What chord is this?

marxski

I came across this by accident…

an A Minor shape barré chord (for example B minor) but slanting the first finger barre so the high string is one semitone flat. So bass is G and high string is F sharp.

it sounds rather lovely but what is it?

Danny1969

Minor  / maj7 
Basically any chord is what it is when viewed as a basic triad ... like root / third / fifth ... then you add the extensions

viz

marxski said:

I came across this by accident…

an A Minor shape barré chord (for example B minor) but slanting the first finger barre so the high string is one semitone flat. So bass is G and high string is F sharp.

it sounds rather lovely but what is it?

Your description is a tad ambiguous, but do you mean Gmaj7, which has the low string sharp by a semitone, rather than the high string flat? It is lovely. I do that on Message in a Bottle, in the “I hope that someone gets my” bit, oscillating between F#m barred on the 9th fret, and Dmaj7

HAL9000

Agree that, from your description, it sounds like a Gmaj7. A Gmaj7 contains G B D & F#.

marxski

Thanks for replies and yes it is Gmaj7 as per Chord Finder. Sounds great!

HAL9000

I’ve seen Robert Cray play minor chords using xx212x (C#m) which is a slightly ambiguous voicing given that x02120 is a common way of playing Amaj7. I assume having the E (rather than A or C#) as the bass note reinforces the ambiguity.

Danny1969

Ah ...sorry I thought you meant  bar an Am but drop the top string a semitone .... my bad

One thing you might gleam from Viz's picture is that it's essentially a Bm over a bass note of G. This is a useful way of thinking about maj7 chords because you can let the bass player play the root and just play a minor chord 2 tones up. 

So play an Am over a bass note of F and you have Fmaj7 for example. Play Em over a bass note of C = Cmaj7 

Cranky

HAL9000 said:

I’ve seen Robert Cray play minor chords using xx212x (C#m) which is a slightly ambiguous voicing given that x02120 is a common way of playing Amaj7. I assume having the E (rather than A or C#) as the bass note reinforces the ambiguity.

I play those chords all the time.  It ties so much together so easily.  The Em (5-4-5) becomes a Cmaj7 or a G so easily, or it readily slides up or down to the next minor, it brings a diminished chord right to the surface, and it’s comfortable.  

It’s also the core of a lot of potential arpeggios.

Greatape

Danny1969 said:

Ah ...sorry I thought you meant  bar an Am but drop the top string a semitone .... my bad

One thing you might gleam from Viz's picture is that it's essentially a Bm over a bass note of G. This is a useful way of thinking about maj7 chords because you can let the bass player play the root and just play a minor chord 2 tones up. 

So play an Am over a bass note of F and you have Fmaj7 for example. Play Em over a bass note of C = Cmaj7 

I wish I could wiz this a million times. 

OP, see also: diminished triads off the third for dom7. 

And then, write out the chord, stacking thirds to get all the you'll note that this yields a bunch of triads you can substitute or superimpose  E.g.: minor triads a tone apart as that classic r'n'b sideslip move, so Gm-Am and back over C7....

Have fun

marxski

Greatape said:

Danny1969 said:

Ah ...sorry I thought you meant  bar an Am but drop the top string a semitone .... my bad

One thing you might gleam from Viz's picture is that it's essentially a Bm over a bass note of G. This is a useful way of thinking about maj7 chords because you can let the bass player play the root and just play a minor chord 2 tones up. 

So play an Am over a bass note of F and you have Fmaj7 for example. Play Em over a bass note of C = Cmaj7 

I wish I could wiz this a million times. 

OP, see also: diminished triads off the third for dom7. 

And then, write out the chord, stacking thirds to get all the you'll note that this yields a bunch of triads you can substitute or superimpose  E.g.: minor triads a tone apart as that classic r'n'b sideslip move, so Gm-Am and back over C7....

Have fun

Thank you!