Bert Jansch's High Chords

[fatschlamp]

Hi there,

Learning One For Jo recently and was interested in his high C fingered at the 8th fret: 8-x-x-x-8-0

There is also his high Bm in First Light with John Renbourn:
7-9-0-7-x-x

A high G in Reynardine:
5-5-9-7-x-x

Does anyone here have any favourites they feel are really useful?

[Andyrondack]

An A5 chord I like is X079100
Cmaj XX10080
Fmaj X03565 this one only comfortable on a short scale or higher up with a capo.
Your G shape doesn't make sense in drop D it should be 55X087.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by fatschlamp

Hi there,

Learning One For Jo recently and was interested in his high C fingered at the 8th fret: 8-x-x-x-8-0

He gets the open G in there too: 8-x-x-0-8-0

Originally Posted by fatschlamp

There is also his high Bm in First Light with John Renbourn:
7-9-0-7-x-x

He loved that high Bm voicing and used it (and variations of it) countless times. E.g., you can add the open 2nd string (another B), and/or 1st string too (to give Bm(add4)).

He used it in drop D (9-9-0-7-0-x) and in DADGAD too (9-9-0-7-0-0 = Bm7 in The Old Triangle).

Originally Posted by fatschlamp

A high G in Reynardine:
5-5-9-7-x-x

Right (drop D btw)!
Personally I don't bother with that one myself, because I find 3-x-0-4-3 sounds just as good and is easy to get to from the line before - and no harder to get to the high next part. But he certainly chose 5597xx.

Drop D allows some nice open-voiced D chords:

0-0-4-7-x-x

0-9-7-x-10-x

How about this Gmaj7 from "Crimson Moon" (drop D) - admittedly only played very briefly:

5-x-0-4-7-7 (pinky on the top two).

Originally Posted by fatschlamp

Does anyone here have any favourites they feel are really useful?

"Useful" is the question. I've occasionally used similar chords in my own instrumentals, but with songs (vocals) I put melody and lyric first above fancy guitar sounds.

A great example of his high position shapes with open strings is in "I Am Lonely", where he uses these:

x-3-5-0-5-x = C

7-x-5-0-8-7 = G/B

8-x-7-0-6-8 = F(add9)/C

Of course they are fingerpicked; strumming wouldn't really bring out their quality! Check out my lesson here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfygwzm3kLU - go to 10:45 for the bridge sequence. (Sorry for video quality, I'll be updating this lesson when I get the time.)

"Tell Me What is True Love" used all of these (not quite in this order):

0-2-4-1-0-0 = Eadd9
0-4-4-2-0-0 = F#m11/E
0-3-4-0-1-0 = C(#4)/E (in later versions he changed this to the easier and less dissonant 0-3-4-2-0-0 (Am6/9/E))
0-7-7-4-0-0 = Esus4
0-7-9-9-0-0 = E5
7-5-0-7-7-0 = Bm(add4) - another Bm variation!
0-4-7-6-0-0 = A(add9)/E

He strummed the first two of those in "When I Get Home" - shades of Sandy Denny's "Who Knows Where the Time Goes"... .
In Pentangle's "Colour My Paintbook" he adapted some of those for strumming as follows (something like these anyway):

0-7-6-4-0-0 = E
0-9-7-6-0-0 = F#m11/E
7-9-0-7-0-0 = Bm(add4)
9-x-7-6-0-0 = A(add9)/C#
8-9-7-0-0-0 = Cmaj13#11

In "The Parting" (fingerpicked), he used this awkward shape for E(add9):

0-9-6-9-0-0

- seemingly only so he could slide that 5th string down to this Add9 shape:

5-7-7-6-0-0

In "Katie Cruel", he used these two shapes:

x-7-9-0-8-x = Em
x-9-9-0-7-x = Gmaj7/F# (variation of the Bm)

Then there's these in "My Pocket's Empty" (DADGAD):

0-9-0-7-(5-0) = D (hammering on to the 5th string)
0-8-9-0-7-0 = G7/D (bending the 2nd up a half-step)

But coming back to "really useful"? Obviously it's great to explore all these sounds, and add them to your vocabulary. How useful you find them depends on how much you want to use the special effects they produce.

[fatschlamp]

JonPR - you are a complete legend!

Thank you for that extensive reply - I'll go through these tonight.

Also, long call here - are you the same Jon who posted the 3 part Bert special on YouTube recently...? Loved it.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by fatschlamp

JonPR - you are a complete legend!

Thank you for that extensive reply - I'll go through these tonight.

Also, long call here - are you the same Jon who posted the 3 part Bert special on YouTube recently...? Loved it.

Yes that was me. I was sent a bootleg DVD some years back by another Bert fan, but it needed some tweaking, which became possible with recently acquired video software.