Chord Of The Week 10/9/16 - A Dadd9add11/F# arpeggio from Zombie by The Cranberries

bigjon

This chord from 'Zombie' by The Cranberries has had a fair bit of discussion on the One-Chord-Progression songs thread at
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/285/one-chord-progression-songs-suitable-for-jams-or-encores/p3

The basic progression is Em C G D/F#, for the last chord in the progression there is a distorted rhythm guitar playing a basic D chord every time, but the various clean(er) guitar overdubs bring a variety of interesting flavours to the underlying D chord.

I'll focus on the chord as it occurs at 1:09 in the official video, where the clean guitar overdub plays an arpeggio descending across open 1st string, 2nd string fret 3, and open 3rd string: open 1st string is an E note, which is the add9 of the underlying D chord; 2nd string fret 3 is a D, the root note, and open 3rd string is a G which would usually be a sus4 (suspended 4th) but the F# 3rd is clearly audible in the distorted rhythm guitar chord so it's not a suspended note, rather an add11 extension to the basic D major chord.

So combining the three-string arpeggio on the top 3 strings, an underlying D major chord on strings 5 and 4 consisting of a root D at fret 5 on string 5 and a third F# at fret 4 on string 4, and an F# bass note taken from the bass guitar part at fret 2 on string 6, we arrive at the combined portmanteau chord

Dadd9add11/F#: 254030

I would use fingers 1, 2 and 3 to play a basic C chord shifted up by two frets, and wrap my thumb over the neck to catch the F# bass note at fret 2 on the 6th string.

The chord can be heard at 1:09 in the video below spread across 3 instruments (bass, distorted guitar, clean guitar) - 

bigjon

Chord Of The Week Index updated with 163 discussions at
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/598/chord-of-the-week-index