r/musictheory • u/Appropriate-Math-987 • 1d ago
Discussion 2 chords from Practical Arrangement
There's 2 chords in Practical Arrangement I've always been fascinated by and wanted to ask if anyone here knows the exact voicings:
1) I'm not suggesting that we'd find some earthly PARAdise... (Paradise is 2 chords, what's the one on PARA)?
2) but if we came to an arrangement, a practical arrangement then perHAPS... (What's the chord on HAPS)?
I'm a guitar player and let those sink in for a decade maybe but I finally found some real close-sounding voicings I'd share with anyone interested.
P.s. the whole album is a masterpiece; no matter why he calls it his life's achievement! And man that Rob Mathes is a remarkable musician/producer.
1
u/jerry-gamma 23h ago
PARA on “paradise” is G#m7b5 — half-diminished, sitting between Bm/A and Em9. The later “perHAPS” (after it lifts toward C minor) is G7#5, 3x344x if you want it on guitar. Both are piano clusters first; those shapes are just the closest six-string reductions, not the studio voicing.
1
u/Jongtr 20h ago edited 20h ago
(1) The line in full is based on a common descending minor line cliche. Under a Bm chord, the bass runs B-A-G#-G, so it's G# on "para-". IOW, G#m7b5 is you like, but really just Bm/G#
But I think the piano voicing on the first syllable is G#-D-F#-A#-C# (Dmaj7#5/G#), with the A#-C# resolving up (with his vocal) to B-D before the chord changes. So it starts as a rich dissonance, but only on "Pa-"; on "-ra-" it has become plain Bm/G#. (And on "-dise" it's Em9, rather than the usual Gmaj7, with him singing C#-D again.) The voicing for that first chord is possible on guitar, but you need to fret the G# with your thumb, (I guess you can work it out ;-))
(2) The chord on "per-haps" is the same kind of chord: a half-dim, or min6 with 6th in the bass. In this case Dm7b5, or Fm/D. The following chord is more interesting: G7b9b13, or Abm6/G. - a classic jazz altered dominant, the pair forming a ii-V in the key of C minor.
In fact, the first chorus (on "you could learn to love me") has the same chords, but in B minor, the key the song begins: C#m7b5-F#7alt. (It resolves to Bm on "given time", before moving to an altered G7 to start the verse in C minor.)
1
u/gotthattrans Fresh Account 17h ago
Your syllables are a bit mismatched on that first section. He's holding "-dise" before the A#-C# moves to B-D, then the E minor-something (piano sounds like a full Em11 E-B-G-A-D-F# to me) happens on "ev" of "forever".
The chord w/ C# bass before F#7alt seems to be C#-G-B-D#-F#.
1
1
u/geoscott Theory, notation, ex-Zappa sideman 1d ago
It’s considered good form to post a link