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Feb 25 challenge chords

Home › Forums › Active Melody Guitar Lessons › Feb 25 challenge chords

  • This topic has 17 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 8 months, 1 week ago by AndréM.
Viewing 10 reply threads
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    • February 13, 2025 at 7:32 am #388180
      Alan L
      Participant

        Here’s what I got, love to hear if anyone got something different !

        G GM7 G6 G7
        C. Cm
        G. D
        G GM7 G6 G7
        C. Cm
        G.
        Em
        Em/Eb
        A7
        Am. D
        G GM7 G6 G7
        C. Cm
        G.

      • February 13, 2025 at 10:03 am #388184
        Andy N
        Participant

          Hi Alan,

          I’m still listening and musing but for the first part that’s close to what I’m hearing. Certainly the line cliche over G at the start there.
          A couple of nuances.
          For the Cm I think I’m hearing an A on the top so I’ve got a Cm6 there.
          For that first D in bar 4 I’m not hearing a straight D. I think it might be a Dsus4 for a beat followed by a D7 before returning to the G.

          The second Part I’m still puzzling over. It sounds like another line cliche. I’m hearing a step down from a Em to an Eb bass note but not convinced it’s a straight Eb chord. Not convinced it’s just a simple move of the Bass note leaving the remainder of the Em either 😬

          I’ve also got another Dsus4->D7 after the last D (after the Am) before going back to the G again

          The Am goes on for ages so not sure if there’s something further going on there or it’s just some melody notes on top.

          • February 13, 2025 at 10:20 am #388186
            Andy N
            Participant

              Just had another listen. The first bit of the Am has a B on top so I think that might be a Am9 or Am add9 or whatever the correct name is for an Am with a B!

            • February 13, 2025 at 11:47 am #388188
              Alan L
              Participant

                Good call on the 6, 9 and sus4. I’m trained as a bass player so I often gloss over chord extensions 🙂 a sus4 especially would be very Lennon…

                In the B section I had Eb (major) at first but the arpeggio Eb-G-B sounded “more right” so I changed it to Em/Eb (as in E minor with Eb in the bass… which is what I think you’re getting at.)

                And I swear I’m hearing the motion E-Eb-C#-C-D… I originally had C#dim7 before the Am but changed that to A7 as the arpeggio C#-G-A sounded “more right” than C#-G-Bb. (Since A7 and C#dim 7 share 3 tones- C#, E, G- they’re pretty close and could be interchangeable depending on dropping that one note.)

                This is fun 🙂

            • February 13, 2025 at 3:10 pm #388193
              Alan L
              Participant

                Oops- should be Em/Eb – G – A7…

              • February 14, 2025 at 6:20 am #388231
                Andy N
                Participant

                  Done some more listening on the Em part and I’m also hearing a G when the bass moves to the D after the Eb/Em thingy. After that, the bass goes down to a C#, the high G stays but I’m not sure what’s going on in the midrange! I’m not hearing an A7. I think there’s a B and/or an Ab in there too but it’s a very dark chord! Maybe some extension of a C#7?

                  I think you’re right though, there’s quite a few options there especially with the arpeggiation of the notes and it probably doesn’t matter wrt to playing over it.
                  Its just my OCD taking over 😂

                • February 15, 2025 at 12:17 pm #388271
                  Martin W
                  Participant

                    Hi , I’m hearing after the Em a G augmented , a G then a G diminished 5 , they all fit the track to my ear . But I’m no expert , what do you think ?

                    Martin

                    • February 15, 2025 at 5:59 pm #388286
                      Alan L
                      Participant

                        Certainly in the ball park! It’s funny …

                        Em/Eb (Eb-G-D) is the same as G aug (G-B-D#).

                        C# dim 7 (C#-E-G-Bb) is the same as G dim 7 (G-Bb-Db-E, or technically Fb).

                        A7 contains a C#dim triad, Eb7 contains a G dim triad.

