CW138
I was reading about Paul McCartney’s new album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, before it came out. I was intrigued that the album begins with a guitar chord he’d never played before.
He didn’t know what to call it, but he voice-led it by ear to a resolution. The album begins with this three-chord progression.
After the album came out I got to hear the chords, and I saw a video where he’s showing them. Here they are:
The first chord isn’t hard to understand in the key of G he ends up in, but it is annoying to name. It’s Cm(maj7)(no 5)/D. It’s easier to write D-C-Eb-B.
Naming aside, I love the game that’s implied. You start with that chord and then resolve to somewhere in two moves. I like to imagine a book of a whole bunch of musicians expressing themselves within these narrow confines, not knowing what anyone else will do. Maybe some people that seem really different even solve the problem the same way.
Given that I know what Paul did already, it’s too late for me to really play this imaginary game. But it was fun to work out other three-chord progressions from the same starting point, leading elsewhere.
