What is this chord?

[MandoRock65]

Can anyone name this chord - A E B F# (1st - 4th strings)?

I have used the chord but don't know what it is actually called. It almost seems like A9 maybe? Not sure what difference the F# makes.

Thanks,
Greg

[Jon Hall]

I've never played this as chord, but for fun, I'll take a shot at this. A6add9
Without a G(7th) I wouldn't use it as a 9th, and even if you did, you have the F#(6th) that you have to do something with.

[MandoRock65]

That makes sense. Try playing it and see what you think of the sound. I like tinkering with jazzy sounding stuff and find places to use it. It helps keep it interesting I guess.

[Bob Buckingham]

Ask yourself, what chord is being played by the guitar player when you play that chord? You are stacking your notes on theirs? That may change what it is. We get to add ear candy to what the rhythm section is doing. The "Chord" at the beginning of A Hard Days Night is the result of two different chords on two guitars and the right bass note. Ah the big picture, the context can change so much.

[MandoRock65]

Ah, perspective makes all the difference. Nice. Theoretically it could be used in a certain context labeled as one chord and something else in another.

[UsuallyPickin]

Yeah …. what key a melody is being played in will cause the same configuration of tones to have a different name and different quality. The question though is always the same..... does it work where I am trying to use it. Try this … Take the four tones and write them out by their letter names, A E B F# - E B F# A - etc and see what chords you have by key. Then of course everything changes again when you drop the root. Jazz go figure...…. Play on! R/

[Phil Goodson]

Is this the same chord we see written A6/9 ? I don't use it, but I see it on sheet music.

[Tom Wright]

Is this the same chord we see written A6/9 ? I don't use it, but I see it on sheet music.

For A6/9 I would use 6-4-2-0, or 2-4-2-0 if no one is playing the root.

Many chords exist that are not the conveniently-named chords. The named chords are shorthand instead of having to write all the notes out. For example, in a Pat Metheny tune, he plays a chordal figure in the opening vamp, which would be in D minor, but better to spell it out than use chord names to write x-5-3-1 followed by x-7-5-3. Actually one octave below that, for the tune Question and Answer. The Real Book uses E-/A for the second chord, which does not really do the job. (I play 7-5-3-x-x to 9-7-5-x-x on the 10-string.)

There are chords that are intentionally ambiguous, like the stacked 4ths in the example. Those can be moved all around for a rich “harmonizing” effect that actually avoids choosing a harmony. Another cool and coy chord is x-5-4-2. Above an A root it is A13. But move it up one fret and it is E7#9, or down one fret for D7#9. It is a handy “jazz noise” (quoting Frank Zappa). Many jazz chords have this indeterminate nature, and allow improvising in multiple harmonic directions.

[DavidKOS]

Good points all.

One other thing - this is a "modern" chord built in 5ths, which is easy to analyze using the method in Hindemith's "Craft of Musical Composition", but in terms of the older system of functional harmony it is a very hard chord to pin down.

Chords built out of stacked 4ths or 5ths do not fall into a simple classification. Also, in many modern contexts they are stable sonorities and not suspended chords in need of resolution, like the Bartok string quartets.

The pitches A, E, B and F# could also be:

E F# A B: E sus2 sus4 ( ? ! )

B E F# A : B7 sus4

A B E F# : A 6 sus2

and so on, none of which are "typical" chords.

And for fun, compare with the inversion

F# B E A, played on frets 11 - 9 - 7 - 5 and see how the same chord sounds in 4ths.

[David L]

Depending upon context, the simplest would be B7sus or B7sus4.

[Carl23]

the interesting thing about this chord is that it is comprised of a set of 5ths, a whole step apart.
In isolation this is extremely ambiguous, but in the context of the chords on other sides, you could make it sound like any of the notes as the root.

A - C# - E (A - E as the stable 5th) B goes to C# (or C) to make the 3rd, F# could be a 6th, or passing tone to the 7th (or even octave?)

E - G# - B (E - B as the stable 5th) F# to G or G#, A as 6th / 7th (maybe resolve down to the 5th?)

B - D# - F# (B - F# as 5th) A as 7th, E down to D#, which would imply that the A should move up to the B

F# - A# - C# (ok, more of a stretch here..) A as the minor 3rd, B could lead to C# E as the 7th.

So... take you pick. :-)

If I could play these out, I would listen to see how they wanted to "resolve" which would be a big tell for me. Again, the chord before it would strongly influence what your ear would want as the 3rd chord.

Once all that is worked out... name it as you best see fit. (which you could do before this whole process)

;-)

Carl

PS: as David was saying, with modern "harmony" many interpretations are possible. Another one would be that one of the 5ths is the central root "chord" and the other 5th is just "color tones". a strong argument for this is that they are parallel at the 2nd.

[MandoRock65]

"F# B E A, played on frets 11 - 9 - 7 - 5 and see how the same chord sounds in 4ths."

Exactly what I have been playing. Great suggestions on the names. I'll apply if necessary dependent on the root and context.

[Carl23]

Please post video/audio of the progression and what you decide to call it.

:-)