Chord Of The Week 20/6/15 - the 'Every Breath You Take' chord

bigjonbigjon Frets: 680
We interrupt the Holdsworth chord series because in the discussion on Holdsworth maj9 chords at http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/43094/chord-of-the-week-6-6-15-the-holdsworth-maj9-chord
I refer to the Every Breath You Take chord, but I realise there's no separate discussion for it!

It's an Aadd9, formula root, 3, 5, 9 which in C would be C E G D, or x3203x. Aadd9 in open position would be x02420.

For Every Breath You Take, Andy Summers takes the middle four strings of the open Aadd9 chord and shifts them all down a string, so he can play the whole chord in closed position with muted arpeggios. So the Every Breath You Take chord is
Aadd9: 5796xx
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Comments

  • bigjonbigjon Frets: 680
    Chord Of The Week Index updated with 98 discussions at
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  • mellowsunmellowsun Frets: 2422
    I prefer the open Aadd9 shape as it's moveable all over the neck with the pinky playing the root note on the 6th string.

    Using this shape to play Cadd9 Dadd9 Em9 (bit of a stretch) sounds very nice
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  • Nice topic for discussion Jon. The add9 or "stacked 5th's" chords are great for a different bit of colour in a progression.


    "As with all things, some days you're the dinosaur, some days you're the monkey." Sporky
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  • GuyBodenGuyBoden Frets: 733
    Great chord, and full credit to Andy Summers for a truly classic song. I spent many, many weeks trying to play this as a teenager in the 1980's, it was difficult for me to play back then.

    I've seen him play and explain the progression at a workshop years ago.

    The main verse of the song using these chords is the common a I-vi-IV-V, so it's A-F#m-D-E, like "Standby Me", but in A.

    If you know the scales, I find it easier to think about it as using the 1st, 5th, 9th and 10th notes of scales in A Major harmony.

    A Major (Ionian): A E B C#
    F# Aeolian: F# C# G# A
    D Lydian: D A E F#
    E Mixolydian:E B F# G#

    Great chord  :)
    "Music makes the rules, music is not made from the rules."
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