Progressive rock legends Genesis certainly knew about pushing musical boundaries. As one of the pioneers of British prog, Genesis provided every guitarist who played their music with a real lesson in musicianship.
In this lesson we’re going to be looking at four chords featured in some of the band's biggest songs during the Peter Gabriel-fronted '70s era that featured guitarists Steve Hackett and Mike Rutherford.
Edim
If you ask most Genesis fans what the band's most epic, and progressive track is, the chances are Supper's Ready will crop up many times. This 23-minute progressive masterpiece takes the listener on a journey.
In the track's first part, there is a picked line with a descending top note. At some point this becomes an Edim chord, but the huge pitch distance between the open strings and the higher fretted notes gives a really nice, ethereal-sounding chord.
Am
On the surface, an A minor chord might not sound like the most interesting chord, but what is interesting here is the shape used. This A Minor chord, from the track Firth Of Fifth, is played as a fragment of a six-string minor barre chord shape.
The interesting thing here is the addition of the C (the major 3rd) once again at the top of the chord. The eagle-eyed out there may also recognize this chord from the intro to the Led Zeppelin track Stairway To Heaven.
E6add9
In the song The Musical Box from the Nursery Cryme album you will hear a chord that is a very unusual, but interesting sounding chord. That chord is the E6add9. This appears around the three-minute mark of the song.
This chord is only played with a single strum, which for a chord this complex is the best approach. There is a lot of harmonic content to this chord so playing the chord is best approached in a more minimalist fashion.
AmAdd9
The song Looking For Someone features this AmAdd9 chord. In the context of this particular song, it is used in a jazzy way after a short run down from a standard Am chord. The add9 at the top takes a regular minor chord and makes it very interesting.
With its jazz sound this is great as a passing chord, or to use when combining rhythm with lead guitar playing.
