(not the best, i'm sure of that. but it's one chord and it's good, which should count for something.)
― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 00:54 (eighteen years ago) link
There's tons of them, especially r&b/funk tunes (James Brown, Parliament, etc) that are just build on a riff or bass line.
― Keith C (kcraw916), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 01:10 (eighteen years ago) link
― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 01:11 (eighteen years ago) link
Then, there isn't a song anymore.
-- Geir Hongro (geirhon...), June 14th, 2005.
Geir, don't you ever tire of being wrong? I mean, on a basic, fundamental, dictionary-definition level, YOU ARE WRONG. Give up already, it's okay to say that there are ways of writing songs that you dislike, you don't have to exclude them from being music altogether.
-- The Ghost of Dan Perry (djperr...), June 14th, 2005.
It's not "wrong" to say that a "song" has to have a "melody". By dictionary definition, it does have to have a melody.
― Hurting (Hurting), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 01:14 (eighteen years ago) link
I'm so happy that I get to be the first to mention this song.
― billstevejim (billstevejim), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 04:04 (eighteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 08:35 (eighteen years ago) link
― AleXTC (AleXTC), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 09:00 (eighteen years ago) link
― breezy, Wednesday, 15 June 2005 13:14 (eighteen years ago) link
I'm afraid it is.
explain how it isn't please.
― billstevejim (billstevejim), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 17:06 (eighteen years ago) link
It is SO not C#.
― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Wednesday, 15 June 2005 18:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Wednesday, 15 June 2005 18:22 (eighteen years ago) link
The main riff is, but other chords be droppin' later.
― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Wednesday, 15 June 2005 18:24 (eighteen years ago) link
but surely this definition isn't still relevant. what with avant garde, noise, various types of non-Western music...
― matlewis, Wednesday, 15 June 2005 19:44 (eighteen years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 19:47 (eighteen years ago) link
At least I think it is. I think Tim Butler said it was one chord.
― Aja (aja), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 20:04 (eighteen years ago) link
― Zack Richardson (teenagequiet), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 20:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― Hurting (Hurting), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 20:42 (eighteen years ago) link
does that one win for longest song without a chord change?
― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 20:45 (eighteen years ago) link
Daydreamer.
― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 21:18 (eighteen years ago) link
― pinder (pinder), Wednesday, 15 June 2005 21:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― These Robust Cookies (Robust Cookies), Thursday, 16 June 2005 04:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― Flaneur, Thursday, 16 June 2005 14:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Thursday, 16 June 2005 14:21 (eighteen years ago) link
One chord? Are you deaf?
― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 16 June 2005 14:26 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 16 June 2005 14:31 (eighteen years ago) link
― Burr (Burr), Thursday, 16 June 2005 14:48 (eighteen years ago) link
― AleXTC (AleXTC), Thursday, 16 June 2005 15:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Friday, 17 June 2005 02:06 (eighteen years ago) link
― billstevejim (billstevejim), Friday, 17 June 2005 04:26 (eighteen years ago) link
hum...to me there's a slight change with D#. but haven't listened to it in a while so i may be wrong...
― AleXTC (AleXTC), Friday, 17 June 2005 07:15 (eighteen years ago) link
Sonic Youth play "Within You Without You" as a one-chorder on Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father.
Very few of James Brown's funk-era songs are actually on a single chord--there's almost always a bridge (which is almost always on a IV chord).
― Douglas (Douglas), Friday, 17 June 2005 08:04 (eighteen years ago) link
― Keith C (kcraw916), Friday, 17 June 2005 10:06 (eighteen years ago) link
Don't have the first version at hand, but the songbook I have for Sly's "Riot" has that version as A7. "Riot" is just about my favorite album ever.
― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Friday, 17 June 2005 12:53 (eighteen years ago) link
[Sung]
This song has one chordThis song has one chordThis song has one chord
[Spoken]
And that's why you're bored
One chordYou're BoredOne chordYou're bored
― Pete Scholtes, Monday, 20 June 2005 16:48 (eighteen years ago) link
If you're talking about a song, not just one instrument, chords are formed by all the notes you hear. If the singer hits a note that's NOT part of that chord, it changes the chord of the song to something else.
None of George Harrison's Beatles songs are one-chord.
― Pete Scholtes, Monday, 20 June 2005 17:16 (eighteen years ago) link
Fetishization of difficulty as a prog-rock shibboleth and all that.
If we can find a song that doesn't require a lot of chords to play [meaning, here, guitar chords] and is undeniably a fantastic song, then the equation of "knowing a lot of chords" with "making good music" can be further shown to be a false equation. It opens out, then, into the larger discussion of Does Technique Help or Harm?
Now that I think about it, though, one might add that inasmuch as the comparatively-hard-to-perceive pitches of drums and cymbals and other percussion instruments play into the finished sound of a song, then those ought also to be counted in with the "chord" that is being played by the band. Also harmonic resonances in the room, as well as sounds supplied by effects (e.g., reverb and chorus) would also have to be considered, as they will almost never be exactly the same note as the singer/instrumentalist is making. Isn't that in fact the whole point of a chorus effect, that one copy of the sound is detuned slightly?
So there may not in fact BE any one-chord songs if you follow that logic.
― The Mad Puffin, Monday, 20 June 2005 18:08 (eighteen years ago) link
Well, hmm, I mean this doesn't sound right to me. The structure of a song--talking in the language-of-chords/harmonic language kinda thing--is unchanged whether you decide to sing or play a note over that's "not in the chord." Lester Young did it all the time, and he was playing the song, right? He wasn't changin' the chord, he was having fun with what the overall structure implied. This is basically what jazz does, right? The whole point of learning all the stuff you have to learn to be able to play jazz is to deveop that facility; re-harmonizing. I think what you're talking about is what I'd call "arranging." If I'm playing a song that has a B7 and a D-flat in it, and I play an F natural over the B7, it doesn't change the fact that the chord is B7--I'm, I hope, playing the F natural because I want to say something about the D-flat chord, which contains a F natural, not because I'm somehow "changing the B7 into another chord."
― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Monday, 20 June 2005 20:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― Piano Man, Monday, 20 June 2005 20:27 (eighteen years ago) link
― Pete Scholtes, Tuesday, 21 June 2005 22:38 (eighteen years ago) link
Right, I mean playing or singing something NOT contained in the chord.
Obviously dissonance is a gray area, I'll buy that you're hearing a variation of the same chord sometimes. But if your ear hears it as a change or a progression, it probably is one. Sometimes chord changes are implied by nothing but one changed note, and you hear it as a change.
― Pete Scholtes, Tuesday, 21 June 2005 22:43 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ian Kynnersley (Wobble), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 12:10 (eighteen years ago) link
Doesn't rockism generally hail chops, up to a certain point?
― The Mad Puffin, Wednesday, 22 June 2005 13:07 (eighteen years ago) link
― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 17:11 (eighteen years ago) link
― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 17:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― g e o f f (gcannon), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 17:22 (eighteen years ago) link
Just trying to maintain ILM's much-vaunted civility.
― John Justen (johnjusten), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 17:29 (eighteen years ago) link
― k/l (Ken L), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 17:51 (eighteen years ago) link
Uh, wrong.
― Keith C (kcraw916), Thursday, 23 June 2005 02:58 (eighteen years ago) link