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Location: Chicago | Ever wonder about those first weird chords that kick off Mahavishnu Orchestra's first record, "Inner Mounting Flame?" I'm working on the "official" chart of MEETING OF THE SPIRITS. My purpose is to come up with a fuller acoustic arrangement.
Here's what I came up with. The first five chords are actually like playing TWO simple chords at the same time. It's awkward to play, so I'm thinking of assigning half of each to Jeff and myself, respectively. Cheat when you have to!
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Harmonic Analysis of Intro to "Meeting of the Spirits"
Fans of the immediate post B-Brew Miles will admit that GROUND ZERO was the Mahavishnu Orchestra’s “Inner Mounting Flame.” The very first strains of the new doom that anyone heard were the nine thunderous chords that precede the trance-like vamp of “Meeting of the Spirits”. These chords clash and grind; they have an unmistakable quality. What is it? Simply put: five POLYCHORDS followed by four HYBRID (”slash”) chords. McLaughlin has composed for the fretboard a series of clusters in which, for the first five blasts, two pure triads are stacked one on top of another. (The root or pedal, at times, must be sought in the bass part, scored for Rick Laird). Chords 6 - 9 are hybrids: a triad superimposed over an unusual bass tone (such as an F triad over and E bass). The recorded sound of guitar slamming into the Rhodes electric piano (nearly in unison) ends up a bit on the muddy side. For an acoustic delivery there may be a simple solution: each guitarist takes a triad or at least part of the voicing and voila! The main thing, it would appear, is to follow the voice leading: keep the bass notes and upper “melody” notes the same.
In the analysis below, the triads are listed as follows: Top triad with notes in brackets, lowest to highest; Bottom triad with notes in brackets, lowest to highest. Naturally, the fifth is missing here and there, and some triads share a tone (e.g. in Chord 4 the two triads share a G):
Chord 1: Dbmin [Ab Db E] over Dbmaj [(Db) F Ab]
Chord 2: Dmin [A D F] over F#min [(C#) F# A]
Chord 3: Emaj [B E G#] over Dbmaj [Db F (G#)] (=Db7#9)
Chord 4: Cmin [G C Eb] over Emin [B E G]
note: this is played oveer a pedal B
Chord 5: Bmin [B D# F#] over Cmaj [G C E] (=Cmaj9#11)
note: also played over a pedal B
Chord 6: F [C F A] / E bass
Chord 7: G [D G B] / F bass
Chord 8: G [G B D] / A bass
Chord 9: F [A C F] / G bass
The overall effect, is a progression from sharp dissonance to a release of tension and, finally, a sweet conclusion! |
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Location: Brighty in Blighty | Awesome - me I'm going to give it a go! |
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Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | Chord 2: Dmin [A D F] over F#min [(C#) F# A]
Chord 3: Emaj [B E G#] over Dbmaj [Db F (G#)] (=Db7#9)
Chord 4: Cmin [G C Eb] over Emin [B E G]
note: this is played oveer a pedal B
In a Homer Simpson voice...
"Gee... you guys talk funny." |
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| Did you figure that out on your lonesome? I know a guy who can do that but he is a Professor of Guitar at the UK's finest music school.
I'm impressed big time. |
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Location: Slightly northwest of Trader Jim | OK, now in english. :D |
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Location: south east Michigan | Oh don't get me wrong.
I am impressed. I wish I could talk like that.
In fact... I'm just happy to be allowed to hang here. |
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Location: Chicago | Thanks, Clive (flattery always works). McLaughlin's all-time hero is Stravinsky. Ol' Igor is famous for his polytonality and polychordal harmony. It was always a bother to me when that intro came up, because the chords are so unfamiliar to a guitarist. When I finally got to analyzing the OFFICAL SCORE I laid out the chords on the fingerboard and saw what was going on. It gets a bit crowded and dissonant at points but VERY COOL. I can hardly wait to hear how it sounds with two guitars and percussion. My plan is to clang the bass notes on the Adamas 1581 and have Jeff do some of his ROLAND magic with the upper voices.
Harmonically, I think that JM composed the sequence with an eye to smooth bass movement and a certain logical progression of the upper triads.
Polychords are weird: some can be analyzed in terms of ordinary extensions and alterations (Db 7#9 or CMaj9#11); but the mystery of other polychords and, especially, hybrids is that they are DISTINCT in their harmony but impossible to analyze conventionally. Or, rather, they make little "traditional sense" with respect to a rational root.
Harmony is like grammar for me: I just love it. |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | That would be grammar in a foreign language. This reminds me of the music theory class that I took in college. I thought it would be fun, but it turned out to be a nightmare and I needed the credits to graduate. Bunch of music geeks talking a foreign language. |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | "Ever wonder about those first weird chords that kick off Mahavishnu Orchestra's first record, "Inner Mounting Flame?""
