GUITAR CORNER

Lesson 22.  The "Double E" chord.

Chords containing close intervals (such as half and whole steps) are often pleasing to the human ear.  Grabbing these on the piano is quite easy, sometimes even unintentional, but on the guitar can often require some taxing thought.  Alternate tunings, therefore, are a useful tool for the guitarist seeking such sonic delicacies.  Open E (low to high E B E G# B E) is a popular tuning, mostly because you can play an E chord relatively easily, i.e. you only need one hand to make sound. But fretting an E chord on top of the E tuning will give you a double E chord (see ex.1).  This chord's proper name is actually F#m7add11/E but don't let that scare you, it sounds lovely.  This is the first chord of Roger Klug's Antarctica recording, featured in this week's Clip Of The Week.  Another trick is to move the E chord up to third fret: this is not a triple E chord, as one might assume, but rather an Emaj7 (with a doubled fifth)(see Ex. 2). The chord might work on other frets, but experiment at your own peril.

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