Gotcha. Two things come to mind regarding your desire to signal a different feel. I wonder if you could force, or strongly encourage the listener (and performer) to interpret that chord as a C#m by playing the C# bass note first - maybe doing a walkup from A to C# on the 5th string before strumming the chord? Also, I suppose you're playing those particular notes because you need them, but I did wonder if it would be at odds with your intent to just drop the A (the b6 if you are calling it C#m) and play a basic, or less ambiguous, C#m? Anyway, all that may sound like crap in practice, or be at odds with what you're going for. I'm certainly not a songwriter, but it's fun to think about.

What I remember about Zollo's interviews in terms of putting himself, or his views about songwriting, into it was that he was always asking the interviewee if they felt like the song was being channeled through them from some other source. It felt like he really wanted them to say yes (some did, some didn't).

Anyway, best of luck.

-Dave

Originally Posted by: faith83

Your question re: Amaj7 inspired me to consider this issue more closely. I think you're right. I don't think that, in isolation, there is any difference really, between different variations of Amaj7. At least not that big a one.

I think what the issue is -- and what I'm not communicating well -- is a psychological difference. The verses and the chorus are a simple, switching between A and E. For the bridge, I'm looking to signal that this is a different tone/mood from the verses/chorus (as is common, of course, for a bridge) and that the bridge is a bit more moody. Hence the desire for a minor chord notation and also something that is not just a variation of A, which is one of the only two chords in the rest of the song -- not because the sound is different, obvoiusly it's not, but because I want to signal to the creative team that this is a "minor" feel and a different feel from the verses/chorus.

[br]This is why I was asking about which notation to choose. I don't want to overly complicate things by using the C#m option when there is a simpler one, but C#m "feels" more right for this part of the song. And those tiny kinds of nuances can affect how a musician approaches the song in the studio.

On the other hand, having a session musician be annoyed with the composer for using an overly complicated notation when a simpler one would do (thus looking like the composer doesn't know what she's doing or is trying to be pretentious) would also be a problem.

Hence my dilemma. I think if this were a songwriting forum primarily rather than a guitar forum, it would be easier to communicate that sort of in-the-weeds songwriting thing, and I recognize that it probably sounds a little nitpicky. But especially since right now, everything has to be virtual -- no sitting around in the studio working out the song -- the need to communicate feel/nuance via the lead sheet and written notes becomes even more important.

I have read the first of the Zollo books, but not the rest. I agree, they are good reads, though I feel like Zollo has a bias that shows through pretty heavily in which songwriters he chooses to interview. He's a bit of a snob... but still, good stuff and I do want to make the effort to get the other volumes at some point. Really good process stuff in there.