Same Old Song

Putting music theory into practice
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nick_allen
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Same Old Song

Post by nick_allen »

We all know certain chord progressions that can be used for vast numbers of songs - the 12-bar blues and its variations, of course, the I - vim -iim(or IV) - V (C - Am - Dm or F - G) as in Blue Moon, All I Have To Do Is Dream, Sh-Boom, etc, the I - IV - V - IV (C - F - G - F) as in Wild Thing, Sweets For My Sweet, Twist & Shout, Hang On Sloopy, etc. And in jazz, the "I Got Rhythm" progression, known as rhythm changes, has been used over and over.
But how about some other more extended progressions that have been used in more than one song? The example that just struck me this morning, and inspired this post, was listening to "Dream Lover", by Bobby Darin, and realising that the exact same chord progression was used for Cliff Richard's "The Young Ones"... (OK, it's still only four chords, but the order, number of bars, etc is identical).
Any other examples? (Hundreds, I'm sure :lol:)
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jimk
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Re: Same Old Song

Post by jimk »

Pachelbel's "Canon in D" pops up from time to time.
I, V, vi, iii, IV, I, IV, V7:||

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Bighouse
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Re: Same Old Song

Post by Bighouse »

As a fledgling bassist I find this kind of pattern SO frequently...I can switch from "Louie Louie" to the Sex Pistols to a dozen other 70's songs...guess that's why so many rock songs get the bad rap of being "three chord songs".

(As an aside, that's one of the reasons I like Nirvana and Kurt Cobain's chord progressions- he was weird. He'd throw in some odd chords that did NOT fit in the typical rock progression...and I like that. I like, in general, songs that can make the hair on the back of my neck stand up because of some dissonance that fits well with the lyrical content and mood of a song.)
Because I told you before- oh, you can't do that.
shamustwin
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Re: Same Old Song

Post by shamustwin »

Surfer Girl...


First verse -
D Bm G A ...Ok Brian, very typical
Little surfer, little one


Second line just takes the song into the galaxy, separates Brian from the hacks, with just a simple twist-

D Dmaj7 G Gm
Made my heart come all undone

The melody soars!

(edit - can't get the chords to line up with the words!!!!)
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