Chord Of The Week 21/12/13 - CHRISTMAS SPECIAL: the I Believe In Father Christmas polychord

bigjon

Here is the most Christmassy chord ever devised, from the beginning of the chorus in Greg Lake's "I Believe In Father Christmas", just before the lyric 'I remember one Christmas morning'.

It is played in a drop-D tuning (the bass E-string is tuned down to D), with the voicing - 

Gsus4add3/D5: 000503

Its main function in the song is as IVsus4 chord in the key of D, resolving 2 beats later to a IV chord, so I've given it the main name Gsus4, realised with the top string fret 3 (a G note, the root note of the G chord) and the 3rd string fret 5 (a C note, the sus4 of the G chord). However the open strings add all sorts of rich harmonic overtones. The 2nd string is a B (the 3rd of the G chord) with anticipates the resolution of the sus4 to the 3rd 2 beats later. The 4th, 5th and 6th strings D, A, and D form a D5 chord which runs through the whole song (reinforced on the timpanis!) as a harmonic bedrock for the song's overall key of D, given it a very Christmas-carol-y modal feel. So I've decided to notate the chord in three sections as Gsus4 - add3 - /D5.

Any other chords which are 'Christmassy' for you?

bigjon

Chord of the week index updated at

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/598/chord-of-the-week-index

dano91

bigjon said:

Any other chords which are 'Christmassy' for you?

G7 is very Christmassy. I had to do a Christmas thing one year and found most songs I played had a G7 in at some point.