Hey Friend,

What do you think of the Mu major chords? Fun, huh?

Once your fingers get the hang of them, they're not too difficult. You just have to get to that point.

Let's look a little deeper at the theory and construction.

Mu major chords get their base sound from the root, third and fifth intervals from their respective scales. For example, an A major chord is based on the A major scale and uses the first, third and fifth scale degrees to construct the chord:

1 3 5 is  A, C# and E.

To then turn this into a mu major, you add either the second or the ninth note to the major chord. This is what gives the chord its unique sound.

Again, "mu major" is just a fancy way to name an add2 or add9 chord. In other words, you're just "adding" either the second or ninth note from the scale to the existing major chord with its 1 3 5 notes.

In our example A major chord, that means the B note. You can pull it from either the current octave or the next. 

How do you decide which?

It all comes down to access and the chord inversion you're playing. 

Regardless, either the 2 note is going to get displaced and you'll use the 9 note, or the three note will get displaced and you'll end up using the 3 note from the next octave.

If the chord is a root inversion so the notes line up in a 1 3 5 configuration, playing both the 1 and 2 notes together could be impossible. That would force you to find a fingering where the 9 note is easy to get to.

As I pointed out yesterday, the G mu major example had the first (1) and second (2) notes in order (G and A), but this forced us to move the third (3) note (B) off to the next octave, which ended up being the open B (second) string. That fingering gave us G, A, D, G, B, G across the strings from the sixth to the first string.

With all the other chord examples from the exercises, it's the ninth scale note that shows up. 

Hope that all makes sense. If not, let me know - just hit reply to this email. Have a great one!

Peace~

Dave