Chord Of The Week 20/5/17 - an Am9 from "Pud Wud" by Allan Holdsworth

bigjon

A.K.A. Allan Holdsworth reharmonises Three Blind Mice! :-)
For the 198th and ante-penultimate Chord Of The Week, here's the second of three chords from Pud Wud by Allan Holdsworth, and it's a real finger-stretcher! After the opening chord of Fmaj9no3rd 1x555x (melody note E xxxx5x or "Three") he plays a fairly conventional Am11 chord 5x543x (melody note D xxxx3x or "Blind") but then for the melody note C  xxxx1x or "Mice" he just holds the same chord shape but casually drops his index finger by 2 frets, producing this tendon-buster:

Am9: 5x541x

The characteristic Holdsworth quality of this chord is the minor-second gap between the B xxx4xx 9th degree of the chord and the C xxxx1x minor 3rd. You could play exactly the same notes as x0550x but it just wouldn't be the same! ;-)

You can see Allan playing the chord (with no effort whatsoever!) at 0:15 in this video

bigjon

Chord Of The Week Index updated with 198 discussions at
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/598/chord-of-the-week-index