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A mathematician at Dalhousie University has used an operation called a Fourier transform to pick apart the opening chord to the Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night.” It’s kind of a big deal because non-Beatles musicians have been trying for decades to figure out the chord, which happens to be impossible to play on a guitar. (According to the Chicago Independent Radio Project blog, Harrison let the secret out years ago, but I guess it’s possible to be a huge Beatles fan and still not have heard that news.)
“A Hard Day’s Night,” the title track of both the album and the film, begins with a perfect attention-grabbing flourish, a stark, bright-edged, slightly dissonant guitar chord that lingers defiantly for a few seconds before the song begins. It took several tries to find the right chord, and the right colorations: they tried it distorted and plain, more dissonant and less, and even with tremolo. In the end, Lennon and Harrison settled on an intriguingly ambiguous configuration. Harrison, playing a twelve-string guitar, and Lennon playing a six-string standard instrument, played different voicings of a G suspended fourth chord–G major with an added C–while McCartney played a D on his bass. The bright, open sound they settled on was perfect for the gesture.
