# Ethereal/huge sounding chords?



## DjentDjentlalala (May 14, 2012)

Do you know any ethereal/huge sounding chords?

thanks!


----------



## Stealthdjentstic (May 14, 2012)

Ethereal?


----------



## Varcolac (May 14, 2012)

*ethereal:*

_adj._ 1. Characterized by lightness and
insubstantiality; intangible. 2. Highly refined;
delicate.

------

Sus4 (R-4-5) or sus2 (R-2-5) chords in my experience have this quality. The lack of a 3rd for major/minor tonality gives them this ambiguous, floaty quality. Also, a Isus2 is the same notes as a Vsus4, furthering this tonal ambiguity. 

If you're looking for things to be _texturally_ ethereal, I'd reckon big chords aren't really what you're looking for. To my mind, that calls for a far more sparse arrangement.


----------



## Stealthdjentstic (May 14, 2012)

Yes, hence my confusion.


----------



## Winspear (May 14, 2012)

You called?


----------



## Winspear (May 14, 2012)

But yes, the post above is a good one. 

I get the use of the word huge. I describe chords like this as ethereal too. Lush voicings across the entire fretboard, on a real nice clean tone covered in reverb and delay.

I actually have a 7 string in a tuning that supports this very well - FCGCGCD. Might as well be a 6 though, the low F doesn't make much sense in the chords. The 6 is a fairly popular acoustic tuning 'open Add9'. Which is also Sus2. The lack of major or minor does indeed help.


----------



## that short guy (May 14, 2012)

EtherealEntity said:


> I actually have a 7 string in a tuning that supports this very well - FCGCGCD. Might as well be a 6 though, the low F doesn't make much sense in the chords. The 6 is a fairly popular acoustic tuning 'open Add9'. Which is also Sus2. The lack of major or minor does indeed help.


 

Ever think about making the F a G so it follows the tuning of the rest of the strings or depinding on how you play leaving it at an A? could give you some interesting chords


----------



## Solodini (May 14, 2012)

Making use of min2 intervals within the chord helps, I find. This could be between root and b9, 9 and m3, #2 and M3, M3 and 4, #4 and 5 (you see what I'm doing here?). Try chucking some around and see how it turns out for you. The way I use this it ends up forming displaced clusters, if you get my meaning.


----------



## Mr. Big Noodles (May 14, 2012)

I think it's more about context than what the actual chord is. I mean, check this out:

Yes - Awaken


Listen from 6:05-7:30. That last chord is just E, but it's the hugest fucking E there ever was because of a long buildup and a series of elisions to delay its arrival and make it that much sweeter once you get there. Or another one...

Brahms - Symphony 4, Mvt. I


You have to listen to the entire thing to really get this sense, but at 6:53-7:36, all of those chords are just dominant seventh chords. However, they're coupled with some extremely broken thematic material, and they just kinda float around without resolving. Then, at 7:37, the principal theme recapitulates three times slower than it's supposed to and lands on a C chord, which he arpeggiates in the strings with an added Ab to give it the sense of being somewhere between a major triad and an augmented triad, but that moment is only cool in context of the rest of the movement. I've heard the same chord sound like shit in other contexts.

So, I would say that 'ethereal' and 'huge' are arrived at by a process of buildup, and the creation of expectation. Try epic resolutions, or a long string of non-resolution. Or, if you want me to give you the shit answer, any chord with a #11, augmented triads, whole tone chords, and stacked fourths.


----------



## Trespass (May 14, 2012)

Clusters, close intervals, large interval (quartal, quintal, sextal) voicing of chords will get you there much more musically than just typical sus voicings.


----------



## Winspear (May 14, 2012)

that short guy said:


> Ever think about making the F a G so it follows the tuning of the rest of the strings or depinding on how you play leaving it at an A? could give you some interesting chords



I did. I have major gas for a 7 acoustic with the low G. For a lot of stuff that would indeed work very well.

I just found with the writing style that this guitar leads me towards when playing metal (Haunted Shores / Sithu Aye type stuff), the low F makes a lot more use. I kept needing it in 90% of riffs I was writing. 

I really enjoy 5ths tuning on the bottom 3 strings. I use it on standard tuned guitars too: GDADGBE. Makes for some nice chords on the bottom 3 strings.

With regards to the OP, fitting the low string into the open tuned chord may indeed be a better idea.


----------



## celticelk (May 14, 2012)

EtherealEntity said:


> I did. I have major gas for a 7 acoustic with the low G. For a lot of stuff that would indeed work very well.
> 
> I just found with the writing style that this guitar leads me towards when playing metal (Haunted Shores / Sithu Aye type stuff), the low F makes a lot more use. I kept needing it in 90% of riffs I was writing.
> 
> I really enjoy 5ths tuning on the bottom 3 strings. I use it on standard tuned guitars too: GDADGBE. Makes for some nice chords on the bottom 3 strings.



