In terms of chord structure I mean..
like along the lines of Gm13-7+5 ... or whatever

(The song title and the chord name?)

x



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2006-12-05 21:05 by Beelyboy.

Maybe Thru and Thru, I don't know for sure though

Taylors stuff on 'Can't you hear me knocking'...??? maybe...God Knows...

2 1 2 0

Come On Wrote:
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> Taylors stuff on 'Can't you hear me
> knocking'...??? maybe...God Knows...


Not a bad choice--Love In Vain has some fairly atypical chords
and I suspect Gram Parsons might be a reason for that.

Although I don't know it, Moonlight Mile always sounded kind of esoteric
as well.

Thru and Thru seems like a good suggestion too.

All About You

I find stones music to be highly sophisticated, within a very simple format.

Keith is a master of triads, inversions, etc. Complexity comes not from one single chord "rich" of embellishments, but from the context, from every single musician in the band adding its own cent.

There is always something new, a little detail, something added, and nothing is casual. I am truly convinced that they might not have been the most technically skilled performers on earth, but for sure they were (are) amazing musicians!

Having said that, for sure it was not only 7th and sus

I don't have a guitar with me, so don't ask chord names or fingerings, but if I remember well there was some tricky stuff on the bridge of Rocks Off. Also let it loose.

Also, Hopkins and Preston added some sophistication. Melody has some passages that are simply great.

Keith solo stuff has some great stuff too. Go and check Make no mistake.

Then there is that all time masterpiece that is Place is empty.

Oddly enough, I can't remember anything unusually sophisticated from Taylor in the chord section. Knocking is a simple arpeggio. But he did stretch quite far away from the usual pentatonic minor box when he chose notes for his solos.

C

melody or let it loose or comin' down again?

he takes me so long to find that it was a Bb in Ruby Tuesday.

Monkey Man comes to mind.

That chord progression in Let it Loose is bad to the bone!!!!!

Coming Down Again

curtisdavis Wrote:
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> That chord progression in Let it Loose is bad to
> the bone!!!!!


It's easy to play those chords, but it's hard to come up with them. What's the name of that 2nd chord.....? Two fingers, but a very uncommon tone.

Midnight rambler is simple yet complex, riffin on two strings and sometimes three or even four. Same goes for Gimmie Shelter, studio version. Wuite difficult actually.

Not a bad choice--Love In Vain has some fairly atypical chords
and I suspect Gram Parsons might be a reason for that.

Really Glass Slide? Which ones? All the chords are major save for one Eminor chord. Monkey Man makes use of 2nd, minor and major 7th chords and Midnight Rambler is all major and 7th chords but there is nothing too complex about that, at least to me.

Based on soome of the responses I think perhaps there is some confusion between a complex chord and complex phrasing.

True. THere's not much complex chords in Monkey Man, Midnight Rambler or Love In Vain.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-11-16 23:39 by Erik_Snow.

Yes, if we're talking about complex lead passages, etc., we're not really talking about chords.

From the top of my head, I'd say Rocks Off has some weird stuff, especially in the bridge part (where there's phaser on the vocals).

But a complex chord doesn't make a complex song, even less of a *good* song (although they can, of course).

The Stones are not really a band for "complex" chords. They do some interesting things....I think part of the genius of the Stones guitarists, especially Keith, is to continually create something new and fresh from very basic blues and rock guitar styles. I'm not going to say the Stones have never played anything that would count as a "complex" chord, but that's definately not their calling card. In my opinion, if you want to find some complex chords, check out Jimmy Page (or a thousand other guitarists for that matter).

most Stones tunes are relatively simple to play w/o complexity. Honky Tonk Women in Open G tuning was the hardest one for me to learn when I started playing at the age of 13.

Erik_Snow Wrote:
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> curtisdavis Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > That chord progression in Let it Loose is bad
> to
> > the bone!!!!!
>
>
> It's easy to play those chords, but it's hard to
> come up with them. What's the name of that 2nd
> chord.....? Two fingers, but a very uncommon tone.

an F7 with the 7th on the bottom, also referred to as F/D#

what I like about the Stones' chords is that while they're simple, the 2 guitars/bass interplay creates some exciting harmonies... same as with Jimmy Page, really. His stuff is pretty simple too, the exotic tunings he uses provide him with strange chord voicings that aren't that hard to finger ...
With the overdubs he goes into even wilder places, so it really pisses me off when people put him down as a blues copy cat.
But back to the Stones, I think Memory Motel, the Keef vox part has a nice chord structure, nothing complicated there, F, C & B-flat, but it's use of different root notes makes it interesting.
Also even with the blues roots they have, their chord progressions aren't always the most obvious ones.

