Help: Am(no3rd)

Subject: Am(no3rd)
From: GUEST,George
Date: 14 Apr 01 - 10:43 PM

Another song, calls for Am(no3rd) can anyone help me with this chord as well. Thanks again George

Subject: RE: Help: Am(no3rd)
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 14 Apr 01 - 10:47 PM

Yup. Play a normal "Am". Now lift yer index finger off the second string (C#). Now just kind of "bump" your ring finger into the second string, deadening it. Strum away. That's an easy Am, with no third.

Rick

Subject: RE: Help: Am(no3rd)
From: John Hardly
Date: 14 Apr 01 - 10:49 PM

0022X0

Subject: RE: Help: Am(no3rd)
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 14 Apr 01 - 10:51 PM

Sorry. The THIRD that you're leaving out is of course "C", not C#. Means that your chord is made up only of As and Es. The 1st, and the 5th.

Rick

Subject: RE: Help: Am(no3rd)
From: GUEST,George
Date: 14 Apr 01 - 11:04 PM

Thanks once again

Subject: RE: Help: Am(no3rd)
From: Gary T
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 12:58 AM

Since the third is what differentiates A from Am, why don't they just call it "A(no 3rd)"? Gotta be the same difference, I would think, except for the unnecessary printing of that lower case letter M.

Subject: RE: Help: Am(no3rd)
From: GUEST,JM
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 08:41 AM

Won't that make it an A5? JM

Subject: RE: Help: Am(no3rd)
From: John Hardly
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 08:50 AM

Gary
I agree, though I might make the distinction according to which chord I am substituting the no3rd chord for. In this way the chord chart reader knows which chord he might safely re-substitute. --clear as mud?

In other words, the above mentioned Am(no3rd) would be the substitute for Am, while the A(no3rd)(5) is a substitute for A.
--JH

Subject: RE: Help: Am(no3rd)
From: John P
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 08:53 AM

Perhaps they call it an Am and not an A because the scale or mode of the melody has a C or implies a C. A lot of people who write out music want to have everything line up. Many also don't want to throw anything at us that isn't within the scope of "normal" music theory and standard notation. Writing the chord as A(no 3rd) could imply to some that C# was in the scale of the melody.

A chord called A5 would still have a C#. A number after a chord designation usually refers to a note being added to the chord. G7 is G, B, D, F. Gm7 is G, Bb, D, F. A5 would, I suppose, be A, C#, E, E. The last E would probably be meant to be an octave higher.

John Peekstok

Subject: RE: Help: Am(no3rd)
From: Gary T
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 01:50 PM

Thanks John and John, that makes some sense.

Subject: RE: Help: Am(no3rd)
From: Suffet
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 05:48 PM

Technically speaking, an "Am(no 3rd)" is not a chord at all. It is an interval, namely a 5th if the A note is the tonal root. These "no 3rd" intervals imply neither a major nor a minor scale in our standard terminology, and are thus useful when accompanying so-called "modal" tunes. Take, for example, a 5-string banjo and tune it (5th to 1st string) gcgcc. Now use both the 5th string and 1st string as drones while picking out tunes on the three middle strings using a double thumbing or clawhammer technique. When the melody calls for a 3rd, pick out either the e-natural or the e-flat, or slide between them, or bend the string to find a note somewhere in between. Try this on something simple, like "John Henry." Ain't that wild?

--- Steve

Subject: RE: Help: Am(no3rd)
From: Roughyed
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 06:38 PM

I find it useful to differentiate between Am and A with no third. I might not necessarily want to follow the written chord sequence exactly or I might want to do a run around it or something, so the information of whether it is minor or major helps.

I don't know if 'interval' is quite the word here as this implies to me a jump between two notes rather than playing them together, but then I haven't had any formal training so I might be wrong.

On a guitar, rather than damp the second string, if you can reach as far as the fifth fret it gives a beautiful zing. i,e, 002250 or even 002255.

Subject: RE: Help: Am(no3rd)
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 08:12 PM

I've heard this called "A-neutral". Not an official name, just made up by somebody in a guitar class, but I like it!

Aloha,
Mark