Chord Of The Week 8/2/14 half-year birthday special - the Hendrix chord

bigjon

6 months ago to the day, on Saturday 8th August, The Fretboard opened and I posted my first Chord Of The Week discussion (on Dminor). To celebrate the half-year birthday of both The Fretboard and Chord Of The Week, here is the Hendrix Chord in it's most famous Purple Haze incarnation - 

E7#9: 07678x

and the Foxy Lady version - 

F#7#9 2 x 4 (3) 5 5

The middle four strings of the Purple Haze version are a moveable shape with the root on the 5th string (a C-shape in the CAGED system), and the Foxy Lady version is a moveable shape with the root on the 6th string (E-shape in the CAGED system).

The formula for the 7#9 Hendrix chord is 1 3 5 7 #9. Hendrix used it as a I chord, but it's also really good as a V chord in jazz or blues, e.g. the extended E7#9 in the key of Aminor at the end of Cold Shot by Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Here are the CAGED shapes for the 7#9 Hendrix chord - 

C7#9: x3234x

A7#9: 542010 (you have to cheat and borrow the bottom two strings from a G-shape to get the 3rd and #9 far enough apart)

G7#9: 32333x (or 3 on the top string, but it doesn't sound as good)

E7#9: 022133

D7#9: x54x31 (you have to cheat and borrow the 5th and 4th strings from a C-shape to get the 3rd and #9 far enough apart)

Happy half-year birthday! Not sure how much longer longer I'll keep doing Chord Of The Week - I may get up to a year, we'll have to see.

bigjon

Chord Of The Week Index updated at http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/598/chord-of-the-week-index

viz

An excellent resource, thank you! Love the foxy lady chord I do.

mike_l

And it fits nicely in Hey Joe as an alternative to a straight E.....

viz

Why can't we call this a flat 10, instead of a sharp 9? It seems to me that the juicy sound is attributable to a major/minor 3rd thang, not that the 2nd is sharpened.

Phil_aka_Pip

viz said:

Why can't we call this a flat 10, instead of a sharp 9? It seems to me that the juicy sound is attributable to a major/minor 3rd thang, not that the 2nd is sharpened.

I think it's because you've already got a maj 3rd in the stack. There would seem to be a rule that you don't have 2 versions of the same interval in a chord, or even 2 notes of the same name in a scale. As in the key of F# you have to call the leading note E# even if it looks like an F.

viz

Absolutely yes and I know that's one of the main reasons given - we've used the 3rd up already so it must be a 2nd - but in this particular case, it's not a diatonic chord and we have both thirds - a clear major 3rd / minor 3rd going on - that's the whole point of the chord isn't it? It's squeezing both 3rds into one chord - imo anyway. I mean it's really not an augmented 2nd is it? One couldn't say that it sounds like the 2nd has been sharpened, could one? To me if anything, it actually sounds more like a minor chord with a cheeky major 3rd in the middle - I'd almost call it an Em7 add#3 or something. Or just E7b10. Check out the first note Jimi sings in purple haze for example - you could be forgiven for saying it's a minor chord! but maybe that's pushing it. I'd be happy enough with E7(b10).