Chord Of The Week 16/1/16 - The David Bowie 'Starman' Bbadd#11 chord

bigjon

This week's chord has been requested by @uncledick as a tribute to David Bowie, so we'll take a break from the Twinkle Jazz series for a week to do the mysterious opening chord of 'Starman'. Here's uncledick's original post - 

In light of today's news might I suggest we have the opening chord to Starman.  My music theory is sadly lacking but I think it's Bb#11/A  or X03330.  My son and I did the Bowie/Ronson thing at a friends party last year and it was a moment I'll never forget.

Here's the original track:

Listening through headphones the strongest bass note I can hear is a Bb. I can also hear a low E played on another instrument but I don't think it's part of the guitar chord. Watching the performance video at  frustratingly there's no shot of Bowie playing the chord, but at other points they clearly show him moving E-shape barre-chords around fretting the bass note on the bottom string with his thumb, so I think it's safe to say that the basic voicing of the Bb chord is Bb: 6x876x.

The complexity and mystery of the chord arises because it is combined with the open top E string, which is the b5 (or #11) of the chord and clashes sonically with the F note on the 2nd string. So much so that I think Bowie starts with the chord adjusted to play the E on the second string as well, giving the very first chord as Bbb5: 6x8750 but later in the first bar he shifts his first finger up a fret, so the F note is heard clearly but with the E note still ringing out from the open 1st string against it. Thus to my mind the characteristic 'Starman' chord is

Bbadd#11: 6x8760

As this is the IV chord in the key of F, the #11 E note is characteristic of the Lydian mode, built on the major scale starting on the 4th note, which is the "mode of mystery", therefore very appropriate to the theme of the song!

Thanks for the suggestion uncledick, they're always welcome!

bigjon

Chord Of The Week Index updated with 128 discussions at

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