                        Lots of shared notes and enharmonics that muck up the waters!

                        • February 17, 2025 at 2:44 pm #388430
                          Martin W
                          Participant

                            Hi Alan , thanks for the info , I’ve just had another practice, and yes lots of ways of looking at it with the shared notes .

                            Martin

                        • February 16, 2025 at 3:13 am #388297
                          Andy N
                          Participant

                            I had to lookup G augmented in my Ladybird book of chords!
                            But as Alan says, that does fit the second chord after the Em as an inversion when the bass moves down to the Eb.

                        • February 17, 2025 at 3:57 am #388388
                          Martin W
                          Participant
                            Andy N wrote:

                            I had to lookup G augmented in my Ladybird book of chords!
                            But as Alan says, that does fit the second chord after the Em as an inversion when the bass moves down to the Eb.

                            Hi Andy , basically I looked up chords in the key of G which contained those notes and it kinda fits , but as Alan mentioned there’s other chords that will fit in the same way ,
                            I guess as long as those chord tones are used it’ll sound right , it’s a fun one for sure.

                            Martin

                            • February 17, 2025 at 9:03 pm #388434
                              Michael L
                              Participant

                                I don’t want to overthink it… To me it’s a Em chord with a descending line-cliche of E, Eb, D, Db. You all have basically described that using the chord names created by that moving line. I know Brian has taught about line-cliches before, but I’ve never heard him talk much about chord extensions, so I’m keeping it simple. It seems to sound good.

                            • February 20, 2025 at 11:17 pm #388509
                              JoLa
                              Participant

                                If that’s helpful for anyone, in EP314 right at the beginning Brian uses the same line cliche as the Em cliche discussed here with descending E-Eb-D-Db but in the key of Dm and with the open D string. So if you move it up two frets to the Em chord position and only play the top 3 strings, it works perfectly in the Em part of the track 🙂

                                🎸JoLa

                              • February 22, 2025 at 5:54 pm #388580
                                Robert G G
                                Participant

                                  Thanks Alan,

                                  WAY too much for me. I’ll wait for next month.

                                  Bob

                                  • February 23, 2025 at 10:18 am #388594
                                    Andy N
                                    Participant

                                      Don’t be put off by all this intense chord debating Bob. You could play G major scale over most of this and it’s going to work pretty well. There may be the odd note or two that won’t work so well in couple of places but your ear will tell you that.

                                  • February 28, 2025 at 2:53 pm #388806
                                    cloughie
                                    Participant

                                      How about

                                      G Bm G G7
                                      C F#° G D
                                      Repeat
                                      Em Em D#° D#°
                                      D7 D7 C#° C#°
                                      C C C C
                                      D D Am7 D7

                                      Be kind to yourself (especially when you're trying to play this instrument!)
                                      Brian Clough

                                      “Got a lotta sinful ideas but they seem kinda sensible” Jim Casy the ex-preacher in The Grapes Of Wrath

                                    • March 1, 2025 at 8:59 am #388820
                                      Rich F
                                      Participant

                                        Hi all,

                                        Hope everyone is well.

                                        Just picking up my guitar after a lot of time away (intense non-guitar times in my life at the moment! Family, work, and my new theology course, which is fascinating…)

                                        I have only just seen this challenge in the last 5 minutes… I am clueless on the chord discussions that have just gone on (what’s a G6? ) !

                                        But I am pleased that I quickly settled on the G major pentatonic to play over it! It sounds OK…

                                        I will try to learn all about these chord progressions that you all talk about! 😀

                                      • April 10, 2025 at 11:49 am #390854
                                        AndréM
                                        Participant

                                          Here is my take, to be honest after I found the chords, a few of them I didn’t know the names so I had to do a research.

                                          G – FMAJ7sus2 – C – Am – G times 2

                                          Em – Ebaug add b9 – D6sus – C#dim

                                          Am – G6/11 – Gsus6/9 – Dsus2

                                          AndréM

                                          AndréM

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