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OK, gang … I ain’t scared to ask for help. I usually pride myself on the ability to pretty much throw chords down on the fly while listening to a tune. Today’s assignment has me pulling my hair out. It’s the introduction to “Joy to the World” from Mariah Carey’s Christmas album – we’ll be doing this Dec 23.

WARNING: THEORY NERD ALERT

There is a serious set of “nelson chords” (a term I dubbed in honor of my high school band teacher, Robert Nelson, who taught us our first “jazz/altered chords” in a little jazz combo after school).

The song is in the Key of A …

Here’s what I know .. it starts on an A with “Joy”… and ends up on the m6 (C#m) with “World” …

It’s the “to the” … those two chords that are blasting me. As usual, when I get stumped on chords, I start running the Circle of 5ths .. knowing they get me home – so I worked backwards on this one … I know they land on C#m (the minor 6, aka m6), so I figured that the 5 chord taking me to the C#m would be the 5 of 6 … correct … it’s some version of a G#. Then, getting to that 5 of 6 .. the G# .. I ran the circle again, and the 5 of G# is D# of some sorts (which in the Key of A, would be the 5 of 7).

It’s hard to clearly hear the bass on the recording – I think the bass is maintaining the root movement .. “Joy (A) to (D#) the (G#) world (C#m), and in the RH is where I’m hearing the tri-tone substitution, working in altered chords, chromatically from the D#, down to D natural, down to C# on the m6.

So, I know it’s a D# (something) and a G# (something) …

Anyone got ears to spell out these alternate chord voicings?

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HELP!