"An Em that would break your heart"

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

I was looking through the liner notes on Neil Diamond's "12 Songs" album (which, coincidentally, is much better than the one that's out now, but cost me a lot less) and I was struck by a comment he makes about one of his guitars. He describes it as having "an E minor that would break your heart" ( ) It just sounded like a weird thing to say. and it stuck in my mind.

 

I've had quite a few guitars and they all brought different things to the table (or they didn't, in which case they made a quick exit) but I've never been amazed by any particular chord. Either all the chords sounded great(...ish) or they didn't.

 

Now, I guess that it's technically possible for one chord to sound better than all the others, due to sympathetic resonances or whatever but... it just sounds unlikely. And what are you supposed to do with a guitar like that? Change guitars just to change chords? Or play in E minor for the rest of your life?

 

So do you guys have any guitars have a specific chord that (ahem)breaks your heart? (you sentimental girlie-men youse) I strongly suspect that ole Neil (not you, Neil ) was just spinning a lot of BS, but he was a succesful musician well before I even picked up a guitar and I wanted to ask you guys before closing the file on this one.

[Guitarzan]

well for one we all know that D minor is the saddest of all keys.

i don't really have any specific chords on my guitars that are special.

but generally speaking certain chord positions are nicer than others on all guitars to me anyway. where you strum or pick makes a ton of difference as well. there is enough rock and roll in my blood that i am a sucker for a loud first position A or E chord.

[skipclone 1]

I don`t know but I`m assuming he`s talking about an acoustic, I would be more unlikely to buy that about a solidbody electric. But it makes sense (to me) that a particular guitar might resonate really strongly with some pitch frequencies and not others. I`ve never been into the really high regsiter stuff with my playing personally, the mid-low potition sounds are richer and more complex to my ears.

[Trucks]

As I understand it, as a guitar ages, it will resonate better in any key/chord that it has been played in the most since it was made. As you strum away Em's on it for 20 years.. The wood tunes itself and opens up more to resonating an Em.

 

I got that info from a guy in a Taylor guitars video. He was saying that you should try and vary your playing if you want a great allround solid topped acoustic in a few years of buying it.

 

This is also why some people play pop music at their guitars in a closet while they are not using them... The differing range of frequencies will open the wood up evenly.

[BillWelcome Home Studios]

I suspect that we are talking about listening to a specific guitar in a specific room, and the combination of the environment and the insturment striking a 'chord' in Mr Diamond. Inspiration is a good thing.

 

I have a few acistics, and I find that each instrument that I own requests that it be approached in it's own way. Yeah, I can force all of the guitars to sound a certain way, more or less, but things go better if I let them take me where they want to go and work with the sounds that they provide. My late 1960s Gibson J-160e cries to be strumed in that doubletime fashion a la the Beatles (that I never use on any other acoustic), while the Santa Cruz just sounds so rich and pure that I want to play single notes and chords and let them ring....

 

Bill

 

Bill

[Billster]

My SG has certain notes that sing better than others. Any time you have a resonating piece of wood, there will be idiosyncracies.

 

But I think Mr. Diamond is telling a tale to make a good story. That's what songwriters do.

[Caevan O’Shite]

I think maybe too much is being read into this...

 

It's likely just a way of saying that particular guitar really sounds great for pretty and sad songs... many of which might feature an EM, or be in that key...

[miroslav]

Well heck...on an acoustic, the open Em chord is THE fullest/most resonating chord (unless you tune down)...so it's no surprise that it will stand out.

 

Like Caevan says...I guess Neil Diamond must use Em often.

[Griffinator]

I actually feel open-position B7 is the fullest chord on an acoustic.

 

-2-

-0-

-2-

-1-

-2-

-x-

[Scott Fraser]

I actually feel open-position B7 is the fullest chord on an acoustic.

 

But only one open string, which is the source of the rich resonance I think is being referenced in this thread. Em gets you 4 open strings. I like the richness of a G major chord, 3 open strings, & going further than Em, an Em7 gives you 5 open strings.

Then again, some of my guitars seem to favor F#m7, & they are all happy with A Dorian or Mixolydian.

 

Scott Fraser

[miroslav]

I actually feel open-position B7 is the fullest chord on an acoustic.

 

Do you Metal guys use that chord often?

[fantasticsound]

One Neil on the musings of another....

 

Neil likes to take poetic license but I'm sure he really likes the sound of Em on that guitar. I've played plenty of guitars that ring particularly well on one or two chords. this isn't to say they don't sound good on other chords... just that a few particular sounds really resonate well, with the desired balance of treble and bass frequencies. I say desired because it's subjective what a fine acoustic guitar should sound like and my fingerpicking is going to sound vastly different than someone using a pick on the same instrument.

 

Some of this is inherent to the particular build of a particular guitar, but other times just tuning the instrument can make it sound particularly better in some chords over others. Guitars are inherently flawed by physics. (As are other stringed instruments. Go look up what goes into tempered tuning on a piano allowing all keys to more or less sound in tune. It's mind boggling.)

[Part-timer]

I can play more off a D in the box then any other chord.

 

Now I can't say D sounds better on my guitar.

[miroslav]

I'm partial to Am at the 5th.... :grin:

[BrianWren]

Kramer, its an unwarranted leap to talk about changing guitars to change chords. The quote you quoth says a sum-total of zero with respect to how this guitar sounds on other chords.

 

This is like saying to your lover, "Your hair looks nice today," and getting back, "What's wrong with my clothes?" or "What was wrong with it yesterday?"

 

A guitar that sounds absolutely delightful on any given chord is highly likely to sound downright good on all others.

 

Different voicings have different moods. It might well be that the relative volumes of the strings is especially well suited to voice Em.

 

I trust Neil Diamond to have a pretty good earand after all, hes heard this guitar, we havent.

 

I think Ill trust what he says, that out of all of his guitars this one is the best for voicing Em. And Ill further infer that this guitar sounds wonderful on other chords as well, as a generally outstanding guitar would be a minimum requirement to be such a standout in any category.

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Kramer, its an unwarranted leap to talk about changing guitars to change chords. The quote you quoth says a sum-total of zero with respect to how this guitar sounds on other chords.

 

Well, if the Em breaks your heart, you wouldn't want to lower the quality of the sound on passing to say, a C major.

 

And sure, I was being a tad facetious, but the actual mechanics of having a guitar where one chord has such a strong effect puzzle me. As far as the other chords, well... he said, not me. If the Dm was as good, he might have at least mentioned it.

 

Your allegory with the lovers is, IMO, slightly out. I think it'd be more like wishing to be with the most beautiful woman in the world and thinking that the one you're with has beautiful hair (ie the Em chord) but the rest of her... so, assuming each woman on Earth had one outstanding feature (and each guitar had one heartbreaking chord), and that each woman was interested in hooking up (and that you could find a perfect chord for each guitar), you'd need a lot of women (and guitars) to find perfection. But that's really getting OT.

 

ANYWAY... the consensus seems to be that yes, Virginia, one CAN have a guitar that would sound exceptional on a specific chord. Cool.

 

 

 

Neil: Actually, I'm quite interested in all that temperament stuff, with its commas and wolves and so on. I found a site somewhere that had the same passage played in normal temperament and Pythagorean temperament and erm... the Pythagorean actually sounded better, at least to me. Darker and richer.