Chord Of The Week 5/12/15 - The Cult 'Edie' Cmaj7 chord

Next up in this series of cool chords in songs by unfashionable bands - picked on a 12-string acoustic in the original, this is just a basic open-position Cmaj7 chord played as a picked arpeggio with the notes of the chord in sequence low to high, C E G B on strings 5 4 3 2.
Cmaj7: x3200x
Why does it sound so great? Two reasons I think - (1) because the song is in the key of Am, the relative minor of this C major chord, so my brain supplies a memory of an A bass note when I hear the chord, which gives it an Am9 flavour as though the chord was actually 53200x, and (2) because the last 2 notes G and B xxx00x are also part of the subsequent chord in the sequence G/B x2000x so there is an impression of a dialogue between strings 5&4 and strings 3&2 with strings 3&2 moving to the next chord a beat ahead of strings 5&4. All this in a sequence of basic grade1-or-less picked arpeggios using simple open chord shapes!

You can see Billy Duffy playing this chord at 0:10 here -

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Comments

  • bigjonbigjon Frets: 680
    Chord Of The Week Index Updated with 122 discussions at
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  • vizviz Frets: 10647
    One of the best Cult songs!
    Roland said: Scales are primarily a tool for categorising knowledge, not a rule for what can or cannot be played.
    Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
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  • ModellistaModellista Frets: 2039
    edited December 2015
    First of all, thanks @bigjon for these series of cool chords.  I’ve recently found myself commenting on every one of these posts, for two reasons - (1) they’re great songs by great (definitely not uncool in my estimation!) bands, and (2) because my pedantry always finds something to clarify in the comments!

    (1)  I’d take issue with the assertion that the “subsequent chord in the sequence” is G/B x2000x.  It’s definitely G major with G in the bass, picked as 3x000x.  In the video you can see his 3rd finger move to the E string to fret the G.  

    (2)  He’s tuned to Eb.  This doesn’t affect the chord charts but technically all the chords are flattened so it’s Abm9, Cbmaj, Gb.  Etc.  This links this song/band to last week’s entry from Extreme, who consistently tuned down to Eb.  I believe Nuno got this habit from Eddie Van Halen who he strongly admired, and a quick view of some of VH’s videos confirms that in most cases (Jump excepted where they tuned to concert C, presumably for the benefit of the keyboards) they did indeed tune down to Eb.  On a personal note I also tune down to Eb for the benefit of my voice, although in Extreme’s case they had a vocalist who was more than capable of hitting the high notes so I presume it was more a tribute to VH than for any practical reason.  I believe Nuno claimed he preferred the heavier sound and looser feel of detuned strings, and I would agree.
    Wow, so much to type about!  I look forward to the next instalment!

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