@@magicmulder he says Pink's song is only one chord which is not really correct. You can clearly hear the bass going from a B down to an E. I haven't listened to the whole peace but that specific example wasn't correct.
""Slow Down" and "Blue Chair" by Morcheeba are the best example of songs that consist only of minor chords without sounding weird!!! Absolutely masterpieces!
"Smooth Operator" (Sade Ado): dm7 - am7 - gm7 - am7 etc. I love that song, that's why I remembered it immediately in the context of a 'minor only' chord progression.
Freelove by Depeche Mode must be all minor chords. It's such a sophisticated song. Most might not catch the tricky modulations, until trying it on the guitar
@@DavidBennettPiano my mom used to tell me that punk rock sucked because it was all "one chord" she and a friend would always be gone friday and saturday night leaving me alone, and I would ask her where they went and she told me to go watch punk bands play at club foot and rauls. this was back in 1982.
Dance music is also very often written in minor keys specifically to avoid sense of movement and then builds musical interest through progressions of changing instruments, tones, drum loops. A second reason is that it is often built on samples (eg minor 7th) that are transposed in sampler to form parallel harmony. Great example is famous "big fun" by Inner Coty where sampled minor 7ths give it sense of suspension, timelessness, sadness, and nostalgia that amazingly clashes with lyrics "we're having big fun". Though one can argue that m7ths have a major triad in them and don't function the same way as pure minor triads would.
❗️CORRECTION: I've decided to cut out "Get Up, Stand Up" and "He's The Greatest Dancer" from this video as, although both songs are almost exclusively minor chords, they both do contain small moments of other types of chords. Sorry for any confusion caused.
What are the other chords in Get Up, Stand up? In the keyboard line I guess? Isn't there any song with 4 or more chords, all minor? Cool video, thanks!
As a huge black metal fan, my first thought was "wtf? this is rare?" until I thought about it more and realized that I couldn't think of any non-bm examples
@@j_c_93 I love this phrase you've used "huge black metal fan". It can be read so many ways: 1. A literal black-colored, large, air-circulating machine made of metal; 2. A person who very much enjoys the genre "black metal"; 3. A person, who is black, and greatly enjoys metal music; 4. A person who is both large in stature and black, who enjoys metal music; 5. A person who greatly enjoys metallic materials which have been painted black or are black in color by nature; 6. A person who is large of stature and greatly enjoys the genre "black metal". I love the English language as much as I hate it.
Here’s a list of other minor-only songs I can think of, many of which I’m pretty sure I am correct about: 1. Dr Dre ft Snoop Sogg - Still D.R.E. (Rap song with Am and Em throughout). 2. Gorillaz - Dirty Harry (Bbm, Fm and Ebm11 throughout) and GorIllaz - DARE (Gm and Cm13 throughout, although there is an implied E natural in the main hook).
I've decided to bite the bullet and start learning music theory via youtube after watching your videos for ages and wishing I fully understood! I've only just started but it allowed me to follow what you were saying a lot better! Thanks for always making great and really informative videos! Could you please do one on typical chord progressions in gospel? I'd love to learn that, gospel often sounds so upbeat and I'd love to know the science behind it!!
@@DoctorSwagger it's never too late to start really! I got my keyboard out and a book and started learning from this playlist: th-cam.com/play/PLUyDmNalB0rjteAmf8ciJ1zL2GqnzryS_.html Hope David doesn't mind me putting that there! Good luck!!!
Money by Pink Floyd. Moves between Bm, F#m and Em throughout the song, in various modes. Still manages a pretty fluid and diverse harmonic progression, the guitar solo alone has 3 distinct sections that sound totally different despite all being built around these three chords.
A lot of Pink Floyd's music and the new Arctic Monkeys album is written predominantly with minor chords, but they often use it to make any switches to major that much more epic-sounding (like with the Eb in Imperial March).
I love how you analyze the chord structures. It makes me think back about 45 years to when I studied music theory and harmony. There is one piece I would love to see you analyze. Same Old Blues has some very interesting progressions if the performer follows the notes as written.
EpifanesEuergetes That sounded more like Stevie Wonder singing “Ain’t No Sunshine.” Granted, it’s Withers’ tune. Was there a copyright issue? Or are my ears deceiving me?
a lot of oldskool rave songs from the late 80s to early 90s were minor chord only, because the main sound would be a sampled chord, meaning it'd play a minor chord by just pressing down one key, and it'd be minor no matter which one you pressed. Prime examples would probably be "Good Life" and "Big Fun" by Inner City
My favorite Bill Evans piece which uses non-functional harmony is “Time Remembered.” It only uses minor and major 7th chords, no dominants, yet it has its own inner logic and is absolutely gorgeous.
there are house tracks from the nineties using only minor chords. They usually feature very short progressions resulting in large parts of the song staying on (at?) one chord.
Well done. Not only is this only minor chords, but actually has a sophisticated chord progression. Great suggestion, haven’t heard that song in around a decade
Thank you for explaining how music works, and why things that "don't work", sometimes do. I've come to creating music after retiring from thirty-two years working in a factory. Many of the songwriting workshops I've been to focus on creating marketable popular songs, which I have very little interest in.
