What's the opening chord in "Hard Day's Night"?

[Lithos]

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/02/whats-the-opening-chord-in-hard-days-night.html

It's sometimes called "the most famous chord in rock n' roll." I have wondered about this question for thirty-four years (all this time I'd been thinking it is an odd hybrid G7/9/13). Here is a history of thought on the controversy, including a list of nominated chords. It now turns out there is an answer. A mathematician applied Fourier transforms to break the sound into its constituent parts. Here's the bottom line:

The Beatles producer added a piano chord that included an F note, impossible to play with the other notes on the guitar. The resulting chord was completely different than anything found in songbooks and scores for the song, which is one reason why Dr. Brown’s findings garnered international attention. He laughs that he may be the only mathematician ever to be published in Guitar Player magazine.

Here is a pdf of the researcher's findings. I thank Eric H. for the pointer.

.. more ..

Fourier Analysis and the Beatles... right on so many levels :thumbsup:

[Wickerman]

1. Very nice, Lithos

excellent reading.

“Music and math are not really that far apart,” he says. “They’ve found that children that listen to music do better at math, because math and music both use the brain in similar ways. The best music is analytical and pattern-filled and mathematics has a lot of aesthetics to it. They complement each other well.”

[JDPriestly]

4. Absolutely true. Music and math.

And, please note, the abilities involved in visual arts are very different from those used in music. Music is linear, but it takes place in space and challenges the mind's ability to delineate in the abstract. Music really exercises the thinking. Of course, by music, I mean performing or making music, not just listening passively to music.

[paulsby]

12. music and math ARE related

i agree.

read godel, escher, and bach for the definitive work tying the two together.

music is also kind of similar ot computer programs (composing).

there is a fair amount of recursiveness and expansion on theme, just like there are loops in programs and global variables

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. Fascinating... being a guitarist

I couldn't ever figure out how they hell they got that sound.
Even playing it on a twelve sting it didn't sound right.
I never heard the piano in that chord.

The beatles were truly geniuses if it took 40 years to figure this out
and I've been working like a dog.

[immoderate]

5. I saw this somewhere...

The way to play the chord on the guitar is 1-0-0-0-0-1. Not by my guitar now, but it sounded close.

--imm

[MichaelHarris]

3. K&R

just because it's such a cool story. Now go find out that first lick in Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone"

[Orsino]

6. Fab Fourier!

This is cool.

[slay]

7. Very interesting

And coool. Math and music - the language of the universe. :)

[catzies]

8. This was a cool story on NPR in December

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98743259

Weekend Edition Saturday, December 27, 2008 - 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.

"Sounds themselves are very mathematical things," Devlin says. "And that was the key to unraveling this particular mystery of this sound."

Using sound-wave analysis based on the 1820s work of French scientist Joseph Fourier, Dalhousie University's Jason Brown deconstructed the opening chord with the help of basic audio-editing software. Brown found that it isn't purely guitar and bass, as previously assumed; he theorizes that Beatles producer George Martin played a five-note chord on the piano as well.

Brown isn't done with his musical sleuthing, either. Devlin says that Brown is now using Fourier-based analysis to determine who wrote certain Beatles songs whose true authorship is in dispute, such as "In My Life."

[tinrobot]

9. He could have just asked George Harrison...

In fact, someone did ask that question (when George was still alive):

(from Wikipedia)

The exact chord is an Fadd9 confirmed by Harrison during an online chat on 15 February 2001:<18>

Q: Mr Harrison, what is the opening chord you used for "A Hard Day's Night"?
A: It is F with a G on top, but you'll have to ask Paul about the bass note to get the proper story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Hard_Day's_Night_(song)

The chord:
http://www.8notes.com/guitar_chord_chart/Fadd9.asp

[rug]

10. This thread needs the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84Gl3i6qAYo&feature=related

[Jim__]

11. Thank you.

I'm reading through the thread and I can sort of remember the chord; but I really want to hear it.