So a pal lent me a DVD and this chord comes up. According to the vid its an A9 variant but I can't find a reference for it anywhere. Put it in GP and it tells me it is an Em. Spooky.

http://southamptongraphics.com/a9/a9.html

Hi shaky: hee-hee - I'll mame that chord in one!

But seriously, with chords it is all about context. If we take the C# on the fifth string as the root then, as your link suggests, it is an uncomfortable voicing of C#minor7. However, if there is an unsounded omitted root, why then the chord can be almost anything. For Em it would be a version of this more familiar shape:

E - 3
B - 5
G - 4
D - 5
A - X
E - 0

(Man, it is so easy to type chords that way on a PC; so tedious on an iPad! Get out of bed and go to the computer, Ceri, you slob.)

I guess by sounding the C# on the fifth string it becomes Em6/omit root... though I stand to be corrected.

At first glance A9 is a bit of a stretch, but that B on the third string is the ninth of A (the "supertonic"), and we take it from there.

So this chord's name depends on what it is doing in the context of the rest of the song - which only you can know because you are the one with the DVD.

Cheers - C

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Wow Ceri

Thanks for that... in that case I'm going to call it Bob. Bob is a nice name


PS I feel I know a little more about you - "I'll Name that chord in one"

How is the Ipad going?

Ah, those were the days... sort of.

And you also now know that I sometimes lounge around in bed till midday on a Saturday morning, surfing the net while the Missus watches Saturday Kitchen. Too much information?

Cheers - C

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Saturday Kitchen is worth my licence fee alone, I just wish they would stop making pointless series like Planet Earth and focus on giving us a morning and evening episode of Eastenders everyday.

Why is it that when I make a thread the title has changed by the time I come back to it?

Is it because I can remember name that tune? or was it Mame that tune

I thought "mame that chord" was a very poetic thread title. Please don't change it. It's what made me click on it.

BTW: I enjoyed Saturday Kitchen the week Jo Brand was on. She was taking no prisoners.

Cheers - C

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The way I play it 'mame' is probably right

Mame that chord is something I could be very good at.

F#M 7 add 11
C#m 13 no 5 no 9
A#m 13 -9 no 7 no 11

according to GP

Bob seems a good idea to me.

Gootar.com came up with 4 different names:

C#7sus2 no3
Eb aug5 7th sus4
Abm add4
B add9 6th no5

Where did you find this one?

Are you sure about that E - 7 (maybe E- 8 to my ears, you probably have the tab so I'll shut up now)

Sounds weird

found this http://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/s/stevie_ray_vaughan/lenny_tab.htm

Hi Elix1r: I suspect you have the root in slightly the wrong place. In standard tuning a full voicing for that chord would probably be

E - 8
B - 8
G - 7
D - 6
A - X
E - 6

- which gives us a nice voicing for Bb13. You can adjust those positions by one step if like Stevie you are playing with the guitar tuned down a semi-tone.

Though as far as I can see the tab posted by shaky is the way Stevie actually played it, further up the neck and with more economical chord shapes. The tab incorporates the dropped tuning, obviously.

...Though I happily stand to be corrected on all of that!

Cheers - C

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I would call the chord in the pic shaky posted an Em6 if it were up to me. Some people might insist it's a Em6/C# but you don't know that for sure when it's out of context like that just printed on a page all by itself. Contrary to popular belief guitarists don't have to follow the same conventions as pianists when naming chords because they are not compelled define the bass line of a song. Further, the nature of the instrument means they also do not have to play the notes of a chord in order. Hence the thousands of inversions we use on a daily basis. Trying to name the given chord as some kind of a C# just because it's the lowest pitch played makes no sense to me. As Ceri suggested it could possibly a C# minor seventh but maybe with a diminished fifth? That seems like too much work to me though. I like to put simple names to chords. Em6 would be name enough for me to play it. I'd have to exercise way too many brain cells to try to play a C#m7b5.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

Actually now that I look at it again (sorry to pick on you, Ceri) Ceri's example looks more like a Cmaj7 to me than a C#m7b5.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.