It just helps to show that while harmonic structure can be a rich part of music, it’s not always the most important part. Vast amounts of electronic music, from techno to ambient and drone, will stay on one chord, if it could even be said to have any chords at all. Rhythm, melody, timbre and dynamics are all just as important, and in many genres having complex functional harmony would actively detract from those elements.
Ravel's Bolero only uses one chord - C maj until near the end when it modulates to E maj for several bars and the back to C maj until the end. But this is a genius composer who can bend the rules and do what he likes.
Edwyn Collins had a sizable hit in the 90s with "A Girl Like You", which I believe is exclusively played with minor chords. Its also structured like a typical rock/pop song with frequent chord changes rather than a single chord being held for a long period of time, as in your funk/modal jazz examples.
Justin Eddy I had a few people suggest this one but, although the bass stays on C, you can hear the guitars playing Ab major and Bb major over the C. It’s close but it does use major chords.
"Dark Funeral - The Arrival of Satan's Empire" is a pretty clean example, but also many many other Black Metal songs! I'd even go as far as to say there is definitely harmonic movement, with emphasis on it. It's just a different musical language. Of course it can be hard for an unaccostumed ear to hear past the drumming and screaming!
No. 1 Party Anthem has a cool chord structure, similar to John Lennon's Isolation and Green Day's Last Night on Earth. Apart from these three, I don't think there are any other songs featuring that chord progression. It's a highly idiosyncratic, recognizable one.
@@IdiotAmigo I disagree, Alex Turner has written a couple of songs with the I - dominant III - IV progression, off the top of my head I can name this one, Mardy Bum, Piledriver Waltz and Sweet Dreams TN. The chord progressions on Tranqulity Base I find more interesting, like One Point Perspective, Golden Trunks or the title track. And as someone said above, the Four Out of Five bridge has some great chord changes.
@@patriciofernandez2711 Whoops, looks like I mixed things up. No. 1 Party Anthem indeed has the chord progression you mentioned, much like Creep, except for the iv at the end and the second chord being a dominant seventh chord here. I was thinking of the Isolation progression, also used in Last Night on Earth, which has a lingering chord with just the bass notes changing: D - D/A# - D/B - D7. Similar, since D/A# can be interpreted as an augmented F# chord with an added minor third, and D/B as Gmaj7add9 without the root, but not exactly the same.
Amazing how non functional harmony can sound so acceptable to your ear. It'd be interesting to experiment with shifting between functional and non functional harmony in the same song. I'm sure it's been done (some songs come to mind) but cool to think about especially when there's so many other ways to "bend" your ear with chord substitutions, modal interchange, modulations, etc. My brain is going to explode!
Love this. Would be interested in you doing a video about how (relatively) rare in popular music songs that are purely in minor key are, as compared to major. The Beatles for instance only stayed in the minor key in few songs like "Mr. Kite", I know other bands and styles do so more often but my understanding is that it's relatively rare compared to major and a discussion of that would be interesting. thanks again for a great channel
Brandy and Monica - The Boy is Mine (f# and c#) Aaliyah - Try Again (am and e) If you don't know these songs or artists, then you're missing out. Trust me!
Only recently come across your videos and I must say that your breakdown and analysis is phenomenal. As a musician, theory and breaking the theory down had always bored me, I'm more of a practical musician, but listening to you explain things and the visuals audio excerpts you use are so pleasing to me. Keep up the good work, man
Ever since I got into ilomilo I noticed how it has such a completely different feeling from any other song I have heard. I think this comes from the fact that there are only minor chords in it, and that one of them is the minor dominant, which i really like
Darth Vader's Imperial March as last example successfully surprises me, this music is very infamous but I just discovered its unnoticed element through this vid. Also, I already watched many of your video and those are always informative (never disappoint me), so I decide to sub.
The Beatles famously borrowed the 1-5-6-4 progression from Aha's 'Take on Me'. Paul McCartney was a big fan of synth pop in the 1980s. I think he was influenced by Taylor Swift and Rihanna too.
it is shockingly amazing, how he does these video tutorials. not just takes it his musical geniusness but particular in this video .... if i think of all searching and researching , digging for examples ... this is crazy ... and the result presented to us ... always awesome
Hi David, there's a chord progression that I'd like you look at: It's in the chorus of La Flaca by Jarabe de Palo and the chord progression is bVI - bVII - i - IV (in this case: F - G - Am - D) It works but I can't figure out why. I would appreciate if you helped me figure this one out
I believe that would be considered a VII/V (seven of five) which means if you’re in the key of Am the i chord is Am and the v chord is Em so D would be the Vll chord in Em (VII/V) I could be mistakes but I hope this makes sense.
Best popular musicians of recent times, hands down! That song is a modern masterpiece in its use of changes of key and time signature. I’d also love him to look into some of Syd Barrett’s songs, like “Jugband Blues”, “Apples and Oranges” and “Feel”.
This is a wonderful presentation. I didn't know that the function of major and minor chords in forming cadences was so different! I just had a brief instruction in music theory. Now one notable song which uses the minor mode from start to finish: Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word by Elton John. Now it seems clear to me that John chooses minor keys to enhance the sombre mood of the lyrics. It's harmonically rich and I have yet to identify one major chord anywhere in the course of the song.
I had "move on up" stuck in my head all day, so I got a chuckle from seeing it in this video. I'd love to see some videos looking at funk music from a music theory point of view.
Love your videos. As a pianist and physicist, I really appreciate your treatment of technical music - acoustic - theory. You have a lucid way of presenting material. Bravo!
