Howdy,

Just picked up my Ric and tried all of the options on this thread. Even had some friends help. to me, doctorno has it right. On the 12 string....the 355533 can be interchanged with the 353533 fingering. Both sound right. It worked with the 12 string, 6 string and Bass. I do not own or play a piano so I don't know how it would sound with the added keyboards.

Steve

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"A Splendid Time Is Guaranteed For All"

I pretty much agree, but I also tried 5-5-5-5-3-3 on a 360-12 and substituting an A for the G on the low E string set seemed a touch closer to me.

Here is a synopsis of a scientific analysis of the Hard day's Night chord:

http://www.mscs.dal.ca/~brown/n-oct04-harddayjib.pdf

This website is simply unreal at times. I mean that in a good way.

It amazes me at the lengths we will go to in order to work out things on our guitars. Thank you for looking this up and posting it on the forum. It's just an incredible amount of information.

According to the book "The Compleat Beatles Volume 1", the song "A Hard Day's Night" was written, arranged, rehearsed and recorded in just over 24 hours.

The song's first chord, the exact notes and instrumentation as played by George, John and Paul, has been examined, discussed, and charted for more than 42 years and counting. Fun stuff.

For another example of the opening chord, listen to "A Hard Day's Night" on disc 2 of "The Beatles Live At The BBC."

Now play along!

On from my previous post, try this on the 12 and let me know what you think:

557585 (A D A C G A)

Thats a D7sus4/A (if you use the 5th string as the root). It can also be called a Gsus2 or a Gsus4/A.

These are variations on the Dm7 (or F chord if you like) with an added G.

Listen carefully to the intro to the song - notice how it seemingly resolves from a V to the I?

That's the closest I've been able to get, with one 12 string guitar only, to the sound I hear. However, there is at least 3 different components playing the "chord" on the record, together with a drum and bass.

Here are two thoughts that crossed my mind about playing the famous chord (or something similar to it). I didn't take the time to analyze the structure, but it seemed to me (assuming the chord was strummed downwards) that it sounded best resolved on a high D note, but not on the high E string. It just sounded too high to me.

So, while muting the high E string, these two possiblities arose.

30023x (gadadx) and

33003x (gcdgdx)

This is getting to be like eating potato chips, isn't it?

OK, playing the chord in concert tuning the pattern is:

x53013

However, my understanding is that George was using some form of open tuning that made fingering this set of notes easier.

The usual 353533 is close enough for me (except on the day I was buying my 360/12V64, for some reason the first thing I hit was 353433. Not what I or anyone else in the shop expected...)

However, I've seen 553533 suggested. This might be just about playable on that narrow neck for someone with a very wide third finger or a long flexible thumb (or an assistant, or tentacles). I can't do it. Anyone out there who can?

I really appreciate everyone's contribution on this.You've got my music club at each other's throats...Great stuff.