What are the Gloria chords?

In the original Them version posted I clearly hear the open G string on the second beat of each bar, but I'm thinking he is just letting go of the grip and it's all open strings for those strums, it's really only the top three strings that are clearly heard, it's hard to make out what happens in the bottom. It's obviously not supposed to be an Em, it is just a by-product of the playing technique. That high pitched squeal also spices things up.

 

I wonder if it was Page. It is ornamental and not in the chords of the song. I assume he was trying to jazz it up for a repetitive number.

 

It's right hand strum work and not left hand chord work. I agree that the barre gets lifted for the effect.

 

The chords of the song according to what? No sheet music or music book available is going to give you exactly what the original musicians played (classical, Broadway musical and big band scores might be the obvious exceptions here). More than likely the first chord of the progression was simply, back in the day "E no 3rd" (just octave voicings of E and B as I mentioned above, although likely no one in the band ever called it such a thing) and the riff toggles the overall harmony but not the chords.

I had no idea Jimmy Page played on that, but perhaps so...

 

My original point was that this was ornamental and not enough to call it a chord. It came about because of the idiosyncrocies of the rock and roll guitar basically.

(If it was "E no third", that makes it also, "not Em." I hope you voted.)

This was my point in the other thread. It is ornamental and incidental, so it can't be considered a chord in the song.

 

It all comes down to what is meant by "the chords?" The chord voiced by the entire band is E Major then E minor, then E Major again (so your third choice is most close to the truth, but...). The chord played by the guitarist chording is "E" not E Major nor E minor. I guess I tend to agree that it's incidental (I prefer melodically-derived harmony) as opposed to chordal so I voted E Neapolitan D Augminished A Demented since carrots wasn't an option.

 

Between 2:00 and 2:30 there is a very strong rh gtr backup to the vocal by Van. A lot of them you can clearly hear the 2 3 and 4 beat being played (if not the one as well) and they seem identical.

 

I have only ever known it to be E,A,D
Perhaps the hammered on chord confuses folks?

 

Good for you!

I would say that "E no third" is "undifferentiated", but not non-major. This is in keeping with power chord rock. To get the minor in there it changes the mood.

Do you really hear them go to Em and back to E before the D and A, as a whole band? (I thought I made that up) I thought, based on the convo so far, that the Em aspect is from the lead guitar, and not the whole band. Also it's hard for me to think I'm hearing only power chords in the song.

 

I hear the hammer-on as more of a picked melody line (no so terribly melodic, but we can't have everything) and not part of the chordal structure. The harmony results from the mixing of the two parts.

No; what I meant was that the resultant harmony from the two guitar parts (one chordal, one playing a melodic riff) when one listens to the finalized recording (i.e., that's the whole band on the record) toggles between E Major and E minor. I didn't mean to imply that the entire band is doing that toggling.

I won't use the term "power chord" as it's a misnomer, but the cat strummin' the chords is likely playing an E no 3rd (which avoids the potential dissonance that the melodic line would create) and the D and the A voiced as triads in open position.

 

If the guitar player is playing an E major chord and "ornamentally" takes his finger off the G string, it becomes an E minor chord, intentional or not, ornamental or not. Considering he does it in the same place each time, it's clearly deliberate.

 

Not really. If he lifts his hands off the guitar for a second and strums is that recorded as a A11/E?

If you want to talk about the Them recording can you cite times? I can't say I hear anyone on that record doing the same thing at the same place each time.

If you believe in the minor, why do you think all other recording of it don't have it?

 

It's a nice toggle going from E Em E. I hear the music in it, but not without the extra E before the D. That's just unmusical. I think it's the rht gtr call to do it or not.

I never think of Gloria as barre song.All the strings sound good to me.

 

I remember my guitar teacher playing us the song with the minor chord.

 

Well.....I can have an opinion on this too.......

As most guitar players are not very good when they learn Gloria for the first time , none of them can get from the E major to the D major without completely removing the left hand during the final upstroke of what is supposed to be another E major.... to get ready to form a D chord.... preferably before the 3 beat comes around.

I of course, never had that problem and can instantaneously/magically switch from one chord to any other chord (on an overdub).

The bass player playing Gloria is of course, in an advantageous position as he/she stays on the E root (or hey, any E he/she decides to stick in there).

So, you've got one guy lifting his hand, with the upstroke drone notes momentarily being e-a-d-g-b-e, the bass player hitting an E, the second guitar player (if the band hasn't already kicked him out last month) playing a 7th fret to 5th fret barred E-D (which can be done sorta more instantaneously than the other guitar player playing through the Vox), and the drummer sorta lagging behind everyone else as his thoughts drift to the drum pedal squeak.

The illusion then is of a phantom E minor chord...because during the left-hands-off moment, the low e-a-d are lost in their own drone (with the E slightly more prominent) and the high g-b-e dominating (it is after all, an upstroke moment) and so, voila..... the phantom Em chord. By the way, guitar player #2 is also not very good in band xxx, so his left hand is sliding the bar and is around the 6th fret as a chaka-chaka....more like a chak- ...at the same moment the illusion Em chord is appearing.... so his sound doesn't count because it's a Zal Yanovsky moment more than a Known-Chord moment.

To get picky, "Cherry Cherry" and "It's A Little Bit Me" (and a couple dozen others) are chock full of phantom E minor chords.

Now if Dewey Bunnell or Dave Crosby (the new advice-column guy) start playing Gloria, no telling what comes out...what with all those strange starter-point tunings.

I have a theory that all guitarists never get good at playing "Gloria". All of them....all of us....automatically must....and want... to revert into our early-guitar-playing days as a mindset as soon as someone calls out the tune as being next. It takes you into magic-time, no matter how long you've been playing or how good you now are. You must get back to not being very good the moment you kick into playing the tune.

Sorta almost like Nazz's "Loosen Up". Which is also very very hard to play imo. And it also has a lot of E, E minor, and E-demolished chords.

 

Because lots of bands who cover tunes are lazy? Most bands play "Wild Thing" incorrectly also.

The guitarist does it in same place each time. It changes in the part where he plays the 3s against 4s. For that segment he is playing major all the what through. He goes back to the major/minor thing agin at the second chorus.

I understand that not everyone can hear this level of detail, but some of us can.

 

This appears to be the correct answer.

Posted another video; this one may be regionlocked to the US but:

 

I'm not sure Laura Branigan has ever affirmed that.

 

Any one know what chords Jimi Hendrix used on his version of Gloria?

 

Jesus died for somebody's sins..........but not mine

 

If that wasn't the place for a minor chord then I don't know what would be! ;0

 

It's finally dawning on me! He didn't play the Em and they walked out. You must have seen it: Woodstock. Those people weren't burned out and tired. They were all van morrison fans.

 

I think most can hear it plainly. You're interpreting a sloppy transition between two major chords as two major chords and one minor chord. More people hear it for what it really is and that shows up in the voting and comments. It really is that simple.

 

The third and fourth strums are all strings open, an E minor 11.