BTW, since you mentioned Bob Marley, I think "Sun is Shining" is only minor chords. "Forever Loving Jah" too. Reggae's a lot like funk in that harmonic motion is the least important thing.
@@DavidBennettPiano It may just be the reason I got bored pretty quickly when I tried out a few of Bob Marley's albums. I decided to like his hits but leave the rest of his output for good.
There's a band called Portishead who mostly use minor chords. They certainly mostly did on their first two albums anyway. The chord changes are sometimes pretty much random, and not following any key signature. Some good song examples are "Cowboys", "Elysium" and "Half Day Closing".
House and Rave music often used alot of minor chords strung together (typically piano) in the songs main riffs, often chords out of the key. But I always found it interesting on the ear
My favorite minor chords song (with a brief major) has always been "Heatwave" by Martha & the Vandellas. Admittedly though, that major is pretty important.
Houses in Motion - all Em and a few others on Remain in Light and Speaking in Tongues are very close. However, I think "Pull up the Roots" wins with three chords: Bbm, Ebm (refrain) and Fm (bridge). They all sound minor to me.
I was just watching one of Paul Davids' videos and learned a mind-blowing reason why major chords are so predominant in rock. When you play a guitar through an overdriven tube amp, the natural harmonics of the tone include a major third. This makes overdriven major thirds sound brighter and more powerful. An overdriven minor third, on the other hand, is essentially out of tune with itself. See Paul's video-"What makes rock sound like rock, and why major chords sound better"-at th-cam.com/video/eBXaKNAfmHw/w-d-xo.html
I mean, natural harmonics are there whether you're driving them through a tube amp or not, so I don't see why this argument applies exclusively to Rock - if anything it's more of an argument for why major chords are so predominant generally, in popular music. Aside from that, a major chord would be of tune with itself too anyway, due to the fact that the major third that you hear in the harmonics of a guitar string is not exactly the same as the major third that you play on a 12-TET tuned instrument
i wish i had discovered your channel before i did music theory grades because it took me forever to learn cadences yet i understood them so easily here
I've been watching your videos for a while and you have given me the motivation to learn the piano so that I can put into practice what you have talked about. This is big news since I was the kid in choir class that teachers always said to just move my lips and not make a sound.
Kudos, you really do your homework! I can't read music myself (wish I could), but you def help me to understand the concepts composers use when writing...
Not sure, but I guess that, when studying harmony when young, it was supposed that only some old Scottish songs admitted a full minor harmonization. That is why we end up using harmonic and melodic minor in so many instances, allowing us to use dominant chords in an otherwise minor context. Thanks for providing this incredible wealth of music knowledge in such an atractive way.
As you mentioned funk holds on single chords for a long period. I can think of one such example, I believe "Thank You" by Sly & The Family Stone is one Em7 chord the entire way through.
Interesting concept for a video. I'm too lazy to check for sure, but I believe that the Police song "Driven to Tears" is entirely minor. "Bed's Too Big Without You" may be as well, or at least very close.
'Driven to Tears' is interesting. The sheet music has a few major chords on there but when I listened to it, those major chords sound quite ambiguous, almost like a major and minor chord are both in the mix. Interesting.
Get Down On It is probably 'technically' in E minor--it's hitting Em7, Bm7, and Am7, and Em7 gets a lot of emphasis--but it always sounds like G major to me. It's just so upbeat. I like to hit a lot of G note when soloing, and ending on a G feels so satisfying. I like to say it's in shy G major.
5:02 In American countries it’s called an Authentic cadence. I called this a perfect cadence in Canada for a long time, and every time I called this the perfect cadence this got marked wrong. One time it was enough for me to fail a course, so I had to stop calling it by its British English incarnation. Shame, really.
Only three chord 'song' I can think of that's all minor chords is the first part of Pink Floyd's 'shine on you crazy diamond', Gm, Dm and Cm. Lennon's 'happiness is a warm gun' starts off all minors too until he gets to the chorus, a bit like Radiohead's 'street spirit'
You are correct. Similar to "So What" having a major chord in the intro, "Black Magic Woman" has it in the "Gypsy Queen" outro section, with a nearly double-time solo over a D Major vamp.
David Bennett Piano You might be correct, and that's precisely what I had imagined the harmony was for many years... but if you listen closely, it's very hard to find a C# in the melody or bass, so that A7 chord might be heavily buried in the mix, but it's tough to identify.
Of course, I do not have any track isolation software...but my musical impression is that it feels like an A minor, despite my expectation that it could or should be an A7
Brilliant! I just remember another song that uses only minor chords. "I belong to you" ( Lenny Kravitz). Thanks for your marvelous videos and all knowledgment that you share.
![[#2024MAMA] G-DRAGON - 무제(Untitled, 2014)+POWER+HOME SWEET HOME+뱅뱅뱅+FANTASTIC BABY | Mnet 241123 방송](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ox29z5Nf1Uk/mqdefault.jpg)
writing a song with nothing but diminished 7th chords
TheFrieDCDB You’re not wrong
You've really only got three to choose from....good luck.
nothing but neopolitan 2nd
Try some Strauss, Mahler, Wagner
You only need three!
I can’t even read music and I enjoy this guy’s videos.
I can't even read english and I enjoy this guy's comment.