Erik_Snow Wrote:
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> True. THere's not much complex chords in Monkey
> Man, Midnight Rambler or Love In Vain.


No, its easy for me to play, I love those songs, but they are simple and demand a good ear. One finger on the wrong position and it doesnt sound right. Very simple yet complex. A lot of changes, one note here and there etc.

I think this is very cool thread.
It's brought into focus the fact that the Stones's [and Keith's in particular] use of chords is actually very sophisticated. Many of the comments above are examples of this.
A very good point made above is that whilst most of it is a doddle to play...it's not so easy to write it !
Keith is a very instinctive player, not at all mechanical. He works with sounds and is able to hear what he's playing without the mechanics getting in the way.[This is also accounts for some of the screw ups that folks moan about. He doesn't follow the old cliched rules...just plays with the sounds and goes where it feels right. ]

A thing that always used to amuse me was the way that much Stones sheet music, transcribed by folks with no Rock N Roll or blues background, would give totally inappropriate chord changes... and totally confuse some poor sod trying to play it ;^).
There's a lot of ambiguous two note stuff that sort of hints at one chord or another...and they always get it wrong ;^)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-11-17 11:05 by Spud.

Complex is a starnge word because like Liddas says, in music "complex" arises only through context. I mean you can never say that the note Bb alone is "complex" but in the context of a tsraight E chord it could appear as such.

"...no longer shall you trudge 'cross my peaceful mind."

Let It Loose is open chords (standard tuning) capoed at the third fret. Chords are:

D

D11/C A string 3rd fret, D string 4th fret, G string open & 2nd fret (hammer on)

G

D11/F# 6th string 2nd fret, other strings open

A

A/G 6th string 3rd fret other strings 2nd fret

It's just a matter of making those chords and picking the strings in correct order.

The chorus of If You Can't Rock Me (you lovely ladies...) can be tricky to play right. How Can I Stop has some great chords, the second chord of let it Loose is simple but effective, the chords at the end if intro of Rocks Off are great, the out of tune intro of All Down the Line is awesome, the riffing at the end of Monkey Man is simple to play, but it must be one of the greatest riffs keith ever wrote. And we can go on...

Mathijs

As far as weird chords go I always assumed that they mostly used majors and minors with a 7 thrown in sometimes. When I read the Bridges To Babylon chord book there's some chords called Emaj7 and something along those lines.

JumpingKentFlash

Lot of Keiths songs have chord progressions departing form the usual I-IV-V: Dandelion, Wild Horses, All About You, Make no Mistake, and Thief in the Night, with its sinuously progressing chords that give it moorish overtones in my ears.

I guess it's mostly Keith who comes up with the most interesting progressions because he's primarily an instrumentalist, as opposed to jagger the vocalist/melodist.

----------------------------
"Music is the frozen tapioca in the ice chest of history."

"Shit!... No shit, awright!"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-11-20 15:37 by Greg.

Keith knows he doesn't need complex chord formations. Really... I don't even think he's intrested in them. If you're a good guitar player, you don't need a Gm13-7+5 or whatever...

Rutger Wrote:
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> Keith knows he doesn't need complex chord
> formations. Really... I don't even think he's
> intrested in them. If you're a good guitar player,
> you don't need a Gm13-7+5 or whatever...


Agreed. "If you can't do it with 3 chords, you're certainly not gonna do it with 4".

JumpingKentFlash

Thing is just about any guitarrist uses chords called all kinds of numbers. That is really secondary IMO. What matters is how it sounds to your ear. Anybody makes up their own chords. It's these books that need to come up with a way to describe in figures what might amount to a really simple figure in fingers. E.g you hit the guitar with all strings open in between two chords. Now that's no big deal; everyone does that at times. But then someone else tries to write about it and it turns into A 11.
But as far as Maj 7 chords go - those are some very common, very "pretty" chords. Not to be mixed up with a 7th or a minor 7th. A maj7 adds the note a half step below the root note. A 7th a whole step. A Minor 7th the same but it has the minor 3rd So in the key of C that is:
C major is C - E - G
C minor is C - Eb - G
C7 is C - E - G - Bb
Cminor7 is C - Eb - G - Bb
C maj7 is C - E - G - B

"...no longer shall you trudge 'cross my peaceful mind."