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What chords do you need?

jefftk.com

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Re: What chords do you need?

#161

Post by duped »

javajosh wrote: post #154
jefftk wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This might be a bit confusing as written, because the slash "/" is normally used in roman numerals to indicate secondary chords. Sorry, that's not something I'd seen. Edited the post to switch to "or". > The terminology "open chords" is also a bit unusual. The term "open chords" usually refers to chords that use open strings (strings that are not fingered). Looking some, you're totally right. I'm confused where I p…

power chords ... call them chords without thirds. Not a guitarist, but I always assumed "power chord" referred to lots of doubling up over octaves, not the absence of a third.

It almost always refers to a perfect fifth, optionally with the octave on top. It's a very easy thing to play with two or three fingers, either on guitar or keyboard.

Re: What chords do you need?

#162

Post by analog31 »

mellosouls wrote: post #159

As somebody without musical knowledge beyond the first chords you might learn for pop guitar, after reading this article I still have no idea which chords I need.

If you're learning the instrument, you'll generally learn them as you progress, starting with beginner material that may have only one or two chords. At some point you will know "many" chords and be possessed to learn more, and may eventually pursue "every" chord.

Any physically realizable fingering on the guitar is a chord. Whether it's useful is another matter. Different permutations of the same notes, in different ranges, is a way to add things like motion and emphasis in the music.

Another way of looking at it is how many chords are you likely to encounter if you get into something like a band or jam session situation, where you're expected to hear a chord and play it. That depends on the musical style, and where the music came from. For instance, tunes that were composed for other instruments might have their own chordal language that results in the same chords cropping up unexpectedly in guitar music.

A lot of folk music has its own "logic" for lack of a better term, based on the mechanics of the instrument.

Re: What chords do you need?

#164

Post by mellosouls »

analog31 wrote: post #162
mellosouls wrote: post #159

As somebody without musical knowledge beyond the first chords you might learn for pop guitar, after reading this article I still have no idea which chords I need.

If you're learning the instrument, you'll generally learn them as you progress, starting with beginner material that may have only one or two chords. At some point you will know "many" chords and be possessed to learn more, and may eventually pursue "every" chord. Any physically realizable fingering on the guitar is a chord. Whether it's useful is another matter. Different permutations of the same notes, in different…

Thanks for taking the time to help elaborate. When I opened the article I was (naively?) kind of hoping to find a list of chords that would have me covered for most situations, but was unable to determine from the Roman numeric jargon being used if that was so.

Re: What chords do you need?

#165

Post by Rodeoclash »

codazoda wrote: post #14

This is super interesting, especially his work on those foot pedals. I like to make music but only just know a tiny bit about playing. Maybe having foot pedals would help. I also created a random chord generator that you can run in your browser to get ideas for chord progressions. https://chords.joeldare.com

That was pretty fun. I wonder if making it so you can play the chords using the keyboard would work? Also, I changed it to Dm and the chord selection was, odd.

Still, I liked it. I compose a lot of songs in Dm but do get stuck in the same old chords.

Re: What chords do you need?

#166

Post by coliveira »

not2b wrote: post #110
pohl wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worth noting that the "4 chords of pop" observation reference in TFA (which is about how few chords you need to learn to be able to make songs) is a bit different than the 4-chord cycle progressions discussed in that Axis of Awesome video (which is about specifically using 4-chord-long progressions that repeat in a cycle) — but it is still a fun thing. If you do enjoy that, be sure to check out Patricia Taxxon's…

The interesting thing about the Axis of Awesome four chords is that they are the same four chords that were in the stereotypical 1950s/early 60s pop song (Heart and Soul, Teenager in Love, Up on the Roof) but the order has changed. In the key of C the 50s version was C, A minor, F, G (or sometimes G7 instead), and in the Axis of Awesome / Adele version it's C, G, A minor, F. Of course Axis of Awesome cheats a little…

Yes, and this is the crucial difference that make new songs sound "modern". The Beatles were one of the first to use the 1,5,6,4 sequence (Let it be). Since then the 1,6,4,5 sequence has consistently lost ground, while 1,5,6,4 sounds modern. The chords are still the same.

Re: What chords do you need?

#167

Post by coliveira »

hejpadig wrote: post #26
drcongo wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That Mendes song makes all sorts of twists and turns that your brain doesn't expect (want?) it to. Personally I find it deeply uncomfortable to listen to, it might as well be four songs playing at once.

This kind of stuff is fascinating to me, that we can react so differently to music and specifically to various chord progressions. Of course personal taste is inscrutable in some sense, but could it also be about conditioning? E.g. if you listen a lot to certain types of jazz you might get used to some stranger chord movements. I have a lot of friends who cant stand Steely Dan progressions for example, though I love…

Jazz sounds too complicated, but it is not. More than 90% of it is just a set of 2,5,1 sequences disguised in clever ways.

Re: What chords do you need?

#168

Post by coliveira »

bambax wrote: post #15

The obligatory video is of course "Four Chords" by Axis of Awesome: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pidokakU4I Rick Beato has kind of the opposite video about "the most complex song ever": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnRxTW8GxT8 The song in question is Never Gonna Let You Go by Sergio Mendes; plenty of videos exist of it; here's one live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOPh3bTglak

Rick Beat is trying to deceive you. If you really believe that this Sergio Mendes song is complicated, you need to listen to some older pop songs. For example, Stevie Wonder is a good composer to start.

Re: What chords do you need?

#169

Post by travisgriggs »

cactus2093 wrote: post #113
travisgriggs wrote: post #72

Completely tangential to the actual content of this blog, I really (really really really) appreciate the look. Simple dark text on light background. Obvious hyperlinks. Charts and tables that tell the story without distracting. Effective minimalism. I wish more of the internet looked like this.

Interesting, I really disagree. I do agree the page is refreshing compared to a lot of the internet these days, just because it has no ads and no glitchy, laggy SPA animations or slow loading times. But it's pretty extreme to pretend that none of basic design practices adopted over the past 30 years have any merit whatsoever. This design is not good. The black text on white is too much contrast. The default browser t…

> The black text on white is too much contrast.

This statement intrigued me. Without getting into what is fashion and progress (because I am NOT a designer), I was curious what is "too much" contrast. There's lots of literature out there about applying too much contrast in image/photo elements. But here, we're talking about text, and this honestly piqued my interest. Too little is usually pretty obvious. But what is too much? I don't honestly know.

I found the discussion at https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/123504/maximum-contra... pretty interesting.

Re: What chords do you need?

#170

Post by codazoda »

Rodeoclash wrote: post #165
codazoda wrote: post #14

This is super interesting, especially his work on those foot pedals. I like to make music but only just know a tiny bit about playing. Maybe having foot pedals would help. I also created a random chord generator that you can run in your browser to get ideas for chord progressions. https://chords.joeldare.com

That was pretty fun. I wonder if making it so you can play the chords using the keyboard would work? Also, I changed it to Dm and the chord selection was, odd. Still, I liked it. I compose a lot of songs in Dm but do get stuck in the same old chords.

Maybe I could resurrect this old thing and improve it a bit. I imagine keyboard wouldn’t be too hard to add. I’ll have to take a look at the chords I put in the Dm option too, I don’t remember.
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