Chords with more than one name.
Polychords (Part Two)
Some chords just sound great as open-string shapes. But, what if you were to change or add different lower notes to those chords? These are called “Polychords”.
Continuing from Part One.
Adding low notes to the A minor chord on the sixth string.
If you play common jazz chords on the guitar, this chord shape below might look familiar.
We will first look at it as an A minor chord with an F added to the bottom of the chord structure (Am/F).
If we switch the intervals of the notes around to make the “F” the root note, we now have the F Major 7 (FΔ7).
It is common in many, many songs for the A minor chord to be used as the “pivot chord” while the bass climbs down from the A to the E:
Am - Am/G - Am/F# - Am/F - Am/E
Another example of this progression can be heard in many songs like, “Babe, I’m gonna leave you”, “25 or 6 to 4”, “Stairway to heaven”, and many more. The common progression for these songs is:
Am - Am/G - D/F# - F - E
Speaking of Am/F#…
This again, is one of those transition chords that needs to be in context for it make sense harmonically in a progression.
If we change the intervals around and make the F# the root note, we have the F#m7b5.
Next we have the Am/G.
If we change the root note to “G”, we have the G69sus. (G6 add 9 suspended 4)
You will hear that particular chord in the chorus of “Dust in the Wind”.
As I said in Part One of this series, any chord can be seen as having more than one name. The more notes you add to a chord, the more names it can have.
In this lesson series, we will continue to look at many of the regular common open-string chords with various added lower bass notes.
Be sure to look for Part Three coming soon. We will take a look at all of the polychords we can make with the open-string “D” chord.
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