Songs with only two chords

Heroin - Velvet Underground (D, G)
Jane Says - Jane's Addiction (G, A)
Don't Let Me Down - Beatles (E, F#m)
NYC - Interpol (F, C)
Depreston - Courtney Barnett (Fmaj7, C)
Dreams - Fleetwood Mac (F, G)

i know Coconut by Nilsson is supposedly just C7 but i'm pretty sure he's playing a G in the bass, maybe the chord is just C7/G

others?

Coconut is one chord!

anyway there's too many to count, are you serious about this thread wtf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBIyW9o_Mg8

check the monkey's hands though - he's alternating from a straight C7 to a C7 with a G in the bass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbgv8PkO9eo

xp

loooool nv

Ravel - Bolero (C, E)

at least 50% of Spacemen 3's catalog

Roadrunner, by J Richman, you just catch a third one right at the end

Nah, there's 4th chord (a G) at the "Roadrunner once, roadrunner twice..." section.

... 3rd chord that is, the E at the end is the 4th. To be anal about it.

But talking of songs that are two chords until they stick a cheeky 3rd one in right at the end: "Pink Flag" by Wire. Though "Practice Makes Perfect" by Wire really is only two chords... I think.

Lou Reed, "Senselessly Cruel". Lou must surely have others.

... like for instance, "Temporary Thing", which is even on the same album!

Did anyone mention "The Cross" by Prince?

check the monkey's hands though - he's alternating from a straight C7 to a C7 with a G in the bass.

Playing an inversion doesn't really count as a new chord, surely?

Lol

born in the usa (B, E)

"dreams" def has a third chord iirc.

New Order Temptation
LCD Soundsystem All My Friends.
A ton of other songs.

Um, btw hasn't this been done before?

yes but which of these songs have the truth

"dreams" def has a third chord iirc.

― call all destroyer, Friday, September 2, 2016 8:10 PM (two hours ago)

Am - G - F is the verse and the chorus

also Don't Let Me Down has a couple extra chords in the bridge.

great thread.

"Everyday People". And the entire bass line is only one note!

Helpful thread for learning the guitar

Whole wide world - Wreckless Eric
classic

Manuel Göttsching - E2-E4

Heard Somebody I Used to Know for the first time in a while last thursday. I love the bass, just two tones, and then a third one in the chorus. That song is so well done.

Nirvana - Something in the Way

Another Lou Reed one, "Kicks".

... and two more, both on the same album, "I Want To Boogie With You" and "Families".

... and "Ooh Baby" from "Coney Island Baby".

"Whole Lotta Love" would count except for the B5-A5 stuff in the vocal break.

"Horse with No Name"?

Jane Says is technically 3 in that the A in the chorus is actually an A7

yeah I think Horse is just two.

Molly's Lips?

Jane Says is technically 3 in that the A in the chorus is actually an A7

I wouldn't count adding a 7th as a new chord but I think there is a third chord here: if you mean the chord under "tomorrow", I think the guitar is playing G and C# over D. This could be ambiguous on its own but, with the bass emphasizing D, and with the vocal line emphasizing A and ending on F#, I hear the root as D.

Sly "family affair"

family affair has at least four (mostly in the chorus)

Wilco - Misunderstood

So basically this thread is destined for 500+ posts about what a chord is

Eno, "Third Uncle"

Eno, "Baby's On Fire"

Xpost i like sund4r's theory posts tho.

New Order Temptation

There's more than two chords in this.

"Pushin' Too Hard"

So basically this thread is destined for 500+ posts about what a chord is

― Οὖτις, Saturday, 3 September 2016 17:05 (three hours ago) Permalink

Yes, but the chords in Family Affair are Dm, Gm7, C7 and Bbmaj7

how many chords does prince's "we can funk" have?

Don't Let Me Down - Beatles (E, F#m)

There's a passing Amaj7 in the choruses, and the bridge has a B and B7.

Van Morrison - You Don't Pull No Punches But You Don't Push the River. It all seems to be Em C.

what is the pop song with the most chords? (excluding tracks that are more than, say, five minutes long so as to rule out song suites and the like)

Yeah, tbf, A and A7 could definitely function differently if e.g A7 were a secondary dominant (V7/IV) in the key of A. A9 and A7 pretty much always have the same function, though, as do A and Amaj7.

(xxp) I was literally just going to post something about how Steely Dan must show up eventually!

Or someone especially sophisticated musically, like Stevie Wonder.

Someone count up Deacon Blues

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, September 5, 2016 6:21 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I got 31. sund4r might come up with something different.

cardiacs say hi

Steely Dan songs all have different chords for the solo, which juices the chord count a bit

*SD tracks from Royal Scam on I should say

I got 31. sund4r might come up with something different.

I'll give you that, since we're just counting as opposed to analysing, if you assume that we're working with recordings as opposed to compositions, you could count every harmonic structure differently, as opposed to counting based on harmonic function. We'd be counting two different things, though. Like, would you count this figure as three chords?

It depends, on one hand you could say that the function of those chords (in that specific order) is to provide a melody line against an A major chord, or one could argue that any one of those chords on their own has its own sound and could subtly change the flavour of a chord progression depending on context or its "place" in the progression, i.e. what chord comes before and after and how the chord relates to those other two chords.

