Struggling to transpose a chord

lincolnblue

I am trying to transpose a song from C into A. It's all fine, except I've got one chord in there which I can't work out what it'd be in A.

In C it is a walk down from Am, Am/G then this chord which is as follows:


It's a lovely chord but when playing in A I have no idea how to transpose it as my theory isn't good enough.

Anyone able to help?

viz

That chord is better stated as a D9 in 1st inversion, rather than the F#m7 (b5 b13) as written in your pic. Being a 1st inversion, it has its major 3rd (F#) at the bottom of the chord, and the 1st, 5th, 7th and 9th (D, A, C, E) stacked above it.

So what you're needing to play is a B9 in 1st inversion, which would be xx1222.

It's a shame your original chord uses the 2nd fret on the low E string, and you're transposing down 3 frets, so you run out of road on the fretboard and therefore that lovely descending bass line is lost when you switch up an octave. If you're not too bothered about the chord being in 1st inversion then you can always simply do x21222, which gives you some bass sound at least, but you still don't get that profound descending bass line.

Alternatively I guess you could play the three chords up an octave to give you the runway to complete the descending bass line, so your F#m, E, B(1st) would be xx4222, xx2100, xx1333, but that's much less weighty and gorgeous.

I'd go for a standard B9: x21222

lincolnblue

viz said:

That chord is better stated as a D9 in 1st inversion, rather than the F#m7 (b5 b13) as written in your pic. Being a 1st inversion, it has the F# at the bottom of the chord, and the rest of the notes stacked above it.

So what you're needing to play is a B9 in 1st inversion, which I'd do as xx1222 probably.

It's a shame your original chord uses the 2nd fret on the low E string, and you're transposing down 3 frets, so you run out of road on the fretboard and therefore that lovely descending bass line is lost when you switch up an octave. If you're not too bothered about the chord being in 1st inversion then you can always simply do x21222, which gives you some bass sound at least, but you still don't get that profound descending bass line.

Alternatively I guess you could play the three chords up an octave to give you the runway to complete the descending bass line, so your F#m, E, B(1st) would be xx4222, xx2100, xx1333.

Thanks. That's really helpful. 
Have considered I could use capo on 2nd fret and play it like this x24252 or x02030 (if 0 is the capo fret). Sounds right but not sure if it technically is?

Tannin

Hi @lincolnblue It's a tricky one as you are not going to be able to continue that walk-down in the bass.

In Am, you are playing

* Am
* Am/G (the 3rd inversion of A minor, which has the 7th (G) in the bass
* D9/F#  (1st inversion of D9). Let's look at that one more carefully. 

* The bass note is F#, the 3rd note in D major
* The 5th string is silent as written, you could theoretically play it (because A is the 5th of D) but in this case it might sound muddy and is better left out.
* D on the 4th string is the root
* A on the 3rd string is the 5th
* C on the 2nd string is the dominant 7th
* E on the first string is the 2nd note in D major, but because the 7th is present, we call it the 9th. 

Three semitones down from D9/F# is B9/D#. Theoretically that's the chord you want - but you are not going to get it in any practical way as you've run out of space on the fretboard and can't play a D# (or Eb) on the 6th string. 

We can simplify things by playing some other version of B - a B7, a Badd2 (=B9 without the 7), or just a plain B major - but we can't continue the run down to Eb unless we start tinkering with drop tunings or move the whole thing up an octave. 

You could substitute a 2nd inversion B for the 1st inversion one (play a B/F# or B9/F#) but when I tried it just now it sounds naff - the whole point of that tune seems to me to be the bass run and it doesn't really work when we go G -> F# -> F# (again). At least not without some fresh invention to make that doubled note work.

Anyway, you are looking for a B of some kind. Good luck!

viz

wot he said too

Tannin

@Viz types a lot faster than I do!

viz

lincolnblue said:

Have considered I could use capo on 2nd fret and play it like this x24252 or x02030 (if 0 is the capo fret). Sounds right but not sure if it technically is?

Yep that'd be a B7 sus4 which is fine, but I'd go for the B9 chord because it's closer to the original and more cool, plus the fact that the second chord in the sequence (the E) is worse with the capo. 

lincolnblue

Thanks all - really helpful!

viz

Another thought occurs, and this may not work for you, but you could also transpose this to Bb, so your chords are Gm, F, C9/E, which is 032333 and sounds very nice.