Neither and I take gcse music😳
I don't even know how to use internet and here I am
I cant even and i enjoy
It's all about feelings after all
Wow, I never realized all those hits were just one or two chords...
Great job.
L A me neither!
Pink was obvious. Never realized it about Marley tho.
Most of them use c minor a flat major g major...
@@magicmulder I never noticed the Pink one though. But he pointed it out, and it kind of clicked, honestly
@@magicmulder he says Pink's song is only one chord which is not really correct. You can clearly hear the bass going from a B down to an E. I haven't listened to the whole peace but that specific example wasn't correct.
""Slow Down" and "Blue Chair" by Morcheeba are the best example of songs that consist only of minor chords without sounding weird!!! Absolutely masterpieces!
Indeed!
Yeah and the guitar solo of Slow down is another Unverse 👍👍
Thanks for the introduction to Morcheeba
@@choukribendiha9044 😎😎😍😍😎😎
Never thought I’d see alex turner in one of these thumbnails
Same, instantly clicked
@@marcotapia7068 anything for Alex.
The reason I clicked
Next to Miles Davis too
Same here
Raiders of the Lost Ark - The Map Room Theme is all minor chords
Hey! You’re the stylophone guy!
@@elektrik-fz4up lol, yes
@@maromaro1337 hi stylophone guy!
maromaro1337 hi stylophone guy!
@@aazreaal sti, hylaphone guy
"Smooth Operator" (Sade Ado): dm7 - am7 - gm7 - am7 etc. I love that song, that's why I remembered it immediately in the context of a 'minor only' chord progression.
"Lick My Love Pump" by Spın̈al Tap was written in D minor, which is the saddest of all keys, I find.
No such thing as saddest of all keys, it's been debunked and explained
@@ernestzurek5884 its a joke
Why was Dm so sad? Because it couldn’t B C.
@@ernestzurek5884 r/woooosh
Simple lines intertwining. A Mach piece.
That would kind of explain why 505 is so rough on my poor little heart
Freelove by Depeche Mode must be all minor chords. It's such a sophisticated song. Most might not catch the tricky modulations, until trying it on the guitar
Andriy Vasylenko hi Andriy i like your videos
Hi frrrrrrriends
Glad to find You here frrrriend 🤘😎
Yeah and enjoy the silence
Although im pretty sure it both uses F and C major
gotta do a separate video on "1 chord songs!"
BigSh00ts that has been on my list for a while
David Bennett Piano well I’ll be happy to watch it.
You pretty nearly just watched it
David Bennett Piano please include Tomorrow Never Knows🥺
@@DavidBennettPiano my mom used to tell me that punk rock sucked because it was all "one chord" she and a friend would always be gone friday and saturday night leaving me alone, and I would ask her where they went and she told me to go watch punk bands play at club foot and rauls. this was back in 1982.
I am just an Arctic Monkeys fan.. I see Alex I click..
Dance music is also very often written in minor keys specifically to avoid sense of movement and then builds musical interest through progressions of changing instruments, tones, drum loops.
A second reason is that it is often built on samples (eg minor 7th) that are transposed in sampler to form parallel harmony. Great example is famous "big fun" by Inner Coty where sampled minor 7ths give it sense of suspension, timelessness, sadness, and nostalgia that amazingly clashes with lyrics "we're having big fun". Though one can argue that m7ths have a major triad in them and don't function the same way as pure minor triads would.
Well said!!
*Inner City
Bart yes definitely. Disclosure use the minor 7/9 chord all over the place in loads of their songs.
Minor 7ths are pretty much the sound of house
Yes, euro dance from the 90s was usually composed in minor keys.
❗️CORRECTION: I've decided to cut out "Get Up, Stand Up" and "He's The Greatest Dancer" from this video as, although both songs are almost exclusively minor chords, they both do contain small moments of other types of chords. Sorry for any confusion caused.
What are the other chords in Get Up, Stand up? In the keyboard line I guess?
Isn't there any song with 4 or more chords, all minor?
Cool video, thanks!
Feel good Inc by the Gorillaz?🤔 Sorry I'm late the party
@@CTABPOGIN Bb major
What about literally every black metal song?
No confusion for me and no need to apologize. Those songs are in agreement with your larger point. I always love your analysis!
Songs with only minor chords?
Old school black metal.
@Craig Yates the oldest metal...
As a huge black metal fan, my first thought was "wtf? this is rare?" until I thought about it more and realized that I couldn't think of any non-bm examples
The donor - judee sill
@@j_c_93 I love this phrase you've used "huge black metal fan". It can be read so many ways: 1. A literal black-colored, large, air-circulating machine made of metal; 2. A person who very much enjoys the genre "black metal"; 3. A person, who is black, and greatly enjoys metal music; 4. A person who is both large in stature and black, who enjoys metal music; 5. A person who greatly enjoys metallic materials which have been painted black or are black in color by nature; 6. A person who is large of stature and greatly enjoys the genre "black metal". I love the English language as much as I hate it.
@@HaydenX Any one of those could be true ;-)
Here’s a list of other minor-only songs I can think of, many of which I’m pretty sure I am correct about:
1. Dr Dre ft Snoop Sogg - Still D.R.E. (Rap song with Am and Em throughout).
2. Gorillaz - Dirty Harry (Bbm, Fm and Ebm11 throughout) and GorIllaz - DARE (Gm and Cm13 throughout, although there is an implied E natural in the main hook).
