Theory Question - What's this chord?

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DaveO

DaveO

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A friend asked me to accompany her on guitar for a recital she's doing. She gave me the sheet music and there's one chord that looks strange to me - AmM7. Is that an A minor with a major 7th thrown in.

If this helps it's part of this progression: Am - AmM7 - Am7. So what I'm thinking is that key to this part of the song is that you're basically playing an Am over those three chords but the bass note could be going from A (in Am) to G# (in this strange chord) to G (in the Am7). She has a tape but I haven't heard it yet, so I don't know what it's supposed to sound like.

So who's up on their theory?

Thanks!

Dave O.
 
Why don't you post the tablature or the actual notes of the chord.
 
Don't have it. It's a violin piece (well, fiddle actually) and all that's written in are the chord progressions. Right now you know what I know, doc. Sorry.


EDIT:
Actually, the only note the violin plays in the mesaure with this chord is an E. It's in 3/4, first note is a dotted 1/4 note, then an 1/8 rest, then the 3 is a triplet of all E's. Maybe this will be easier to see what it is :

1 & 2 & 3 trip let
E. E E E E
 
In piano land, the A would stay in the bass, and the high note, or one of the inside notes, would move from A to G# to G. The progression you're describing, with the moving bass, would be notated Am - Am(maj7)/G# - Am7/G. Or Am Am/G# Am/G.

It's a pretty standard progression - I bet it will sound familiar when you hear it.

Daf
 
Just thinking - it would probably work on an open Am with the moving note on the G string.

Daf
 
Hey, cool. I had a doc and duc reply. :D

I edited my second post before I saw all the extra replies guys.

Crazydoc, i had to read the page you suggested a few times before I saw what I think you intended me to see, the part that says "(note: BbM7 means use major 7. If the 'M' is not present, it is understood to be a dominant chord.)"

Dafduc, that's exactly how I was playing it and yes, it sounds like it makes sense. I've just never seen that notation before and had guessed at it. And you're right, notating it as Am - Am/G# - Am7 would have been a lot more familiar. Sounds like I was on the right path though.

Thanks guys!
 
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It is an extremely common passing cliché. In fact, that cliché (along with a couple of others) are a significant part of the curriculum for one of the semesters of the guitar private lessons.

Basically, you would need to have two roots in your chord, and you drop the higher one for each change, so if you are playing a standard first position A minor, you would drop the third string from the second fret to the first fret, and then from the first fret to the open string. For fiddle backup, you would probably want to use the fifth fret barre version of the chord.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Yaeh, my guitar teacher many years ago referred to it as "the thing going down," which nane had some grotesque connotations so I don't call it anything. I wonder if it has a name; it's so common it should.

It often goes down for four note: Am - AmM7 - Am7- Am6. That last chord is probably more commonly considered a D9 and is functioning that way.

One example I can think of right off the top of my head is "Georgia On My Mind." In the bridge, during the lines "still in peaceful dreams I see..." Actually it could work over most of the bridge as well, over "other arms reach out to me," and "other eyes smile tenderly."

It also occurs frequently in part or whole in montunu figures in Latin music. Play it with a Latin feel, two chords to a measure, or better yet just the descending notes and the static minor third of the chord, and you'll hear what I mean.
 
It's actually the intro to 'Stairway to Heaven' with the second chord having the 9 (B) on top.
 
Guitar chords! Great site!

I fumble around trying to find chords that sound good but are not difficult for me to play. I almost never, never play a 6 string. Always a acoustic 12. Jumbo body at that. My longest finger is just shy of 3 inches. Very small hands.

Here is a site I found a few months ago that has helped me find lots of useful chords that were easy to play.

Enjoy it.

http://www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/guitar/index_db.html

:D

D
 
Re: Chords

awesome Dyson.

Looks cool!
 
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Warning: Useless Beatles trivia just ahead....

Paul wrote "Michelle" off this very progression. On acoustic, it's in Fm I believe but probably capoed to where you play that familiar Am progression.

The question appeared when it was time for him to overdub his bass line. He didn't want to just do F--E--Eb---D kind of thing. So, he actually started on the fifth - playing a C instead of an F. Then he did an E-to-F thing before falling down an actave and then ending back on a C (with the C chord).... Just a minor, if interesting, choice he made there.

Fab
 
Re: Re: Chords

stonepiano said:
awesome Dyson.

Looks cool!
Click to expand...

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Thank You, Thank You, Thank You Stonepiano.
And My brother thanks you,
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This is really a great site. I have another one too if someone can't find what they need here.

D
 
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