: Can an F# replace an A? I play the bass in a band. We are playing Ray LaMontagne's "A Falling Through." The chords for the intro and verses are C/G and F, but our guitarist prefers playing C Cmaj7 Am and F. The problem

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First you should decide if you don't want to stick to the original. The intro is pretty dominated by this bass melody:

X: 1
M: C
K: Cmaj
L: 1/8
V:C name="Bass" clef=bass-8
c,,3 g,, b,,c,b,,c, | f,,3 f,, b,,c,b,,c, | c,,3 g,, b,,c,b,,c, | f,,3 a,, b,,c,d,c, :|

That would still fit pretty well over C - Cmaj7 | am - F – the am would actually be am/F which is equivalent to Fmaj7 and the F would rather be something like b7?5, which may look weird but is actually not unreasonable harmonically (the latter fulfilling a bit of a dominant role).

Playing an A or even F? is certainly also possible, but both would lead to a sound that's significantly different from the original's “cotton wool country” feeling, A pointing more towards folk/rock and F? more toward jazz. Only you and the band can decide whether that's what you want.