3. Bilderbuch - Maschin (Cm, Fm, Gm)
Do any these songs (1, 2 or 3) actually use functional harmony?
I should also add that the British song Sewn by The Feeling has verses only in minor (Gm - Dm7 - Fm7 - Cm7)
@@Myrtone I mean, all the songs use a pop chord progression, just like the songs shown in this video.
And if diminished chords are counted as minor?
I've decided to bite the bullet and start learning music theory via youtube after watching your videos for ages and wishing I fully understood! I've only just started but it allowed me to follow what you were saying a lot better! Thanks for always making great and really informative videos! Could you please do one on typical chord progressions in gospel? I'd love to learn that, gospel often sounds so upbeat and I'd love to know the science behind it!!
Ayesha Sha Sha! i’ve taken a look at your channel and OMG your style is so pleasing and beautiful!!
Dear Ayesha i would love to learn music theory too. How and where to start?
@@yebiased246 aaawwwww thank you SO much! That's lovely of you to say!
@@DoctorSwagger it's never too late to start really! I got my keyboard out and a book and started learning from this playlist: th-cam.com/play/PLUyDmNalB0rjteAmf8ciJ1zL2GqnzryS_.html
Hope David doesn't mind me putting that there! Good luck!!!
@@AyeshaShaSha thanks a lot!
Money by Pink Floyd. Moves between Bm, F#m and Em throughout the song, in various modes. Still manages a pretty fluid and diverse harmonic progression, the guitar solo alone has 3 distinct sections that sound totally different despite all being built around these three chords.
A lot of Pink Floyd's music and the new Arctic Monkeys album is written predominantly with minor chords, but they often use it to make any switches to major that much more epic-sounding (like with the Eb in Imperial March).
I love how you analyze the chord structures. It makes me think back about 45 years to when I studied music theory and harmony.
There is one piece I would love to see you analyze. Same Old Blues has some very interesting progressions if the performer follows the notes as written.
"Everybody loves the sunshine" - Roy Ayers, four minor chord progression, and not within a same minor mode.
Phenomenal track
Yes. Lyrically it's very happy, but the actual chords sounds dark and sad.
@@viralbuthow000 Strangely and ironically, so does "Happy" - Pharrell Williams, and many others
oueikak! Would u say that’s a good strategy to make positive lyrics stand out by using minor chords?
@@viralbuthow000 That is, if minor chords are always to be associated with "negative"…?
Being a fan of Synthpop and industrial certainly leads to primarily minor songs and I adore it.
Major chord songs can often feel... Uncomfortable (?)
I was just writing a comment about "Ain't No Sunshine" when you mentioned it. It comes so close, so close but not quite.
My audio is off and yeah I thought of Bill withers...scrolled down the comments.......bingo ....lol....☺
I was just reading your comment about "Ain't No Sunsine" when he mentioned it haha
That’s exactly why I included it! I knew the comments would otherwise be full of “AINT NO SUNSHINE!!1!”
And i read this as he mentioned it:)
EpifanesEuergetes That sounded more like Stevie Wonder singing “Ain’t No Sunshine.” Granted, it’s Withers’ tune. Was there a copyright issue? Or are my ears deceiving me?
a lot of oldskool rave songs from the late 80s to early 90s were minor chord only, because the main sound would be a sampled chord, meaning it'd play a minor chord by just pressing down one key, and it'd be minor no matter which one you pressed. Prime examples would probably be "Good Life" and "Big Fun" by Inner City
My favorite Bill Evans piece which uses non-functional harmony is “Time Remembered.” It only uses minor and major 7th chords, no dominants, yet it has its own inner logic and is absolutely gorgeous.
This exact tune came to mind for me too, kudos!
Yes!!
there are house tracks from the nineties using only minor chords. They usually feature very short progressions resulting in large parts of the song staying on (at?) one chord.
That was amazing - expertly researched, compiled, and taught..
I better go to sleep now
You watching this at 5am too?
Same
The song “Nocturne” by Secret Garden has only minor chords.
That song won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1995, and I think it is extremely beautiful.
love to see a eurovision song here
Well done. Not only is this only minor chords, but actually has a sophisticated chord progression. Great suggestion, haven’t heard that song in around a decade
As I recall, "Spoonful" by Howlin' Wolf can be interpreted completely in Em...
Thank you for explaining how music works, and why things that "don't work", sometimes do. I've come to creating music after retiring from thirty-two years working in a factory. Many of the songwriting workshops I've been to focus on creating marketable popular songs, which I have very little interest in.
I was really surprised to find out just how many songs there are out there that have only one chord
The feeling of "Damn even I could have written that" never goes away...
It just helps to show that while harmonic structure can be a rich part of music, it’s not always the most important part. Vast amounts of electronic music, from techno to ambient and drone, will stay on one chord, if it could even be said to have any chords at all. Rhythm, melody, timbre and dynamics are all just as important, and in many genres having complex functional harmony would actively detract from those elements.
@@SeanLaMontagne really the feeling you should be getting is that there is more to music than harmony :)
Ravel's Bolero only uses one chord - C maj until near the end when it modulates to E maj for several bars and the back to C maj until the end. But this is a genius composer who can bend the rules and do what he likes.
