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10-09-2006, 04:26 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Chicago | | | The Mu Major Chord
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I just learned about the Mu Major chord on this Steely Dan site: http://jmdl.com/howard/steelydan/mu-major.html#intro
This guy goes into great detail about the chord, it's use in SD songs, and the difficulty playing this chord on guitar. The chord consists of: root, second, major third and fifth tones.
Ok, so, is there any way to play this chord on my four string bass? Only certain inversions maybe? I'm looking at my fingerboard now and cannot find a way to get all the notes in. |
10-09-2006, 04:55 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2006 Location: Somers, New York | | I just tried it and I had to tune my bass to G,A,C,D#
I guess it was a A mu major chord Code: fingers:r p i m
D#|1-----------------------1
C |1----------------1
A |2----------2
G |2-----2
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10-09-2006, 06:17 PM
| | | | That is a 9th chord... |
10-09-2006, 06:19 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Niagara Falls, ON, Canada | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Don Zebrauskas That is a 9th chord... | I was just waiting for this post  |
10-09-2006, 06:26 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Cincinnati | | | yea.....
Wasn't it Fagan who described one of his songs as "13 bar pan chromatic blues"?
Think how much smarter he would seem if he add thought up 3 different names for a V7 chord? And, I'll bet even Walter could have found a place to use one every now and then in his songs.
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10-09-2006, 06:29 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2006 Location: Somers, New York | | wow, I feel like an idiot now, lol
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10-09-2006, 08:45 PM
| | [acct disabled - multiple aliases] | | Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Venice, CA | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Don Zebrauskas That is a 9th chord... |
No it isn't a 9th chord. A 9th chord is a dominant, what Fagan like to call a Mu Major in real world called and Add 9 chord. Like A add 9 it is an A triad with the added ninth B. The add 9 and 6/9 chords adds some color to plain vanilla major. |
10-09-2006, 10:37 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Sarnia, Ontario, Canada | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by steveb98 No it isn't a 9th chord.....what Fagan like to call a Mu Major in real world called and Add 9 chord. Like A add 9 it is an A triad with the added ninth B. | +1
Last edited by Sean S : 10-09-2006 at 11:32 PM.
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10-09-2006, 11:17 PM
| | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by steveb98 No it isn't a 9th chord. A 9th chord is a dominant, what Fagan like to call a Mu Major in real world called and Add 9 chord. Like A add 9 it is an A triad with the added ninth B. The add 9 and 6/9 chords adds some color to plain vanilla major. | I don't think so. A dominant chord (G9) for example, would include a flat 7 (f in this case). An "add 9" chord or "major seven 9" or "major seven add 9" chord would include a major seventh (f#). This chord, or at least the voicing described here, is ambiguous. |
10-10-2006, 12:17 AM
| | Registered User
Seymour Duncan/Basslines SMB-5A Endorsing Artist | | Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Cuernavaca 1 hr S Mexico City | | | calling it any kind of "9" chord implies that a 7th is included . . .
this chord(root, M2nd, M3rd and P5th) is properly (AND popularly) called an "added 2nd" chord
another popular (and similar sounding) chord is the "suspended 2nd" chord (root, M2nd and P5th)
(the suspended 2nd usually, but not always, resolves to the adjacent 3rd)
Last edited by deaf pea : 10-10-2006 at 01:58 AM.
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10-10-2006, 01:09 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Sarnia, Ontario, Canada | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by deaf pea calling it any kind of "9" chord implies that a 7th is included . . . | not so; the "add" denotes (no pun intended) that any notes outside the given triad are ignored i.e. Cadd9 is C, E, G, D
whereas a C9 (aka Cdom9) would be spelled C, E, G, Bb, D
or Cmaj9: C, E, G, B, D
get it? |
10-10-2006, 01:56 AM
| | Registered User
Seymour Duncan/Basslines SMB-5A Endorsing Artist | | Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Cuernavaca 1 hr S Mexico City | | | I "got it" over 40 years ago when I first started learning music theory!!!
Calling it "any kind of 9th" chord (C9, Cmaj9, Cm9, etc.) doesn't mean the same as
"any kind of 9th OR added 9th" chord . . .
and BTW, this whole thread started off with Steely Dan, and the often used (by them) chord with the 2nd and 3rd BOTH sounding in the SAME OCTAVE . . .
