Ok so I found this vocal version I have been talking about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9UsDl5gSuo

 

Just skimming through the sheet music and some of the bass notes go down to a C2!!! What insane Bass singer does that?!?!

 
I can get to B2 with some power and quite a lot of omph, if that is what you can call it!!  Ok not as nice as the vocalist in the link which I am listening to but I still can hit that not, I can also hit f5 as well!! Ha Lol, sorry I'm letting my ego out.
 
The problem here matt, is this sounds totally different to the cello piece you linked.  By the looks of things the cello is peice is in a different key but again I might be wrong and I am looking forward to Jeffs opinion on this.
 
Peace Ben

(notes) E, D, E, G (with some weird A note also in there predominant(loud)) chords that will fit when chords start: (Fmaj7+9), (G7, Am7), (Fmaj7+9), (G7 with a Dm7, E7 with odd notes added like D). Something like that but added 9ths, maybe 11ths, 13ths with transition notes in the chords. Not exactly though. (G7 with a Dm7 means notes in chord, G, B, D, F, A, C, E). Stuff like that.

mattplaysguitar


Haha, I did research to learn that double flat 5th terminology ;) Simply a 5th, but flat, twice, which makes it a 4th, but with no 5th being played.

So I actually just got sent the music score. Turns out we were both wrong. It is made up of 9 parts officially (at least in the vocal version, not this Cello version). We have:

Solo:           F5
Tenor:         F5
Lead:          Eb5
                   Bb4

Baritone:    Bb3
                 G3
Bass:          Eb3
                 Bb2
Bass Extra: Eb2

This is of course for the vocal version. I think the PianoGuys version doesn't have those extra low bass notes in it though. Oh and the Solo is playing the same parts as the Tenor, though he is singing some different words and there are a few bits sung differently in the vocal version.

Of course I am looking at a different score so it's entirely possible that these are not the notes used on that video! But I did play them on my iPhone piano thing and it did seem to fit.

Just skimming through the sheet music and some of the bass notes go down to a C2!!! What insane Bass singer does that?!?!

So your chord is something like an Eb9 with no 7th

Jealous! I was in a barber shop quartet about 12 years ago and still have fond memories. When everyone is singing perfect pitch and you hit those harmonies, it's almost a religious experience....the hardest part IMO wasn't the complexity of the chords, but the modulation, especially if you're singing the 7ths or the 9ths. I found some of them hard to wrap my head around. 

matt,
I love this website:

www.gootar.com

click on the "perfect pitch" icon.  you get something like 30 seconds of free use, but you can always refresh the browser and get another 30.

you can enter any notes you want and it will tell you what chords you have and any alternate names.

Not listened to it, but looking at the notes you listed, gives the chord E flat add 9.

Beagle


matt,
I love this website:

www.gootar.com

click on the "perfect pitch" icon.  you get something like 30 seconds of free use, but you can always refresh the browser and get another 30.

you can enter any notes you want and it will tell you what chords you have and any alternate names.

Years ago I wrote a program for the Amiga computer called "Fretknot" which was a guitar fretboard chord/scale utility. You could select notes on the fretboard and it would tell you every possible chord that those notes matched perfectly, as well as all possible chords those notes were part of, and all possible chords which were part of those notes. Then it would tell you which scales were associated with those notes as well. It was great for chord substitution and modulation ideas, and would even give you hundreds of "next chord" suggestions if you gave it a chord you were stuck on while writing a song. It made the coverdisks of a couple of Amiga magazines at the time and I thought it was the bees knees, but of course then the PC explosion happened and there were a ton of similar programs out for Windows within no time. I think you can probably get a ton which run on your phone these days. 

That's pretty awesome Sharke!  Great thread Matt!

(My knowing the ins and outs of chords + performing barbershop quartet harmonies is evolving more and more.  Hopefully my various choirs can increase such harmonies ... which for us is slow but promising)


I have one know-it-all musician (my elder son) ... oft I sing a harmony ... he copies it or pitch bends his singing to his *inspired* rant.  And the blind leads the blind, etc.  


But some of the 3/4 beat songs, like "Amazing Grace", are easier to do barbershop harmonies, IMHO, and sweet vocal stacks.

Our favorite was "Yes Sir, That's My Baby." Really catchy tune, easy to learn, lends well to barbershop harmonies and it has a killer modulation into the last verse.