@Lopyt *Sir_Guy* Music they only do fiffths, not even major or minor! XD
*David:* So, why is it difficult to write a song just using minor chords?
*Black metal guy:* Hold my goat...
Remain in Light is an album by Talking Heads compromised almost entirely of minor chords
I am subscribing because your analyses of music are clear and fascinating. I had not considered that there would be so few pure minor key songs.
Edwyn Collins had a sizable hit in the 90s with "A Girl Like You", which I believe is exclusively played with minor chords. Its also structured like a typical rock/pop song with frequent chord changes rather than a single chord being held for a long period of time, as in your funk/modal jazz examples.
Justin Eddy I had a few people suggest this one but, although the bass stays on C, you can hear the guitars playing Ab major and Bb major over the C. It’s close but it does use major chords.
Haven’t heard that song in ages.
"Dark Funeral - The Arrival of Satan's Empire" is a pretty clean example, but also many many other Black Metal songs! I'd even go as far as to say there is definitely harmonic movement, with emphasis on it. It's just a different musical language. Of course it can be hard for an unaccostumed ear to hear past the drumming and screaming!
“Touch Me I’m Going To Scream part 2” by My Morning Jacket.
I love music theory! 😍 love how much effort and research you make into giving these examples making understanding so clear!
Analyse No. 1 party anthem by the Arctic Monkeys. It’s got a couple of cool things going on.
I think the bridge of four out of five is very interesting as well as some other songs from tranquility base
Thor Odinson +++++
No. 1 Party Anthem has a cool chord structure, similar to John Lennon's Isolation and Green Day's Last Night on Earth. Apart from these three, I don't think there are any other songs featuring that chord progression. It's a highly idiosyncratic, recognizable one.
@@IdiotAmigo I disagree, Alex Turner has written a couple of songs with the I - dominant III - IV progression, off the top of my head I can name this one, Mardy Bum, Piledriver Waltz and Sweet Dreams TN. The chord progressions on Tranqulity Base I find more interesting, like One Point Perspective, Golden Trunks or the title track. And as someone said above, the Four Out of Five bridge has some great chord changes.
@@patriciofernandez2711 Whoops, looks like I mixed things up. No. 1 Party Anthem indeed has the chord progression you mentioned, much like Creep, except for the iv at the end and the second chord being a dominant seventh chord here. I was thinking of the Isolation progression, also used in Last Night on Earth, which has a lingering chord with just the bass notes changing: D - D/A# - D/B - D7. Similar, since D/A# can be interpreted as an augmented F# chord with an added minor third, and D/B as Gmaj7add9 without the root, but not exactly the same.
Amazing how non functional harmony can sound so acceptable to your ear. It'd be interesting to experiment with shifting between functional and non functional harmony in the same song. I'm sure it's been done (some songs come to mind) but cool to think about especially when there's so many other ways to "bend" your ear with chord substitutions, modal interchange, modulations, etc. My brain is going to explode!
Love this. Would be interested in you doing a video about how (relatively) rare in popular music songs that are purely in minor key are, as compared to major. The Beatles for instance only stayed in the minor key in few songs like "Mr. Kite", I know other bands and styles do so more often but my understanding is that it's relatively rare compared to major and a discussion of that would be interesting.
thanks again for a great channel
HappyRon Music And Memes thanks again. And it’s a good point... pop and rock songs rarely stick to the pure harmonic minor key
Yes and another related subject is switching between major and minor which The Beatles did quite a bit
Townes Van Zandt - Waiting round to die .. Just 3 minor chords. Love the Channel!
You can similarly cheat with “Ain’t No Sunshine” by calling that G chord Em7/G no root 😂😂😂😂
I thought the same!
Brandy and Monica - The Boy is Mine (f# and c#)
Aaliyah - Try Again (am and e)
If you don't know these songs or artists, then you're missing out. Trust me!
Dude you're amazing I'm so glad I found your channel great stuff
Mitchell35 I’m glad you found it too! Thanks 👍🏼👍🏻
Only recently come across your videos and I must say that your breakdown and analysis is phenomenal. As a musician, theory and breaking the theory down had always bored me, I'm more of a practical musician, but listening to you explain things and the visuals audio excerpts you use are so pleasing to me. Keep up the good work, man
Ilomilo by billie Eilish only uses Cm, Gm and Fm as far as I'm aware
good find!
One of my favorite BE tunes!
for example bad guy is Gm Cm and Dm
@@FilipeVasconcellosAKAJeeForce I don't think so. There's a dominant 7 in there.
Ever since I got into ilomilo I noticed how it has such a completely different feeling from any other song I have heard. I think this comes from the fact that there are only minor chords in it, and that one of them is the minor dominant, which i really like
Darth Vader's Imperial March as last example successfully surprises me, this music is very infamous but I just discovered its unnoticed element through this vid.
Also, I already watched many of your video and those are always informative (never disappoint me), so I decide to sub.
Thanks for yet another interesting topic!
orinje you’re welcome!
Who's the girl on your channel pic?
The famous 4 Chords here is “Let It Be” in a nutshell.
It literally is the song
they’re called the famous 4 chords because of the amount of famous songs that use those chords
Yes. No woman no cry also. Hundreds of others.
The Beatles famously borrowed the 1-5-6-4 progression from Aha's 'Take on Me'. Paul McCartney was a big fan of synth pop in the 1980s. I think he was influenced by Taylor Swift and Rihanna too.