NOT a major triad with a major 9th added an octave higher!
OK? Got it? |
10-10-2006, 04:55 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Germany | | | Guess I get accidental "Mu" chords all the time when I play piano, my ring finger will sometimes hit the second when I play root-third-fith-octave chords with my left hand even though I told it not to hundreds of times! |
10-10-2006, 06:06 AM
|  | Unprofessional TalkBass Contributor | | Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Brighton, England, UK, Europe | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by phxlbrmpf Guess I get accidental "Mu" chords all the time when I play piano, my ring finger will sometimes hit the second when I play root-third-fith-octave chords with my left hand even though I told it not to hundreds of times! | That's probably how Donald Fagen did it!! 
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10-10-2006, 06:10 AM
| | gone to Longstanton Spice Museum | | Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: UK | | ok, to recap: add9 (or add2) doesn't include a 7th .. if you want to denote (for example) a C major chord with a major 9th interval and some flavour of 7th in there, you either use C9 or Cmaj9
the only difference between add2 and add9 is the implied voicing... in this case i'd say add2 is probably the best definition of the µ-major chord, given that it's defining characteristic is a tightly packed cluster of whole tones
for that reason I wouldn't spend too much time trying to use it on bass.. you'd have to right up the neck to avoid the stack of whole tones sounding indistinct & confusing... you can try it but it sure won't sound much like Steely Dan 
and here is a really funny piece about Steely Dan chords, supposedly written by Denny Dias: http://www.steelydan.com/songbook.html
"Inversions of the µ major may be formed in the usual manner with one caveat: the voicing of the second and third scale tones, which is the essence oaf the chord's appeal, should always occur as a whole tone dissonance"
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Last edited by cowsgomoo : 10-10-2006 at 06:22 AM.
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10-10-2006, 06:38 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Nottingham UK | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Bruce Lindfield That's probably how Donald Fagen did it!! | Congrats Bruce - you are the first person in this thread to spell Don's surname correctly.
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10-10-2006, 08:22 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Sarnia, Ontario, Canada | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by deaf pea I "got it" over 40 years ago when I first started learning music theory!!!
Calling it "any kind of 9th" chord (C9, Cmaj9, Cm9, etc.) doesn't mean the same as
"any kind of 9th OR added 9th" chord . . .
and BTW, this whole thread started off with Steely Dan, and the often used (by them) chord with the 2nd and 3rd BOTH sounding in the SAME OCTAVE . . .
NOT a major triad with a major 9th added an octave higher!
OK? Got it? | I apologize, I meant no disrespect  ...but you did originally say "any kind of 9 chord" rather than " 9th" Quote: |
Originally Posted by deaf pea calling it any kind of "9" chord implies that a 7th is included . . . | It was late when I posted that above, so I might (or must) not have been thinking clearly in regards to the OP, and to which end I agree with you...
cool?
sean |
10-10-2006, 04:18 PM
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Seymour Duncan/Basslines SMB-5A Endorsing Artist | | Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Cuernavaca 1 hr S Mexico City | |
OK
and you got me . . . 9 vs. 9th yeah, ya got a point there . . .
and yeah, it WAS pretty late last night for me, too!
Last edited by deaf pea : 10-10-2006 at 04:23 PM.
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10-10-2006, 05:15 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: LOS ANGELES, CA | | Are those guys still alive? Oh yeah, they had a huge public beef with Owen Wilson about his boyishly good looks and utilization of the word "Dupree".
I heard that Chuck Rainey played bass, drums, guitar, and even euphonium on all of their records! LOL! |
10-10-2006, 10:22 PM
| | [acct disabled - multiple aliases] | | Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Venice, CA | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by deaf pea I "got it" over 40 years ago when I first started learning music theory!!!
Calling it "any kind of 9th" chord (C9, Cmaj9, Cm9, etc.) doesn't mean the same as
"any kind of 9th OR added 9th" chord . . .
and BTW, this whole thread started off with Steely Dan, and the often used (by them) chord with the 2nd and 3rd BOTH sounding in the SAME OCTAVE . . .
NOT a major triad with a major 9th added an octave higher!
OK? Got it? | Depends on what you are playing. On guitar it is usually voicing with a 9th. And from my days of playing Steely Dan back in the day, Mu was said to be a Add 9 not Add 2, but again just a case of voicing. | | Thread Tools | Search this Thread | | | | 
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