's going on.

These chords seem to fit the keyboards. The first part is what @Roland wrote, but my Fmaj7 is just higher up the neck.

x 5 7 6 7 5      Dmaj7

x 8 10 9 10 8     Fmaj7

x 7 9 7 8 7       Em7

5 7 5 6 5 5        A7   (I think a 9th sounds good as well)

x 5 7 6 7 5      Dmaj7

x 8 10 9 10 8     Fmaj7

x 7 9 7 8 7       Em7

6 x 6 8 8 x      Abmaj7/Bb (fits the keyboard chord) but this isn't the chord that the guitar plays later on. I'm still puzzled by that.      

At 1:15 in the video the guitar chord looks and sounds like it might be:

x 7 6 7 8 x  which would be a E7#9, with the bass playing a Bb. That chord is like the chord suggested by @Bellycaster but played higher up the neck and with an Ab instead of a Bb.   

ijonty

Thanks @stratman3142 yes, it's definitely confusing! Perhaps they're playing different chords at different parts of the song, though they don't seem like a band that would be doing that. Would have thought they'd keep it pretty simple.

Everyone's suggestions feel really close to being right, but something niggles.

Perhaps this is also a lesson in not trying to get a cover EXACTLY right. In a way, I could use any one of these suggestions and it'd work for my purposes.

But of course the perfectionist in me wants to get it dead on!

I tried this, which sounds nice, but again, not right:

x87899

ijonty

stratman3142 said:

6 x 6 8 8 x      Abmaj7/Bb (fits the keyboard chord)

What would this be on a piano? I'm no good at converting one to the other.

Is this Abmaj7?

Would I need to do something with it to make it Abmaj7/Bb?

Bellycaster

We may have to invoke @viz ;

stratman3142

ijonty said:

stratman3142 said:

6 x 6 8 8 x      Abmaj7/Bb (fits the keyboard chord)

What would this be on a piano? I'm no good at converting one to the other.

Is this Abmaj7?

Would I need to do something with it to make it Abmaj7/Bb?

You just need to add a Bb bass note to turn it into Abmaj7/Bb, which would be one tone below the C at the extreme left of your keyboard diagram.

Roland

It wouldn’t surprise me if guitar and keys are playing something different. I do it occasionally. Complex chords can sound confused if both guitar and keys are playing all of the notes.

stratman3142

Playing the sequence in isolation, the chord that sounds the nicest to me is:
x 7 8 7 8 x  with a Bb in the bass. Which is what @Bellycaster said, but played higher up the neck.

Another two that sound good, when playing the sequence in isolation, are:
6 x 7 7 8 x    Bbmaj13
or 
6 x 6 7 8 x   Bb13

ijonty

Thanks @stratman3142 will give that a go. I'll post my very rough work-in-progress soon so you can see where I'm at

ijonty

Meant to say, thanks to all who contributed to this @Roland @Bellycaster @stratman3142 ; - really appreciate you all putting the time in to help. 

I’m now trying to work out the keyboard arpeggio without any knowledge of how those work!

k.billy

I've listened to 0:58 in the video a number of times now (slick tune BTW), and I'm definitely getting a "rolled" 4-string chord and it ain't A#7 that's for sure.

I'm convinced it's F9 played in position 8 using x8788x giving the notes (low to high) F A Eb G. So root / major third / flat 7th / 9th.