The opening chord of "A Hard Day's Night"

[pokerfan]

From this morning's Weekend Edition, something I wanted to share with the Loungers...

The jangly opening chord of The Beatles' hit "A Hard Day's Night" is one of the most recognizable in pop music.

Maybe it sounds like nothing more than a guitarist telling his bandmates, "Hey, we're doing a song here, so listen up." But for decades, guitarists have puzzled over exactly how that chord was played.

So a mathematician in Canada looked into how The Beatles produced that sound back in 1964, before the synthesizers and studio electronics available today. Host Scott Simon discusses the findings with the Weekend Edition Math Guy, Stanford professor Keith Devlin.

Read (or listen to) the rest at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98743259">'Hard Day's Night': A Mathematical Mystery Tour

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c4/A_Hard_Day%27s_Night_opening_chord.ogg">Listen to the chord

There's quite a bit more at Wikipedia:

"A Hard Day's Night" is immediately identifiable before the vocals even begin, thanks to George Harrison's unmistakable Rickenbacker 360/12 12-string guitar's "mighty opening chord".<12> According to George Martin, "We knew it would open both the film and the soundtrack LP, so we wanted a particularly strong and effective beginning. The strident guitar chord was the perfect launch"<8> having what Ian MacDonald calls "'a significance in Beatles lore matched only by the concluding E major of "A Day in the Life", the two opening and closing the group's middle period of peak creativity'".<13> "That sound you just associate with those early 1960s Beatles records".<14>

Analysis of the chord has been the subject of considerable debate,<15> with it being described as G7add9sus4,<13> G7sus4,<16><17> or G11sus4<12> and others below.

Read the rest of the wiki entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Hard_Day%27s_Night_(song)#Opening_chord">here.

[pokerfan]

1. kicking for the M-F crowd

Didn't gain any traction over the weekend.

[DarkTirade]

2. It's hard for newbies to do, too.

Slightly weird finger position and you have to barr it. :)

[pokerfan]

3. So I've heard (I don't play)

but I find music theory fascinating.

[dawgmom]

4. I think that's true in general of the Beatles

Some of their stuff is the hardest thing I ever learned as a beginner. Hell, they MAKE UP chords.

[DarkTirade]

5. On the flipside, some of their earlier poppish stuff is GREAT for beginners

because it's all basic chords that they need to learn anyway. :)

[gmoney]

6. It's a shame none of the Beatles or George Martin are still alive to freakin' ASK!

Wait a minute...

[pokerfan]

8. Apparently, no one remembers for sure

That little tidbit was assumed in the NPR story and it really shouldn't have been. There's more here:

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1718612">The "A Hard Day's Night" Chord - Rock's Holy Grail

[begin_within]

12. You gave me a good scare there

with the George Martin thing.

[MilesColtrane]

7. I think you've got to take the bass note into account when naming that chord.

I'd call it a Dm7add11.

I don't hear a B natural there at all, as a fundamental or a harmonic.

[laconicsax]

13. Yeah.

There's no way you can spell that G-B-D-F-A-C and make it sound like the chord played. There's no audible tritone or minor ninth.

Saying it's an F2/D or F(add 9)/D as they negates its function.

[Jamastiene]

9. The Beatles were a great great band full of

great great musicians.

[HEyHEY]

10. It's the opening sound to CBC Vancouver's "Chartsurfer" music feature

[Lethe]

11. some of the Beatle's guitar stuff is hard to figure out because they sped the takes up

for example, they would play a normal Em chord but after recording they would speed it up a bit which would throw the pitch up and alter it from being a "normal" guitar chord that is easily played to one that is almost never heard on a guitar.

From what I remember, they did this a lot.

[tigereye]

18. some of the chords they used are astounding...

and I don't think most of em had much musical training, right? Sometimes folks who don't seem to really reach to find wild chords and combinations...

[PaddyBlueEyes]

14. I know an amazing kid

who can probably play any song, after listening to it once. She's amazing.

[mcctatas]

15. She just started playing this one tonight....

(if it is the same kid we are talking about ;) )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e0EQlQXoEo

[PaddyBlueEyes]

16. Yup

She's incredible...

[Tuesday Afternoon]

17. in search of a lost chord

The Beatles found it :shrug:

King and Queen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7wH9SwM9_g