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BTW, if you're a Beatles fan the movie is a pleasure to see. It's mostly musical footage and the joy those guys felt playing their tunes is communicated, you can't miss it.
A lot has been written about that first chord in "Hard Day's Night." What is it? How did they do it? I've read elaborate descriptions with chord grids and diagrams: the bass did this, one guitar did this, the other guitar did something else, and the piano etc. etc. To me the only mystery is: "what's the mystery?" Because if you play this G7sus chord on the guitar, it does the trick.
Whenever I play that chord and ask "what does that remind you of?" anybody who hasn't lived in a cave for decades gets it immediately. Without the 2nd guitar, or bass, or piano. It's that recognizable. So I thought it might be a good thing to talk about suspended chords and what they are and what they do and how they're used. But we have to start with some real basic musical info.
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There are basically three types of chords: major, minor and sevenths. The major chord is made up of three notes: the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the major scale. So a C major chord is C, E and G, the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the C major scale. Major chords have a sunny, complete sound. Play an A major chord, and compare it to an A minor.
Minor chords (like the Am you just played if you're following me here) have a melancholy sound. Minor chords are like major chords but the 3rd is flatted. So Cm is C, Eb and G.
It takes four notes to make a 7th chord: 1, 3, 5 and flatted 7. So C7 is C, E, G and Bb. (B is the 7th note in the C major scale so Bb is the flatted 7th.) Seventh chords are bluesy and have tension in them...they feel like they want to go somewhere. And they do: they want to go up a fourth. When you play a G7, it makes you want to hear a C major chord (C is a fourth above G). An E7 makes you want to hear an A major. Try it on your uke, guitar, banjo, whatever, and you'll feel the tension of the 7th chord and the feeling of resolution when you play the major chord that follows.
In fact, in most popular music, a 7th chord is followed by the chord that's a fourth higher. My wife is a bass player, and if I'm playing a song she doesn't know, I'll use 7th chords as cues: If the song goes from G to C, I'll play a G7 and she hears that and knows the next chord is C. For musicians, this is survival stuff.
There's an exception: the blues. In a lot of blues tunes, there are 7th chords everywhere and they don't necessarily lead up a fourth; they don't resolve. You can even end on a 7th chord. I guess that's because if you resolved everything, you wouldn't have the blues anymore!
WHAT ABOUT THAT G7 SUSPENDED CHORD you may be asking. A suspended chord is like a major chord with the 3rd raised to a 4th. So Csus is C, F and G, or 1, 4 and 5. Like its name, a suspended chord creates a feeling of suspense. It resolves when you play the same chord without the suspension (like going from Dsus to D). Here's an example:
Uke Chords Guitar Chords
And a 7th sus chord, like the G7sus that starts Hard Day's Night, is a 7th chord with the 3rd raised to a 4th: 1, 4, 5, b7. G7sus is G, C, D, F. Seventh sus chords have even more tension than a 7th chord. The 7th and the suspended 4th both make you want to hear a resolution, which could be the same chord (but a major chord, like G7sus to G) or it could be a major chord a 4th higher, like G7sus to C.
Suspended chords and suspended sevenths are all over pop music as well as jazz. Here are some grids for guitar and uke,to get you acquainted with these sounds and shapes:
Uke Chords
Guitar Chords
My commercial announcement: You can get the Beatles books on my website, sokolowmusic.com. The uke one has an optional CD. This youtube video shows how Beatles songs can sound on a uke:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7nCluzqPOE
Hey thanks, Fred. That G7sus does do the trick for A Hard Day's Night.
ReplyDeleteGreat insight and observations. I would point out one common misunderstanding that seems to always surface regarding the way 3rds and 7ths are described. You and many others refer to them as being "flatted" to make minor 3rds and dominant 7ths but this is not always the case technically. For example in the key of G major or any sharp key signature which has the 7th note as a sharp you would lower it a half step to a natural thus not "flatting" it as in making it a flat. I know it's a small issue but have wondered why more people haven't corrected this technical point.
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