Paul McCartney is inviting fans to work out the “wacky chord” that inspired his new solo album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane – and it's sparked a hearty debate online.
The nostalgic album is Macca's first in six years, and was written and recorded with mega-producer Andrew Watt. As the legendary Beatle reveals via Instagram, their very first session together proved fruitful and set the tone for the entire record.
“I’ve got a little story about a chord you might like,” he says, acoustic guitar in his lap. “I was due to meet Andrew Watt for the first time at his studio in LA. I went down there, and we had a cup of tea.
“I was chatting and talking about music, and I said, ‘Sometimes I like to start the idea for a song with a wacky chord – a chord I don’t know. Sometimes that inspires me and gets me into a song.’ So, he lent me a guitar, and I played the wacky chord.”
The chord, which stacks C, Eb, and B on top of a lower D note, opens the album on As You Lie There. That mystery chord then runs into the rest of the progression, that high B descending to an A (all other notes the same) and then a G top note on a G chord (G/D). It is certainly colorful, with the complex voicing evoking the Beatles at their most harmonically vibrant.
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“But what is it?” McCartney asks his fans. “Do you know the wacky chord?”
It has got fans hotly debating to define the chord. Some argue it's a Cmmaj7/D. Others are convinced it is a D13b9, since the D note root is anchored in place and ultimately resolves on that G note; it has a D-like feel.
Guitar World's Senior Music Editor Jimmy Brown agrees with the latter, identifying the mystery chord as a D13b9(no3). That's then followed by a D7b9(no3) and a G/D to complete the three-chord progression. For music theory fans, perhaps a spicy variation of a perfect cadence, V-I in the key of G (ie D7-G).
On the flipside, Jason Sidwell, Guitar World's Tuition Editor, is in the former camp, naming the chord as Cmmaj7/D(no5). Likewise, that second chord is identified as Cm6/D(no5), with the progression finalised by G/D (Jimmy and Jason can agree on that!). The thinking being, the low D note throughout the progression provides a pedal tone that is referenced by the slash chords (ie chord name then the letter after the slash is the low note: Cmmaj7 no 5th chord on top of a low D note).
For variations to Paul's creative chord approach using an open D string, check out the intro to Extreme's Hole Hearted and the chord riff in Wishbone Ash's Blowin' Free.
The joy of a chord (or chords) like this is the implication of the melodic minor scale (R-2-b3-4-5-6-7) and its related modes. Certainly, it has formed the harmonic foundations of many jazz classics such as My Funny Valentine, Autumn Leaves and Nature Boy. But it's not exclusively the domain of jazz as many classic songwriters have dipped into the melodic minor, be they The Beatles (Yesterday), Stevie Wonder (They Won't Go Where I Go) or Burt Bacharach (The Look Of Love or his collaboration with Elvis Costello on This House Is Empty Now).
Of course, the song most likely chosen by guitarists would be Pink Floyd's Us and Them and its wonderfully moody Dmmaj7 chord.
In relation to Paul's first chord of As You Lie There, the C melodic minor (C-D-Eb-F-G-A-B) - or a mode derived from it - is the choice because the chord's notes of C, Eb, B and low D are all present. However, as the sum content of his three chords provides only six notes (C-D-Eb-G-A-B), C melodic minor assumes the missing note is F to form the seven note scale.
If the missing note was considered an F# instead (which mildly feeds into Jimmy's name of D13b9no3rd), there is another option.This would be C Dorian #4 (C-D-Eb-F#-G-A-B) - the 4th mode of G harmonic minor (G-A-Bb-C-D-Eb-F#).
Whichever scale you opt for context (and both are sophisticated), the D13b9 or Cmmaj7/D chord is most certainly ear catching!
Watt has said that the chord, which was new to McCartney’s ears, became the backbone of the album, proving that, no matter how experienced a player you are, there are always mysteries waiting to be discovered on the fretboard.
In related Macca news, the legendary songwriter recently recalled the time he gave Paul Mescal a guitar lesson in prep for the upcoming Beatles biopics – but his services were redundant.
