The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #77038   Message #1370986
Posted By: M.Ted
04-Jan-05 - 12:11 PM
Thread Name: Chord Req: Mack the Knife chord formations
Subject: RE: Chord Req: Mack the knife chord formations
If you want some discussion--yes, the chords are fine--and are probably pretty close to Bobby Darin's Las Vegas-style arrangement-the key changes are typical of his arrangements--but they aren't necessary to play the song, and aren't what you'd here in the Louis Armstrong arrangement--the song, as played in the Threepennny Opera, is played on a barrel organ using the chords shown above--

You can use any number of fingerings for the chords--in closed position, you can actually just slide the fingerings that you used in the first key up the neck--

I'd do this:

(Bb6) 6-X-5-7-6-X

(Cm7)8-X-8-8-8-8

(F7/9) 8-X-7--8-8

(Dm7) 10-X-10-10-10-10

(Ddim) 9-X-8-9-X-X-X


To change key, remember that the note on the low E string defines the chord name--so on the Seventh fret, it is a B6, on the Eighth Fret, it is a C6, and on the tenth, it is a D6--

The F7/9 is the same as an F9, every ninth chord includes the dominant seventh--that fingering is moveable up and down the neck, but the name for it comes from its position on the A string--


As I said above, if you don't know how to play these chords already, and you want to be able to play the song in the proximate future, you should just play the song in open C, because it takes quite a while to master the closed position stuff--