Excuse me why are you so adorable. Watching your soothing videos late at night as I can’t sleep 😔
Emily Jay 👍🏼
I've watched about 10 minutes of your content and have already learned more than in hours of watching other creators. Thank you!
Sure would love the kind of in-depth analysis you do for the Beatles music applied to Electric Light Orchestra.
it is shockingly amazing, how he does these video tutorials. not just takes it his musical geniusness but particular in this video .... if i think of all searching and researching , digging for examples ... this is crazy ... and the result presented to us ... always awesome
Hi David, there's a chord progression that I'd like you look at: It's in the chorus of La Flaca by Jarabe de Palo and the chord progression is bVI - bVII - i - IV (in this case: F - G - Am - D) It works but I can't figure out why. I would appreciate if you helped me figure this one out
I believe that would be considered a VII/V (seven of five) which means if you’re in the key of Am the i chord is Am and the v chord is Em so D would be the Vll chord in Em (VII/V) I could be mistakes but I hope this makes sense.
The D chord feels like a Blues chord for me, coming from A dorian. It's also a bluesy song.
Substitution of Dm with a D from the opposite key of A
Showdown by ELO is all minor from what i can hear. And it’s not just one or two chords either.
i would love if u could look into "I Wanna Prove To You" by the lemon twigs. I would love to know why it feels so confusing yet alluring to listen to
Colby this song is brilliant
Best popular musicians of recent times, hands down! That song is a modern masterpiece in its use of changes of key and time signature. I’d also love him to look into some of Syd Barrett’s songs, like “Jugband Blues”, “Apples and Oranges” and “Feel”.
Colby such a good song
Tune!
@@Nerkin610 completely agree!
A catchy tune with three minor chords is Loverman by Nick Cave
Saw the title and thought to myself 'bet I can think of loads'.. how wrong I was
This is what I was thinking before I sat down to write the script!
“hey what’s that chord?”
“uhh.. Dm..?”
“ah yeah, cool. let’s only use that one. “
It's my favorite chord!
@@TuberOnTheLoose I prefer Bm. That chord is better 😌
@@LuisGonzalez0505 Hm is best though
@@LuisGonzalez0505 it's completely subjective. For example, I disagree with both of you, and prefer C#m.
Pretty sure that's what Tool said back then.
Your videos actually make me interested in music composition and theory! Thank you!
Jim Hoadley great! 😊😊😊
This is a wonderful presentation. I didn't know that the function of major and minor chords in forming cadences was so different! I just had a brief instruction in music theory.
Now one notable song which uses the minor mode from start to finish: Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word by Elton John.
Now it seems clear to me that John chooses minor keys to enhance the sombre mood of the lyrics. It's harmonically rich and I have yet to identify one major chord anywhere in the course of the song.
I had "move on up" stuck in my head all day, so I got a chuckle from seeing it in this video. I'd love to see some videos looking at funk music from a music theory point of view.
Dont ever stop making videos Mr Bennett!
Loved it, I’ve never been interested in music on a technical level until I found your channel.
Thank you! That means a lot! 😊
"quero ser feliz também - natiruts" its an example. the song have only 3 chords, Ebm7//Dbm7//Abm7
"Nowhere To Hide" by Antiloop.
Chord progression : Gm - Dm - Fm - Cm
Love your videos. As a pianist and physicist, I really appreciate your treatment of technical music - acoustic - theory. You have a lucid way of presenting material. Bravo!
BTW, since you mentioned Bob Marley, I think "Sun is Shining" is only minor chords. "Forever Loving Jah" too. Reggae's a lot like funk in that harmonic motion is the least important thing.
Yeah, reggae seems to be a fan of just using a couple minor chords. Slave Driver by Bob Marley is all Bm7 to Am7
@@DavidBennettPiano It may just be the reason I got bored pretty quickly when I tried out a few of Bob Marley's albums. I decided to like his hits but leave the rest of his output for good.
There's a band called Portishead who mostly use minor chords. They certainly mostly did on their first two albums anyway. The chord changes are sometimes pretty much random, and not following any key signature. Some good song examples are "Cowboys", "Elysium" and "Half Day Closing".
House and Rave music often used alot of minor chords strung together (typically piano) in the songs main riffs, often chords out of the key. But I always found it interesting on the ear
Typical minor 7ths I wont say out of key they find to be in modes
Shakin All Over, one of the first British Rock and Roll classics, is apparently all in minor.
Surprised me too.
"You've changed" by Sia uses four minor chords all the way through the song!
No...
Shani Semah Able to elaborate, or nah
Yes! I - V - bVII - IV as minor chords: Ebm - Bbm - Dbm - Abm.
Yup, I just listened to it and it's true... I wasn't expecting to like it though... cool song.
My favorite minor chords song (with a brief major) has always been "Heatwave" by Martha & the Vandellas. Admittedly though, that major is pretty important.
two Talking Heads songs from Remain in Light have one-chord grooves a la funk
The Great Curve - all on Fm
Crosseyed & Painless - all on Bm6
Houses in Motion - all Em
and a few others on Remain in Light and Speaking in Tongues are very close. However, I think "Pull up the Roots" wins with three chords: Bbm, Ebm (refrain) and Fm (bridge). They all sound minor to me.
