"smug" chord lol

[Inno]

Hi Guys,

Just been watching a clip of Bill Bailey on the Jonathan Ross show and he played a bit of piano - I was wondering what type of chords are the ones he calls the "smug scale" lol - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHbyshO88A4&mode=related&search= - it's at about 4.20.

Thanks.

[fabien labonde]

it's just hilarating (does that word exist ?)
who is bill bailey ? very Monthy Pythonesque humour

[Inno]

it's just hilarating (does that word exist ?)
who is bill bailey ? very Monthy Pythonesque humour

Hilarating - what a great word! but no, doesn't exist :tongue:

Bill Bailey is a great UK commedian... very good multi-instrumentalist as well.
Anyways, anyone know what type of chords they are (aka major 7ths or whatever).

Ian

[Drusillus]

This is just a guess, I'm not at my keyboard, but it sounds like a ... uhm... well what would you call it...

Dmaj with E in the bass

Fmaj with G in the bass

Gmaj with A in the bass

etc.

[fabien labonde]

well, hilarious, sorry :)
thanks for the answer !

[RobD]

I watched that show. How the hell did I miss that bit?!? :P

[Drusillus]

Was I right? :)

[quartaumentata]

So a major chord with the 2nd grade of the scale at the bass is a "smug" chord?

I missed this part of armony theory, but watching that was really funny.

And, now that I think about it, I believe that in different musical styles and situations there are a lot of different "smug chords", depending on player's mood or attitude

[Grey Loki]

I like to play smug chords and wink at people with a lopsided grin on my face.

Nothing gets the crowd going quite so well.

:D

[Baddox]

After listening to it once, sounds like the first chord's just a Dmaj7 with an E thrown in there somewhere, so you might call it a Dmaj7add2? I know the notes in the chord (D A C# E), but not how to give the thing a name...I guess you could also call it an Amaj over D as well, but as it was played in the song, I'd just call it a "D major seven two" or something like that.

[Staccato]

Dmaj9 with the ninth in the left hand maybe?

[Flav]

The chord he plays just after he says "smug chord" is a F with a low G on the left hand. (as someone else already stated !)
This kind of chord is commonly used in some mellow pop songs or old funk as a dominant chord. For example, play a Fmaj/G then a Cmaj. You can clearly hear the attraction towards the Cmaj, as with a "regular" G7 chord.

By the way, hi ! Hope my first post was clear enough ! :wink:

[aqualatus]

I may be wrong (I may recognize the chord incorrectly), but I guess Jordan Rudess spoke about this type of chords in "Keyboard Wizardry".
It inspired me to try it out, and caused me to abuse these chords for some time ;)

They sound really great in some combinations and can sometimes be a nice and unexpected shift.