Chords, and nothing but

I remember back in the early/mid-90s when I'd try to figure out pop songs on the piano. This chord progression worked for Green Day ("When I Come Around"), Red Hot Chili Peppers ("Soul to Squeeze"), Elvis Costello ("Thirteen Steps Lead Down"), Hole ("Miss World"), and a couple others. I also think I've heard it used in contemporary pop-punk songs like Blink-182.

The problem with progressions like that, though, is that they sound very satisfying but hardly ever surprising. So, at least as far as I'm concerned, I'm not convinced they always "work."

(I6 = I with the third as bass)

A chord progression I've seen pop everywhere, from 50s rock to 00s pop is the piano thing from "Big": I vi IV V back to I.

C - BFlat C - BFlat (eg On Broadway, On Only Have Eyes, Move Over Darling etc.)

C - EFlat Minor - F (eg Green Onions etc. etc.)

C - AFlat (not the best, but oddly found in EVERY James bond theme)

And using an ostinato bass sequence is also a bad idea.

Actually, I don't think the "Air" sequence has been used a lot (except in "Everything's Gonna Be Alright"), but similar sequences have been used a lot.

Anyway, basing a song upon a chord sequence being repeated all the way through is a bad idea. A good song has contrasting verses, bridges and choruses.

Could you please give us an example of a chord sequence that hasn't been used a lot? This is pop music, after all-- everything's been done before.

In my own songwriting I've found that I enjoy throwing in I - VI (min) and VI (min) - I a lot.

Most of them. Remember, you only need to change a chord or two for it to sound different.

It may be a bad idea from a technical perspective, but I'm always impressed when a band is able to pull it off by switching up arrangements and melodies to keep things interesting. (And by "pull it off", I mean I like the song despite the fact that it only has one progression.)

"Honkin' " is in E and he uses the minor second and the relative minor of E, C minor, quite well; and he does a cool thing by throwing in a G chord at the end of the B part so as to provide a little tension as the D natural creeps up to the D sharp (the third of B, the V chord). Kind of comic and also a little desperate, befitting the song. Also some nice touches like putting the third into the bass (G sharp/E) and so forth. "Solar" uses some beautiful major seventh chords and has a key change.

The Beatles liked to use a kinda strange progression, C-G-A, it's all over "Abbey Road."

The C-A flat mentioned above is an example of an augmented scale, which sounds mysterioso. "Green Onions" is a minor blues, basically.

also i-VI-III-VII

Thus, the perfect chord progression would be this one - from the start of the middle-8 until the end of the chorus on "The Riddle":

C / F / Bb / C / D7 / G / F / E / Am / G / C / D / Bb / Eb / Cm / Dm / Eb / F / G / F / Bb / C / G / F / Eb / Bb / G / F / Bb / C / G / F / Eb / Bb / C / Dm / Eb / F / G / Cm / Dm / Eb / F / G

Yes, a good chord progression is that long and that complex!

Bflat-C-D-Eflat-F-Gflat-Aflat-Bflat

"Memory Gongs" - The Moon and the Melodies (A.K.A. Harold Budd's "Flower Knife Shadows" on Lovely Thunder)

E7#9 BITCH!!! funkiest chord evah

The "Late In The Day" verse:

Dmaj7 Fmaj7
It's late in the day
Am
I'm thinking of you
A7sus4,6 F
Things that you say
Bb F Bb F D A
So long, so long for me

And "G-Song":
Gm Eb
As I walk into the night
F Cm Bb
I don't feel that my feet have touched the ground
Gm Eb
And I want to carry on
F Cm Bb
But I can't see anyone who'd take the time

I fell asleep halfway through reading this. No joke. Your 'perfect' chord progression is stoopid and boring and reretarded and not even challenging at all and monkeys have fur but humans don't have much so obviously chord progression played on banjo will always be far superior to those played on guitar, simply because you're wrong.

Tabitha Elkins
http://www.cdbaby.com/tabitha

Major 6ths don't get enough love.

Do you like the maj6maj7? I lurve it.

Also, this chord, whose name I forget.

E--3
B--3
G--0
D--2
A--3
E--x

It's the opening chord in Blur's 'She's So High', and I love it.

I've got a tacky habit of always, ALWAYS hammering on a sus4 to any major chord. D-Dsus4-D, E-Esus4-E, sometimes even going A-Asus4-A-Asus2-A when I should just stick with an A. I think it's because I learned to play guitar at 12 partially though Shawn Colvin songbooks, and she used that constantly. It's become such a crutch; I guess it's my own 'style' now, christ.

(C9)

Good point, yeah. (And, yes, it is very common.)