That's kinda the 7-string version of Steve Tibbetts' tuning - he tunes a Strat to CGDGBE. Makes for some easy root-5-3 chords in both major and minor flavors, as well as sus2 and sus4 chords. Plus two string pairs' worth of one-finger power chords, of course.


----------



## Unknown Doodl3.2 (May 15, 2012)

Trespass said:


> Clusters, close intervals, large interval (quartal, quintal, sextal) voicing of chords will get you there much more musically than just typical sus voicings.



I'm with this guy on that one.



Solodini said:


> Making use of min2 intervals within the chord helps, I find. This could be between root and b9, 9 and m3, #2 and M3, M3 and 4, #4 and 5 (you see what I'm doing here?). Try chucking some around and see how it turns out for you. The way I use this it ends up forming displaced clusters, if you get my meaning.



or the M7 and root 

There's also the question of context like SchecterWhore mentioned; When I want an athereal feeling I tend to think progressions and keys not just individual chords.


----------



## Solodini (May 15, 2012)

Yeah, exactly. I didn't feel like listing every possible combination! As you guys have said, context is important, as well.


----------



## AugmentedFourth (May 15, 2012)

```
e|--16--|
b|--0---|
G|--15--|
D|--16--|
A|--14--|
e|--0---|
B|------|
E|--0---|   <---Don't really have to play this, it's just the bass note an octave down
```


----------



## Oxidation_Shed (May 16, 2012)

I find that having the same note repeating in unison in a chord can give a really cool, ethereal sound. i.e. a chord containing both fret 9 on the D string and an open B
The way the timbres and pitch of the two notes slightly vary creates a very interesting effect. I think it sounds better when they are not on adjacent strings though (particularly if you arpeggiate them slightly), it almost makes it sound like an arpeggio pattern even if you just pick from lowest to highest string - but it still has its own unique sound.
As if the mechanics of playing chords like that didn't already make it so, use sparingly least you just make your guitar sound out of tune. It also works better for gently dissonant chords, it's not brilliant at making major triads sound cool, for example.


----------



## VBCheeseGrater (May 16, 2012)

celticelk said:


> That's kinda the 7-string version of Steve Tibbetts' tuning - he tunes a Strat to CGDGBE. Makes for some easy root-5-3 chords in both major and minor flavors, as well as *sus2 *and sus4 chords. Plus two string pairs' worth of one-finger power chords, of course.



I was going to say add9 chords. just add a 5th to the 5th of your power chord (will be a diagonal line shape) or root-5th-9th. Easy to move around, sounds thick and "ethereal" . Drop tunings make them really convenient.


----------



## Greatoliver (May 16, 2012)

You can get some massive chords in drop A on a 7 string, just because there is so much possibility for extra notes around the A chord shape. Definitely agree on sus2 and sus4 chords, and I would say adding the 6th into a chord helps too.


----------



## morrowcosom (May 16, 2012)

Stacked 4ths=Law and Order theme? 

How do you guys post tabs? I have a couple contributions.


----------



## Mr. Big Noodles (May 16, 2012)

Use the

```
tags. It makes all characters equally spaced, which is a good thing.
```


----------



## JStraitiff (May 16, 2012)

vbshredder said:


> I was going to say add9 chords. just add a 5th to the 5th of your power chord (will be a diagonal line shape) or root-5th-9th. Easy to move around, sounds thick and "ethereal" . Drop tunings make them really convenient.



Thats called stacked 5ths i believe. I use them a lot in Drop D and Drop A. They sound similar to suspended chords. They also look kinda awesome in standard tunings lol.

I also like to do suspended chords on drop tunings like in Drop A you can use all 7 strings


```
E---3
B---3
G---5
D---5
A---3
E---3
A---3
```


----------



## Bloody_Inferno (May 16, 2012)

SchecterWhore said:


> So, I would say that 'ethereal' and 'huge' are arrived at by a process of buildup, and the creation of expectation. Try epic resolutions, or a long string of non-resolution.


 
Another good example:



Notice the stock power chords in the first section that builds tension and suspense, then the second section goes to grandiose territory using very dense chords. 

I gotta find that transcription...


----------



## Imbrium998 (May 16, 2012)

SchecterWhore said:


> I think it's more about context than what the actual chord is. I mean, check this out:
> 
> Yes - Awaken
> 
> ...




