Captain, I don't want to argue the point, because it's already been argued to death several times on Mudcat threads, not to mention elsewhere. Musicologists in the Western European tradition (to which the Americas also belong) long ago defined two distinct notes as an "interval," and a "chord" as requiring three distinct notes at the very least, generally consisting of a root, a third, and a fifth, or a "triad," the minimal combination that can qualify as a chord. Two note combinations are sometimes called "dyads."   But not "chords."

The Grove Concise Music Dictionary does define a chord as "The simultaneous sounding of two or more notes," and when I quoted that to a couple of music professors when I was attending the University of Washington School of Music, I was informed in no uncertain terms that the Grove definition is incorrect and that it has caused music teachers no end of irritation and argument from students who own a copy of the Grove dictionary and feel compelled to quote from it.

Click HERE and scroll down to "chord." And there is more HERE (but I wouldn't recommend the left hand position in the photo!!).

I don't want to belabor the point as to my personal qualifications, but they consist of three years of music study at the aforementioned U. of W. and two years in a music conservatory (the Cornish School of the Arts), plus a years' private study in music theory and composition with Mildred Hunt Harris, plus voice lessons, classic guitar lessons, and folk guitar lessons from Walt Robertson and workshops with people like Rolf Cahn, Bess Lomax Hawes, and Doc Watson. I also taught classic guitar and folk guitar in both private lessons and classes for a couple of decades, in addition to performing on television, doing concerts, and playing steady engagements in clubs and coffeehouses when I wasn't performing somewhere else.

The last guitar workshop I participated in was at the 2003 Northwest Folklife Festival, and if folk musicians are referring to power chords as "modal" chords, then that must be a very recent phenomenon, the result of the influence of rock slopping over into folk. I'm also aware that some folk musicians, similarly influenced by jazz (case in point, the late Dave Van Ronk), often use added note chords (ninths, elevenths, et al), often with very good effect, but as you say, this is a matter of crossover from other genres of music.

Assuming that Megan is a relative beginner, I'm trying not to confuse her by overloading her with information that is not germane to her present interests. She admires Joan Baez and is trying to get a few clues as to how Joan accompanies songs. As I mentioned above, if Joan uses sixths, ninths, elevenths, and such, these are highly transitory and the added notes are in the nature of ornaments and passing tones, not as fundamental parts of the basic harmony. I'm sure—sure—that Joan does not think of momentarily adding a G on top of a first position D major chord as "playing a second inversion G sixth." It's just a bit of tonal variation, and is usually integrated with a rhythmic right hand pattern (see—or hear—her accompaniment to "The Great Silkie"). One could take a vertical slice out of her accompaniments at various places where she tosses in an extra note along with the chord—as a passing tone or decoration—and give it a very complex sounding name, but that's just making it much more complicated than it really is. And I think the same holds true for the guitar work of Elizabeth Cotton and many others.

I do the same sort of things in my own accompaniments:   add occasional notes to basic chords as ornamentation and variation, often transitory passing tones (example: C, C augmented, F. The G# in the C aug is merely a passing tone on the way to the A in the forthcoming F major, and it's off the main beat). Among other things, I can play several Villa-Lobos etudes, which are filled with added note chords ("jazz chords," if you will), and I could certainly incorporate that sort of thing in my folk song accompaniments if I wanted to. If I felt that they were appropriate. But I would think long and hard about stylistic dissonances before I started doing that.

Traditional accompaniments start with fairly basic harmonies, generally I, IV, and V or V7 chords, substituting relative minor chords hear and there, or occasionally substituting relative major chords if the song is in a minor key, along with other embellishments. But thinking in the kind of terms that a rock or jazz musician would is questionable when it comes to dealing with traditional music—unless one is trying to take it out of its traditional musical style and turn it into something else. I do use classic guitar technique a great deal, but I keep the basic harmonic structure pretty simple, as befits the music.

For all of her ingenious bits of business on the guitar, Joan sticks pretty close to traditional styles. That's one of the reasons her accompaniments sound so good.   

Don Firth