Chord Of The Week 29/4/17 - an Amaj9add13/E from "Metal Fatigue" by Allan Holdsworth

bigjonbigjon Frets: 680
Holdsworth tribute part 2 - following Allan Holdsworth's death on 16/4/17, last week I did the A5add9add13(/E) chord which opens the track "Metal Fatigue", the chord being a portmanteau result of an A5 power chord x022xx harmonised a tone up and a fourth below. For the verse of the same song, Allan switches the harmoniser to a fourth above and on the upbeat to the first bar plays an E/B chord 19 x 18 x 17 19, which you can see in the video at the bottom of this post. The harmoniser superimposes an A/E chord 24 x 23 x 22 24, and the bass guitar is playing an E at the pitch 12 x x x x x on the guitar. Putting all these notes together starting at the bottom we get
E: 12 x x x x x - the 5th of A / the root of E
B: 19 x x x x x - the 9th of A / the 5th of E (omitted from my single-guitar version)
E: 24 x x x x x  - the 5th of A / the root of E (omitted from my single-guitar version)
G#: x x 18 x x x - the maj7th of A / the 3rd of E
C#: x x 23 x x x - the 3rd of A / the 13th of E
E: x x x x 17 x - the 5th of A / the root of E (omitted from my single-guitar version)
A: x x x x 22 x - the root of A / the 11th of E
B: x x x x x 19 - the 9th of A / the 5th of E
E: x x x x x 24 - the 5th of A / the root of E

You can see that the note E occurs three times on the guitar plus once on the bass, which gives a very strong melodic emphasis to that note, leading in to a D as the melody note of the first beat of the first bar of the verse. I think however the underlying harmony remains an A chord, (the I chord of the tune as a whole) leading in to the D chord (the IV chord) with which the verse starts. Also the A note is difficult to fit logically into an E major chord (the chord would be E6add11) so I prefer to interpret it as an A major chord Amaj9add13/E.

To arrange the chord onto one unharmonised guitar I have sacrificed the middle two of the four E notes and the lower of the two B notes. I have also transposed the top 5 strings down 12 frets / one octave as I do not possess a 26-fret guitar! To play the notes at pitch I have to use a harmonic 12 frets above the fretted note, the only way I can achieve this in practice is to hold the plectrum between thumb and middle finger and strum down lightly touching the top five strings with the tip of my index finger at about the 24th fret. I have notated the harmonic point for each string in square brackets after the note, so the overall chord is

Amaj9add13/E: 12 11[23] 11[23] 14[26] 12[24] 12[24]

You can see Allan shape the chord in its harmonised version at 52:38 in this video

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