I was just watching one of Paul Davids' videos and learned a mind-blowing reason why major chords are so predominant in rock. When you play a guitar through an overdriven tube amp, the natural harmonics of the tone include a major third. This makes overdriven major thirds sound brighter and more powerful. An overdriven minor third, on the other hand, is essentially out of tune with itself. See Paul's video-"What makes rock sound like rock, and why major chords sound better"-at th-cam.com/video/eBXaKNAfmHw/w-d-xo.html
I mean, natural harmonics are there whether you're driving them through a tube amp or not, so I don't see why this argument applies exclusively to Rock - if anything it's more of an argument for why major chords are so predominant generally, in popular music. Aside from that, a major chord would be of tune with itself too anyway, due to the fact that the major third that you hear in the harmonics of a guitar string is not exactly the same as the major third that you play on a 12-TET tuned instrument
Love your work man! Its like I listen to music with new ears now
S Green thank you! That’s great! 😊😊
i wish i had discovered your channel before i did music theory grades because it took me forever to learn cadences yet i understood them so easily here
Massive quality, you deserve more subs!!
David Chidichimo thank you ! People were saying that I “deserve more subs” when I had less than 10k... I’m glad people are still saying it! 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
I've been watching your videos for a while and you have given me the motivation to learn the piano so that I can put into practice what you have talked about. This is big news since I was the kid in choir class that teachers always said to just move my lips and not make a sound.
Great! Keep it up 🎹
Keep talking and take my money! (insert Fry's meme). No, seriously, you earned another patron! Greetings from Spain
I have only watched 2 or 3 videos about you and I already think you are one of my favorite musical youtube channels.
7:58 D-O-G rhythm is wrong it’s actually 16th 8th 16th. The next one is 16th rest than three 16ths but great video nonetheless
Kudos, you really do your homework! I can't read music myself (wish I could), but you def help me to understand the concepts composers use when writing...
What about songs in a minor key? We can have an i v iv for example 🤔 because the Roman numerals/chords in minor are: i ii° III iv v VI VII
6 months late but I think usually the v is swapped out for a V even though it's not diatonic
Not sure, but I guess that, when studying harmony when young, it was supposed that only some old Scottish songs admitted a full minor harmonization. That is why we end up using harmonic and melodic minor in so many instances, allowing us to use dominant chords in an otherwise minor context. Thanks for providing this incredible wealth of music knowledge in such an atractive way.
Upstairs by lovepoint has loads of minor chords in and no major chords
Pink Turns To Blue by Hüsker Dü is a punk-esque tune all in minor chords.
Rather shocked me when I found out.
Not that this matters but as a funk lover whenever you say "on the one" that's not how I think of that phrase ;)
Wow, this is really eye opening! TY as always.
I'm glad it was helpful. Thank you!
Another amazing vid! Have you done a video on Earth Wind and Fire's sound before? I think it would make for a really interesting topic!
6:23 had me hollering. Lovely video as always. Thanks for it, DB!
I love your videos already, but having Alex Turner in the thumbnail was an insta-click for me.
😊
As you mentioned funk holds on single chords for a long period. I can think of one such example, I believe "Thank You" by Sly & The Family Stone is one Em7 chord the entire way through.
Interesting concept for a video.
I'm too lazy to check for sure, but I believe that the Police song "Driven to Tears" is entirely minor. "Bed's Too Big Without You" may be as well, or at least very close.
Driven to Tears is all m and m7. Bed’s too big has a recurring C major.
'Driven to Tears' is interesting. The sheet music has a few major chords on there but when I listened to it, those major chords sound quite ambiguous, almost like a major and minor chord are both in the mix. Interesting.
Get Down On It is probably 'technically' in E minor--it's hitting Em7, Bm7, and Am7, and Em7 gets a lot of emphasis--but it always sounds like G major to me. It's just so upbeat. I like to hit a lot of G note when soloing, and ending on a G feels so satisfying. I like to say it's in shy G major.
5:02 In American countries it’s called an Authentic cadence. I called this a perfect cadence in Canada for a long time, and every time I called this the perfect cadence this got marked wrong. One time it was enough for me to fail a course, so I had to stop calling it by its British English incarnation. Shame, really.
Only three chord 'song' I can think of that's all minor chords is the first part of Pink Floyd's 'shine on you crazy diamond', Gm, Dm and Cm. Lennon's 'happiness is a warm gun' starts off all minors too until he gets to the chorus, a bit like Radiohead's 'street spirit'
The main portion of Santana’s “Black Magic Woman” is just Dm, Gm, and Am
You are correct. Similar to "So What" having a major chord in the intro, "Black Magic Woman" has it in the "Gypsy Queen" outro section, with a nearly double-time solo over a D Major vamp.
Joshua Marks that was an example I took a look at however it does feature an A7 at the end of each verse I’m afraid
David Bennett Piano
You might be correct, and that's precisely what I had imagined the harmony was for many years...
but if you listen closely, it's very hard to find a C# in the melody or bass, so that A7 chord might be heavily buried in the mix, but it's tough to identify.
Of course, I do not have any track isolation software...but my musical impression is that it feels like an A minor, despite my expectation that it could or should be an A7
presumably the same story for the Fleetwood mac original?
Brilliant! I just remember another song that uses only minor chords. "I belong to you" ( Lenny Kravitz). Thanks for your marvelous videos and all knowledgment that you share.