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Hard Days Night Secret Cord Found

SaracenusSaracenus 671 Posts
edited October 2008 in Strut Central
Slashdot.org has an article that the secret opening chord by George Harrison for A Hard Days Night has been found a by mathematics professor, Dr. Brown. b, 21b, 21a href="http://idle.slashdot.org/idle/08/10/30/1324215.shtml" target="_blank"1http://idle.slashdot.org/idle/08/10/30/1324215.shtml/a1b,121b,121Unfortunately, the link to the original article has been hit by the a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slashdot_effect" target="_blank"1slashdot effect/a1. The slashdotted site will probably available tomorrow when things calm down.

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  • dmacdmac 472 Posts
    /font1
    Quote:/font1h,121b,121Slashdot.org has an article that the secret opening chord by George Harrison for A Hard Days Night has been found a by mathematics professor, Dr. Brown. b, 21b, 21a href="http://idle.slashdot.org/idle/08/10/30/1324215.shtml" target="_blank"1http://idle.slashdot.org/idle/08/10/30/1324215.shtml/a1b,121b,121Unfortunately, the link to the original article has been hit by the a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slashdot_effect" target="_blank"1slashdot effect/a1. The slashdotted site will probably available tomorrow when things calm down. b, 21b, 21h,121
    font class="post"1b,121b,121With the endless volumes of Beatle scholarship, no one thought to directly ask George Martin about it?
  • breadwinnerbreadwinner 535 Posts
    I don't know about you, but that has always sounded like a piano to me. Didn't know that it was much of a mystery.
  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    OK I just listened. My ears not that great, I have no idea what the cord is. b, 21b, 21Sounds like one guitar with perhaps some extra notes added underneath by a piano or another guitar to make the chord bigger. b, 21b, 21Then they bend the whole chord. If Harrison did the bending then it was done with a whammy bar. If Martin did it then he just put a finger on the tape. b, 21b, 21I just heard the outtro, 12 string electric? Perhaps that's what makes that first chord so big. b, 21b, 21Mostly a major chord with one note flatted. b, 21b, 21I'm sure anyone with good ears could find the chord with the quickness. Is the mystery how they made the whole thing sound so good?b,121b,121John Book?
  • GaryGary 3,982 Posts
    Sure would help if there was a link to audio. I don't remember what the begining of that song sounds like.
  • troublemantroubleman 1,928 Posts
    /font1
    Quote:/font1h,121b,121Sure would help if there was a link to audio. I don't remember what the begining of that song sounds like. b, 21b, 21h,121
    font class="post"1b,121b,121It goes like this:b,121b,121BOOOONNNNGGGGGGGG
  • SaracenusSaracenus 671 Posts
    Having read through the /. commentary evidently this was a paper Dr. Brown wrote in 2004.b, 21b, 21a href="http://www.mscs.dal.ca/~brown/n-oct04-harddayjib.pdf" target="_blank"1http://www.mscs.dal.ca/~brown/n-oct04-harddayjib.pdf/a1b,121b,121More recently he has done a paper on the "solo" in the same song.b, 21b, 21a href="http://www.mscs.dal.ca/~brown/AHDNSoloJIB.pdf" target="_blank"1http://www.mscs.dal.ca/~brown/AHDNSoloJIB.pdf/a1
  • DustedDonDustedDon 830 Posts
    there's got to be a joke here somewhere...
  • The_Hook_UpThe_Hook_Up 8,182 Posts
    my friend and I thought we had it figured out by playing two different chords simultaneously...an F5 thingy and a Fmaj7th at the same time...sounded right to us
  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    Song starts with a big chord from a slightly distorted electric 12 strings, which bends slightly. Then a beat of silence, then the song. b, 21b, 21I just read the article. I can't believe that the chord has been a mystery for years. I know many people with big ears who could find all the notes in minutes. Lots of people can hear a chord, remember the notes they hear and find them on an instrument. b, 21b, 21So the question is what fingering or tuning did he use. According to the article that was the big question. The answer is George Martin doubled the chord with a simultaneous piano chord that introduced an extra note that would be hard (impossible according to the article) for the guitar to play. b, 21b, 21This is hardly surprising. George Martin was known to fix the Beatles vocal pitch by dubbing the correct note from a piano under the offending vocal. Using one instrument under another to make the sound fuller is... music. b, 21b, 21The idea that guitarist have been flummoxed by this for years just doesn't make sense.
  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    /font1
    Quote:/font1h,121b,121/font1Quote:/font1h,121b,121Sure would help if there was a link to audio. I don't remember what the begining of that song sounds like. b, 21b, 21h,121
    font class="post"1b,121b,121It goes like this:b,121b,121BOOOONNNNGGGGGGGG b, 21b, 21h,121font class="post"1b,121b,121Shoot. I wrote a whole long thing for 15 minutes trying to describe what you said in one word.
  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    /font1
    Quote:/font1h,121b,121my friend and I thought we had it figured out by playing two different chords simultaneously...an F5 thingy and a Fmaj7th at the same time...sounded right to us b, 21b, 21h,121
    font class="post"1b,121b,121No doubt it was.
  • johmbolayajohmbolaya 4,472 Posts
    /font1
    Quote:/font1h,121b,121I'm sure anyone with good ears could find the chord with the quickness. Is the mystery how they made the whole thing sound so good?b,121b,121John Book? b, 21b, 21h,121
    font class="post"1b,121b,121I'm sure it was talked about in "Recording The Beatles", and if you listen to early takes of "A Hard Days's Night", the chord was achieved but the actual sound they finally chose would take awhile. I haven't read this article yet but I know people have been going crazy about it on other board.
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