Feel like Treeship is making a weird, "reverse-pedantic" argument. Sure, if you want to play the song and make it sound as close as possible to the original that extra information about the chord colors or basslines will certainly be useful, but as far as thinking about the harmonic structure of the song maybe not so much. "All The Young Dudes" starts, I think, D D/C# D/B D/A. Does that count as four chords or one chord with a very common bassline underneath?If you are playing it all by yourself on a single guitar, acoustic or otherwise, I guess you have to play the four relevant chord shapes, but you can still think of the basic chord as D. If you have more than one instrument playing, you have the choice of having that bassline doubled, or one guy can play it and everybody else can play something that goes with a D and doesn't "step on" the bassline.

I don't think anyone said anything about slash chords, dude. Which of course, I didn't count.

You might just as well be. Might even create a new chord count record that way!

xpost:

Well, aside from flappy bird in the opening post - and as Sund4r pointed out, C7/G is an inversion.

You have revealed yourself to be some kind of "voicist," privileging the top notes of chords over the bass notes.

It's Turrican, btw, not Treeship. Maybe you aren't as observant as I'd first pegged you after all.

i was gonna say, I didn't think Treezy posted here, there was no liberal politics batsignal present

Ah, sorry, lots of sun glinting on the little screen., hard to read properly. Apologies for the mixup, usually I can keep the two of you distinct in my mind.

u postin bout chords from the beach?

Close. From the concrete jungle.

A9 and A7 pretty much always have the same function, though, as do A and Amaj7.

i have mixed feelings about this

i generally think the root note is king but almost every I->Imaj7 chord change involves a pretty dramatic change in melody & harmony

A dramatic change in harmony? Really?

But, yeah, James Redd OTM. I don't really see a case for counting upper-voice suspensions and extensions as new chords if you're not going to do the same thing with bass voices, i.e. counting slash chords and inversions.

IVmaj7 is not very dramatic because that is the natural home of the major seventh. Imaj7 is approaching V over I territory.

xpost:

Depends on whether or not the bass note is actually in the chord to begin with. If you're playing A/C#, then fair enough, it's A major with a major third in the bass. If you're playing A/G# then G#, A, C#, E = Amaj7. Which sounds terrible.

By which I mean, it sounds terrible in that inversion. Having an additional higher G# (as well as the bass note) to make it Amaj7/G# sounds far better.

Sure, but you could also say this about inversions:

one could argue that any one of those chords on their own has its own sound and could subtly change the flavour of a chord progression depending on context or its "place" in the progression, i.e. what chord comes before and after and how the chord relates to those other two chords.

It's pretty well accepted, even by the fustiest classical theorists, that there are certain places where you could use I[6] (first inversion) and certain places where you could only use I. And second inversion chords are even a bigger deal. If anything, I would probably argue that this is more significant than the difference between V7 and V9.

xp

having the seventh doubled in different octaves is improper, though!

are there any good musical examples of a sustained chord with a major seventh in the bass?

Not that I know of. Example above was of maj7 as part of descending bass line. There is one very good example of a major triad over a flat 7th though.

So basically this thread is destined for 500+ posts about what a chord is

― Οὖτις, 3. september 2016 18:05

Chords, why are they so bad and hated?

Imaj7 is approaching V over I territory.

In any situation where this would make sense, I think I would analyse ^7 as an anticipation of V, i.e. a standard embellishment of a I-V progression.

If I'm understanding you right.

These kinds of arguments go way back

Or, if not that far back, at least to that other instance of this semi-regular ILX tradition for long weekends, the Great Music Theory Discussion of the Saturday Before Easter 2014.

I've just had to check out 'Autumn Almanac', I counted 26...

(A, A7, A9, Am7, Amaj7, Bb, B7, C, Cm, C#m, C#m7, D, Dm, D7, Eb, E, E7, Em, F, Fm, F7, F#7, G, Gm, G7, G#7)

Not counting the different extensions (and two discrepancies, one on the Eb - I think there's only an eb minor chord, and I think there's an augmented chord on the beat for "toasted" from "toasted, buttered currant buns"), the ones I'm missing are:

C and c minor chords?
e minor?
f minor?
g minor?

I don't hear these.

I figured out how to play this song as a teenager, by the way, but never really got through the whole thing!

Nice to look at it again - it sure is a great, great song!

I don't hear these.

― timellison, Tuesday, 6 September 2016 01:56 (fifty-one minutes ago) Permalink

Then yer doing it wrong.

Oh? Maybe you could point out where they are.

C, I got, by the way. Not c minor, though.

John Cale, "Ship of Fools"

'Crazy for You' by Slowdive is just C major and A minor.

'Age of Consent' by New Order is just D and G.

Ministry - "New World Order"

Gravity Rides Everything by Modest Mouse is just Cadd9 and G

Milligan claimed that he wrote this song as a bet, with his brother, that he could not get a song into the hit parade that had only two chords (in this case G and D7).[3]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nebe1zuEtbc

Tom Verlaine/Television, "Breakin' In My Heart"!

yes but which of these songs have the truth

― mookieproof, Friday, September 2, 2016 8:46 PM (six years ago)

"Practice Makes Perfect" is an unusual example of this, in that the two chords (Cm and G♭) don't share any conventional key or mode. Colin Newman did this again in the verse of "Don't Bring Reminders" (using B♭ and E), but tossed in three more chords for the chorus.