How to play Leave The Door Open by Silk Sonic
Leave The Door Open is the Grammy Award winning, big-production Philadelphia-Soul style hit single from An Evening With Silk Sonic, the 2021 album by ‘super duo’ Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak. A Top 10 hit in over twenty countries, Leave The Door Open is a wonderful old-school ballad that makes an excellent chord study for intermediate guitarists wanting to develop their understanding of jazz harmony.
Chords: Fma7 G7/F G7sus Em7 Am7 G/B C Cma7 E♭ma7 A♭ma7 Gm7 Fm7 A7♭9♭13 Bº7 F7sus E♭m9 A♭7sus D♭ma7 G♭ma7 A♭7/G♭ B♭m7 B♭7b9♭13 (yep, that’s 22 different chords!)
Pick or Fingers? Use the pick. Leave The Door Open is a great example of slow Soul/funk. Use medium-hard pick and a short, flat strum stroke to place the chords precisely. A lot of this chart can be played with downstrums but follow the down and up-stroke indications where they are provided - they are correct.
Acoustic or Electric? Electric guitar, for sure. Any chart with this many sophisticated jazz forms and changes is an electric guitar piece. Don’t risk your hand health by playing a full chart of bar-chords and high-position forms on an acoustic guitar. Only the electric guitar is suitable for this kind of chord work.
What are the crossed strums for? A rhythm-slash with a cross-head is a ‘percussive strum’ - a muted effect made by relaxing the chord fingers so you only hear the blunt percussive sound of the pick striking muted strings; this a common electric guitar rhythm effect.
How does the timing work? The syncopated rhythm style of Leave The Door Open needs precise timing to get the recorded effect. Take care to mute (stop) the sound on the rests ; rests are an active part of the rhythm, just as much as are notes and strums. The general rhythm picks up from bar five ; count this as “1 2 and - 3 4“ and take care not to rush the 4th beat in ahead of time; the previous strum goes for a whole one-and-a-half beats. In the chorus the last two bars are a variation on this and are counted “1 2 and - 3 and 4 e and“. In the ‘Instrumental Bridge’ that leads to the key-change the rhythm is “1 2 & a 3 e and 4 and | “1 e & a 2 and - 3 and 4 & a”. Practice all rhythms slowly, counting aloud before trying to put the whole song together.
Relevant pages in Modern Guitar Chord Styles 3 : to learn more about the chords and rhythms used in Leave The Door Open go to pages 4 - 5, 8, 16 - 19 and 28 - 31.
Need a bit of help?
Modern Guitar Chord Styles 3 is an advanced/tertiary-level text that deals with the exciting but musically challenging area of Jazz and Funk styles. It features detailed information about the important Jazz and Funk chord forms, rhythm styles, harmony theory and styles of chord use. Presented in notation with chord boxes and some TAB to assist realization. The perfect assist for guitarists wanting to test their rhythm guitar ability & get grooving!
