WrigleyDog Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 Hey, I was wondering if someone could answer this question for me. I have the sheet music to "I'm still standing" (please, don't ask, I have to learn to play it for a retirement party where I'm part of the "band")...anyway, it's the paino sheet music with the guitar chords above it, but a couple of the chords say something like this, D (on A) I thought the "on A" meant maybe D/A but the pciture of the chord just shows your typical D chord. Anyone know what the "on A" means? There are a few chord structures that say that (like another is Bm on A)...thanks in advance for any help! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dannygutters Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 are there any fret numbers in the chord shape? playing the D shape fretted at the 9th fret will be sounding an A in standard tuning.. I've also seen where the (*) chord is just chords in an alternate key, ie, the E key is transposed to G in the parens, E(G), A©, B(D) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
WrigleyDog Posted May 31, 2007 Author Share Posted May 31, 2007 are there any fret numbers in the chord shape? playing the D shape fretted at the 9th fret will be sounding an A in standard tuning.. I've also seen where the (*) chord is just chords in an alternate key, ie, the E key is transposed to G in the parens, E(G), A Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Groo Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 If you play the open A string, will that make it a D/A? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
WrigleyDog Posted May 31, 2007 Author Share Posted May 31, 2007 If you play the open A string, will that make it a D/A? That's what I thought orginally, but the A string is X'ed out in the chord diagram so I'm guessing it means something else...thanks for the response. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Groo Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 Does it have the notes to the chord on the piano part? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
WrigleyDog Posted May 31, 2007 Author Share Posted May 31, 2007 Does it have the notes to the chord on the piano part? Let's see if this works...I took a snapshot of the page with the paino part included and saved it as .jpg. Maybe seeing it will be better than me trying to explain it. I don't honestly even know if it means anything. I probably can just get away with playing a straight D chord, but curiousity got the best of me so I was wondering if anyone knew what it meant. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
froggie Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 If you play the open A string, will that make it a D/A? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Groo Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 Let's see if this works...I took a snapshot of the page with the paino part included and saved it as .jpg. Maybe seeing it will be better than me trying to explain it. I don't honestly even know if it means anything. I probably can just get away with playing a straight D chord, but curiousity got the best of me so I was wondering if anyone knew what it meant. I'm not an expert, but it looks like (for the measure in question), the first beat is play as an Am (maybe an A?), and the rest of the beats are Ds. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
yankee Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 I'm not an expert, but it looks like (for the measure in question), the first beat is play as an Am (maybe an A?), and the rest of the beats are Ds. I'd have to see the key signature to know whether these are minor or major. Looks like the left hand just keeps hitting an A (if we're in bass clef here), and and the right plays an A or A minor, then the right plays a D or D minor. So it does seem like playing a D and throwing in the open A string on the bass would work. But from I can see, I'm guessing we're in A or D here and they are major. I'm just trying to recall music theory from elementary school here. That and I watched a series from the BBC called "how music works" recently. Groo, I'm sure you know who could give you the full theory lesson. Ask the Ninja. aka, the amazing Bob. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Groo Posted June 2, 2007 Share Posted June 2, 2007 Groo, I'm sure you know who could give you the full theory lesson. Ask the Ninja. aka, the amazing Bob. Good idea Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mkush001 Posted July 8, 2007 Share Posted July 8, 2007 i'm going to guess this is in the key of A, and like yankee said, the first chord in that measure is an A major, then it switches to a D major, but all of the bass notes are A's, so i agree that the 'on A' probably just means a D/A, or that the guitar plays a D on top of the piano's A bass. just see what sounds best when you play with the band i guess. and yankee, i watched that BBC program last year and thought it was fantastic. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
yankee Posted July 16, 2007 Share Posted July 16, 2007 i'm going to guess this is in the key of A, and like yankee said, the first chord in that measure is an A major, then it switches to a D major, but all of the bass notes are A's, so i agree that the 'on A' probably just means a D/A, or that the guitar plays a D on top of the piano's A bass. just see what sounds best when you play with the band i guess. and yankee, i watched that BBC program last year and thought it was fantastic. cool, that was a great show on how music works. i want to watch it again. it really clarified some of the ideas behind music theory and made it interesting! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
WayneBradley Posted July 17, 2007 Share Posted July 17, 2007 This? http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites...ow_music_works/ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
yankee Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 This? http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites...ow_music_works/ yep. that's the one. got a copy from my english band-mate. it's pretty cool! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Groo Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 yep. that's the one. got a copy from my english band-mate. it's pretty cool! Oooh, that looks cool, is there any way I can get a copy? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dannygutters Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 Oooh, that looks cool, is there any way I can get a copy? I'm interested in this as well if anyone finds it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
loldoctor Posted July 27, 2007 Share Posted July 27, 2007 It sounds like they mean D on the A string, which would be played x57775 as a bar. A lot of music notation programs automatically put in those chord diagrams, so their addition of 'on A' could have been put in before the program started adding diagrams and they didn't think about it. Honestly though, it's weird. This is just my best guess, since 'on A' always means 'on the A string' when I hear it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
yankee Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 Oooh, that looks cool, is there any way I can get a copy?hey groo, you could check with our english guitar player. hey first friday it tomorrow. we'll probably be there. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Groo Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 hey groo, you could check with our english guitar player. hey first friday it tomorrow. we'll probably be there. First night of Lollapalooza tomorrow. I bought tickets ages ago, and the Girlfriend reeaaally wants to see Ben Harper. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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