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Dalhousie math prof solves Beatles musical mystery
by Scott Gilbreath ~ November 5th, 2008
How did they play that chord?
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The opening chord of “A Hard Day’s Night” has been a puzzle for decades because musicians have known that it is not possible for two guitarists and one bassist to make that sound. No multi-tracking was used in the opening chord, so how did they do it?
It took Dalhousie University Professor of Mathematics and Statistics Jason Brown (at right) months to deduce the answer: Producer George Martin must have added piano notes.
“What about the other three D3s? Only one can come from George’s twelve-string, and even if John played another one on his six-string, there’s still another to account for,” reads part of the conclusion of Brown’s report. “Beatles’ record producer George Martin is known to have doubled on piano George Harrison’s solo on the track. Could ‘the chord’ be part piano?”
“Pianos have three strings for every note; a hammer strikes all three at the same time to produce a sound. That solved the problem of the three F3s; all could have come from a piano playing F3.”
To solve the riddle, Dr Brown used Fourier Transforms, decomposing the sound and reconstructing the original notes on a computer.
He may be the first mathematician to get published in Guitar Player.
Dr Brown is now working on the question of who wrote the music to “In My Life”, for which both John Lennon and Paul McCartney have claimed sole credit.
h/t: Michael Kruse
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November 7th, 2008 at 01:39 PM
You can do a moderately convincing – but imperfect – imitation of the opening chord thus:
—5———–
—8———–
—5———–
—5———–
—5———–
—5———–