It all comes down to the root of the chord.

In other words, what is the foundation, or the base (bass?!) note. Having said that, Mike is correct, saying that chords can have more than one label, and still be "correct". A factor that complicates matters, for guitarists, is that they are often playing in a group, where some other instrument is actually playing the bass notes. The root of the chord may not even appear in the guitar part . . .

Taking these examples though, I would look at the lowest note, and assume that is the root, and see if it makes sense that way.

EADGBe
X24430

Would be a B chord of some sort, with a very typical B, F#, B as the three lowest tones (root, 5th, root). The remaining two tones would be the minor third (D, third fret, second string), and only the top note (E, first string open) is outside the normal Bm triad, so I'd call it a Bm 11. Often, an added note that high (above the 7th) is present with one or more other added notes, such as the 7th, and /or 9th, but not in this case. In other words, Mike has nailed it, including the case where E might be the root. However, E were the root, why in the world woud the open E string be muted?


EADGBe
X04430

In this case I have to nod to a convenience notation, probably attributable to guitarists who couldn't be bothered to label a chord "properly", when it was clearly just complicated by the presence of a passing tone in the bass. The classic example is a F/G, or C/D chord, where the "root" moves up a step, but everything else remains the same. These are called "F over G" (F triad over a G bass note), and C over D (C triad over a D bass note), respectively. In the example above, the "root" is moving down (from B to A), which is clearly just a passing tone going somewhere else (to G, or G#, most likely). That last bit is speculation, of course, but it would be a very common case. So, the chord would be labeled Bm 11/A, which means a Bm 11 chord over an A bass note.

However, if you feel the need to use a more "proper" label, Mike has nailed it once again.

Interesting topic!
Emmit Sycamore


[This message has been edited by EmmitSycamore (edited 06-12-2006).]