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What chords do you need?

jefftk.com

1–10 of 218 posts

Re: What chords do you need?

#2
Cheech & Chong: "and I only know 4 chords!"

Its amazing how sparse a representation of a song can be recognizable (and enjoyable!) The mapping of musical meaning is due for a new look; the way we talk and write about sound needs to be rationalized before we can progress further in understanding why and how it works.

Re: What chords do you need?

#3
I wonder how much the chord-space would shrink farther if you took out the bridge/intro where people tend to mix it up. And if you could adjust when the song shifts keys in the chorus and verse. (Although I didn't keep up with all the simplifications so maybe that is already in here).

Re: What chords do you need?

#4
Looks about right, but I'll still be keeping my 13(#11) chords.

[EDIT: Meant as a joke, but it was not a good joke, as the author explicitly addressed upper extensions and their irrelevance to the point of the article.]

Re: What chords do you need?

#6

I wonder how much the chord-space would shrink farther if you took out the bridge/intro where people tend to mix it up. And if you could adjust when the song shifts keys in the chorus and verse. (Although I didn't keep up with all the simplifications so maybe that is already in here).

Or last verse/chorus up-modulation

Re: What chords do you need?

#7
post #4

Looks about right, but I'll still be keeping my 13(#11) chords. [EDIT: Meant as a joke, but it was not a good joke, as the author explicitly addressed upper extensions and their irrelevance to the point of the article.]

He was only talking root and major vs minor. No mention of upper extensions of any kind. So V7 is still V, V13b9 is still V

Re: What chords do you need?

#8
Interesting quantitative take studying chord distribution. The basic takeaway seems to be that if you re-phrase a song into a different key you can play a lot with just a few chords (I IV V), and even more with a few others.

While I would agree that you'll be okay playing any major scale in C major (or whatever other major key choose to learn), playing a song in a minor scale on a major scale just doesn't sound quite right. So, I'd double all of the numbers on their final table to account for learning a full set of major and minor chords.

Re: What chords do you need?

#10
post #4

Looks about right, but I'll still be keeping my 13(#11) chords. [EDIT: Meant as a joke, but it was not a good joke, as the author explicitly addressed upper extensions and their irrelevance to the point of the article.]

He was only talking root and major vs minor. No mention of upper extensions of any kind. So V7 is still V, V13b9 is still V

You're correct; I withdraw my remark.
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