Songs with only two chords

"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)

I think 'Tie a Yellow Ribbon' has roughly about 14 chords in it, although I'd have to double check.

Oh, I've found one with more: 'King George Street' by Squeeze has 16 - (A, Bb, B, C#, C#m, Dm, Ebm, Eb, E, Em, F, F#, F#m, G, G#, G#m)

Beach boys This Whole World has 15 or so

Looking at sheet music (I didn't listen to verify myself in this case), I see 16 in Chicago's "You're the Inspiration" as well, even when I count all extensions and inversions as the same chord.

Three different keys, I think, in that one.

Song that uses nine different chords and stays in the same key - "It's Getting Better" by Cynthia Weill/Barry Mann, hit for Mama Cass.

Four keys, actually, in the Chicago song!

Yeah, totally. I didn't think there was a 'no key changes' requirement?

Oh, nm. I think I misread you.

Right, I was just making the distinction.

I think there's ten in "Tie a Yellow Ribbon?" And it stays in the same key. One fewer secondary dominant than the Mama Cass song, but I think "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" has two different augmented chords, if I'm hearing it right, and a borrowed v chord.

It has a borrowed iv, too, so it would actually have eleven chords if there was ever a regular IV chord, but I think it uses ii and borrowed iv every time.

The Trashcan Sinatras 'Earlies' is just E and F#m.

I wrote a thing on this song recently, which has fifteen chords.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bj-lOyW_0U

It's one of my favorite songs. I think it really manages to sort of float around key centers. Not deliberate in its modulations.

That's pretty cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK42LZqO0wA

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

Until someone else comes along with something better, I'm going to claim this for the Kinks' "Autumn Almanac", which has 25 (at least) - according to the internet that is, though I remember being flummoxed by it when leafing through an old Kinks' songbook years ago. Also, it is definitely a pop song, no. 3 in the UK charts.

... count them for yourselves...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_u0gn1I8xQ

Sixteen? Not counting extensions as separate chords, I've got:

F#, B, C#, b minor, E, A, D, d# minor, D aug, G#9 (?), A#7, f# minor, a minor, G, F, d minor

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)

You put them in alphabetical order?

Lol

Is that one of those Eno I Ching techniques that Carlos Alomar balked at?

If you count extensions (e.g. 7ths and 9ths) as separate chords, there are definitely over 16 in the Chicago song.

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.