Not really, but I'm interested now. |
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Location: closely held secret | Not that there's anything wrong with that. |
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Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Yet another reason to have a looper at the end of your pedal chain! |
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Location: Marlton, NJ | Originally posted by Mr. Ovation:
"Ever wonder about those first weird chords that kick off Mahavishnu Orchestra's first record, "Inner Mounting Flame?""
Not really, but I'm interested now. Seriously... I had to go buy the album. |
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December 2006
Posts: 6268
Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast | Originally posted by dobro:
Ever wonder about those first weird chords that kick off Mahavishnu Orchestra's first record, "Inner Mounting Flame?" Day-um, another fork in my WWW highway...
Gotta check this out!  |
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Location: Chicago | Seriously guys: these chords are not for everyone, but the RIFF (my other post) is absolutely fantastic: It is not too hard and very rewarding. You can see JM, Coryell and Paco playing it IN THIS SUBLIME CLIP. They skip the dissonant intro, however. |
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Location: Chicago | The original version of "MEETING OF THE SPIRITS" from "Inner Mounting Flame" complete with the chordal introduction outlined above. |
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Location: Atlanta, GA. | This is why some guys choose to become Rock & Roll drummers! |
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Location: Chicago | Indeed. A few tracks later Billy Cobham TRULY ROCKS OUT!!!! |
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Location: Alabama | Can some one do me the tab - nudge nudge wink wink. Thanks |
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Location: Chicago | I certainly can... but I'll need a few minutes. Do me a favor and look below at how I spelled out the main two-chord vamp. It's basically a tab, broken down. Fun to play and sweet sounding. If a motivated player (like you bgm) can't figure out my scribblings there, then I've failed! |
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Location: Chicago | Here is the CORRECT pattern for the "drone" or "trance"-like picking pattern that follows the chordal intro. (I have studied YouTube versions and almost everyone plays it WRONG except for the man himself, of course....)
Time: 12/8 that breaks down 5 + 5 + 2
Strings, lowest to highest, numbers=frets, X=ignore
Chord One: 2 X 4 0 2 0
This is an F#7b9 that is missing its 3rd
Pattern (sequence of which strings to pick):
6 4 2 3 1, 6 4 2 3 1, low F# open E
Chord Two: 3 X 4 4 2 0
This is a GMaj13#11
Pattern (sequence of which string to pick):
6 4 2 3 1, 6 4 2 3 1, low G open E
The main effect is that you ACCENT the notes on the THIRD and FIRST strings to ring in an insistent pattern. Also emphasize the last two notes a bit (the "low F#" and "low G" are on the sixth string, of course).
Play it fast! I find the cross-picking hard to do cleanly at a good tempo, so I opt for finger-style here.....
Then (if you know the tune or have the record) the melodic material is easy to pick out by ear.
Finally: the chords in the turn around are simply a bar all across the SEVENTH fret, one with a low C in the bass, the other with a B (that is the full bar). |
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January 2006
Posts: 2120
Location: Chicago | TABS for the 9-chord intro.
Strings: lowest to highest (left to right)
Frets indicated by numbers. X = do not play
I've modified a little for playability.
DIG how the bottom half is one pure chord,
While the top is another pure chord!!
1: Dbmin/Dbmaj X 4 3 1 2 0
2: Dmin/F#min X (4) 4 2 3 1 [5th str. optional]
3: Emaj/Dbmaj 4 4 3 4 5 4 [thumb on 5th & 6th]
4: Cmin/Emin 0 2 5 5 4 X
5: Bmin/Cmaj 3 3 2 4 3 2 [thumb on 5th & 6th]
6: F/Ebass X 7 X 5 6 5
7: G/F bass X 8 X 7 8 7
8: G/Abass X 0 5 4 3 (3)
9: F/Gbass 3 X 3 2 1 1
NOTE that this last sequence of a G bass note to an F bass note leads right into the first chord of the "vamp" which is 2 X 4 0 2 0 (F#7b9) |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | I guess the most important part of this thread is the title "For Mahavishnu Fans"...
I gave it a listen, and obviously don't get it.
Does anyone know if Mahavishnu and Yes have anything in common? I heard a lot of riffs that sound very similar to riffs in YES songs, which I do like.
I'm gonna download some stuff this weekend probably to take a better listen, because the seem to have a huge following. I feel like I'm missing something. |
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Location: Chicago | Give these tunes a listen, Miles. In a mellower tone. And SWEET Ovation sound!
THOUSAND ISLAND PARK from LP "Birds of Fire"
A LOTUS ON IRISH STREAMS live BBC broadcast
YOU KNOW, YOU KNOW from "Inner Mounting Flame" |
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For Mahavishnu Fans