I now bow to you sir. A reference to Yes, I did not expect whatsoever! You may now proceed with your awesomeness!


----------



## morrowcosom (May 17, 2012)

Huge to me: 

Dropped Tuning 


```
E                                           
B        4                                 
G  2    4    2    2                      
D  3    x    3    3                      
A  3    4    1    3                      
D  1    3    2    1
```
Standard 


```
E
B
G
D  3   2
A  1   2
E  1   2
```
Ethereal=hold down 2 or 3 frets, 5th fret or higher and play arpeggios using open strings too 

Example: Play arpeggios with these


```
E 0       0
B 6       7
G 7       9
D 0       0
A
E
```
Also, check out Damnation by Opeth for a lot of "ethereal" playing.


----------



## Cynic (May 20, 2012)

I always thought that chords including two pitches, a semi-tone apart, that rang out were usually pretty big.


(Drop Db)

Eb - 0
Bb - 3
Gb - 0
Db - 4
Ab - 2
Db - 2


Check out some Haunted Shores; that's probably what you're looking for.


----------



## Aerospace274 (May 20, 2012)

Here's a chord that I find kinda ethereal or mystic sounding.
Basically a regular open minor chord with the third note in the chord double sharped.
c : 0
G : 0
Eb: 0
Bb: 4
F : 2
C : 0
If you move the fretted notes one fret up, it also resolves nicely. I'm not sure if there's a 'real' name for this sort of chord. 
EDIT: This chord won't sound good with a LOT of distortion lol, better off with a clean or acoustic guitar!


----------



## Fiction (May 20, 2012)

I play in Drop C Simply because it allows me to ring out the first 2 strings as a 5ths, and then play my extensions further up on the fretboard.


```
e|-10--13--8----------------|
B|-7---10--6--10--6--6--6---|
G|-7---10--7--10--5--5--5---|
D|-7---0---5--8---5--3--5---|
A|-0---0---5--8---5--3--X---|
D|-0---0---5--8---5--3--7---|
```
You can move pretty much all of them around, just play around with different fingers and intervals, and definitely building large chords is easy in drop tunings, which really surprised me after being 15 and only using drop D for 1 finger 5ths


----------



## DjentDjentlalala (May 21, 2012)

haha i use Drop A on the seven for that reason....

i mean,you have 1 finger for 5ths and the other 3 for just...everything else!


----------



## broj15 (May 21, 2012)

Here is a moveable shape that I like to use on my 7 string. It utilizes all the strings so it sounds very big and full.

e|------5--------|
B|------6--------|
G|------5--------|
D|------7--------|
A|------8--------|
E|------5--------|
A|------5--------|


----------



## Greatoliver (May 21, 2012)

broj15 said:


> Here is a moveable shape that I like to use on my 7 string. It utilizes all the strings so it sounds very big and full.
> 
> e|------5--------|
> B|------6--------|
> ...



I think that may be a Min7 chord, with an extra minor third on the bottom. Nice chord! I like dropping the B string to 5, or the A string to 7 as well


----------



## broj15 (May 22, 2012)

Greatoliver said:


> I think that may be a Min7 chord, with an extra minor third on the bottom. Nice chord! I like dropping the B string to 5, or the A string to 7 as well


 
Just tried that out and I must say that does sound cool. Thanks for the advice


----------



## C2Aye (May 22, 2012)

My two favourite minor chords (not position or key specific, below are just examples) for drop tuned six string and sevenstring (they're minor 9ths I think).

Drop D - Gm9 

-----5-----
-----6-----
-----5-----
-----8-----
-----5-----
-----5-----

Drop G# - C#m9

-----------
-----5-----
-----5-----
-----5-----
-----8-----
-----5-----
-----5-----

Because these chords are barred, it's very easy to play around with them and build riffs around them, or stick on a clean tone with loads of reverb and have them sound all 'ethereal'. Also, playing one of these chords and moving up a minor third and play the same chord in that position lends itself quite well to the sound you guys might be after!

(You can hear me abusing the hell out of these chords on my tracks Skye, Islay and Hypatia!)


----------



## bonuzround (May 29, 2012)

Minor with major 7th!
Augmented
Lydian chords (raised 4th)

try this one 
e 0
b 12
f 15 
d 14
a 11
e 0


----------



## Konfyouzd (May 29, 2012)

Don't add9 chords sound really spacey? 

There's one I play a lot...

On my 8 it looks something like this...

e - 5
b - 5
g - 5
d - 9
a - 7
e - 5
B - 5
E - 5

I think the whole "add9" jazz happens in the 5 7 9 part and the rest is just barred like a typical full barre chord. But sliding this up a minor third and back sounds really cool.


----------

