26 Songs That Only Use Two Chords

this video is sponsored by the piano learning app skoove even in pop music most songs will have at least three different chords usually averaging out about five distinct chords however it is possible to have a song with only two chords throughout and what i find even more interesting is when you look at examples of songs with only two chords you can start to spot a pattern in the particular chords that they use [Music] [Music] and now they're young [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] all of those examples of two chord songs are using the exact same two chords a shift from the one chord the root to the five chord the dominant and this is no coincidence because if your song is only going to have two chords in it then those two chords are responsible for any and all sense of harmonic development and contrast so those two chords have to really work well together so what makes this one to five chord progression so effective well it all comes down to what we call functional harmony both of these chords have a different function chord one of the key has tonic function tonic function chords are a point of rest and particularly with the one chord the harmony feels fully resolved and complete of course a song would be pretty boring though if it constantly sounded like it was at rest music needs tension and release to create a sense of movement and development and that's what's provided by the other chord chord five the fifth chord of the key has dominant function dominant function chords create a load of tension because they desperately want to resolve back to the tonic this is particularly true if chord v has a dominant seventh on it like we saw in some of the examples [Music] so with just these two chords we have everything we need to create a sense of motion a sense of tension and release in our song a similar chord progression that you'll also often find in two-chord songs is one to four for example [Music] i [Music] no no no no no no i don't see what anyone could see in anyone else but if i die before i wake at least [Music] then won't you let me [Applause] [Music] this chord progression operates in a similar way to the one five chord progression we had earlier once again we have the tonic chord to provide a point of rest and resolution but this time the other chord the iv chord has subdominant function whereas dominant function introduces a load of tension subdominant function just introduces some tension the iv chord still wants to resolve to the tonic but it doesn't feel as desperate or urgent it's happy to stay put for a while and then resolve which results in a more relaxed mellow sounding chord progression this one to four progression still offers a driving force to a song like the one to five did but rather than demanding to resolve this progression just recommends that we resolve a similar progression to this that we can find in some other two chord songs is one to two for example [Music] in functional harmony the second chord of the key the two chord is considered to have the same subdominant function as the iv chord so effectively one to four and one to two are functionally equivalent chord progressions they are two flavors of the same progression as you can hear the two chord just like the four introduces some tension but can wait patiently before resolving back to the tonic chord in fact the second chord of the key in this case d minor is only one note different from the fourth chord of the key f major and this is effectively why they operate in a similar way to each other if you've always been interested in learning to play the piano then you can get started right now with scoove scoove is an easy to use interactive app that can teach you real songs by classic artists like the beatles alicia keys and elton john start your free trial today with the link in the description now an interesting example of a two-chord song is falling by alicia keys as you can see falling's chord progression is very close to the one five progression that we looked at earlier but this time the five chord is minor now why is that important well for the five chord to have its dominant function it actually has to be a major chord it can't be a minor chord this is because the thing that ultimately gives the fifth chord of the key its powerful dominant function is that it contains the seventh note of the scale known as the leading tone the leading tone is only a semitone away from the root note and therefore desperately wants to resolve up [Music] and it's the leading tone's obsession with resolving up that gives the fifth chord of the key its dominant function but when the fifth chord of the key is made into a minor chord we are flattening the leading tone effectively dampening its urge to resolve upwards this means the minor version of the v chord functions far more like a subdominant chord it wants to resolve but it's not in any hurry about it now one song i've seen suggested a lot as an example of a two-chord song is dreams by fleetwood mac and it is true that the bulk of this song is based on a shift from the fourth chord f to the fifth chord g [Music] however later in the song we get this other chord progression where we finally resolve to a six chord the a minor [Music] so this isn't a pure example of a two-chord song but dreams does certainly get a lot of mileage out of just two chords the last song i want to look at before the end of this video is tomorrow never knows by the beatles tomorrow never knows doesn't really have a chord progression and is instead built on a drone of c played on a tambura so this drone would kind of make tomorrow never knows a one chord song but the song does actually feature one other chord at the end of each verse a sample of a b flat chord played on a melotron is superimposed over this droning c [Applause] now as you can see here i've described this superimposed b flat chord as b flat over c as it's a b flat chord with c in the bass however if we want to get a bit more technical about this then a b flat chord with a c in the bass is actually a c 11 chord so is tomorrow never knows a two chord song it has c and it has c 11 are c and c 11 actually different chords or variations on the same chord well it sort of all depends on how you define a chord throughout this video so far i've treated variations on a chord like c c seven c six c add nine as just different versions of the same chord as generally adding extensions like these to a chord doesn't change how it functions it just gives it a different flavor like different shades of the same color for example earlier i gave chuck berry's you never can tell as an example of a two-chord song the entire song is built on c and g7 but if we look at the piano part of the song more closely we can see it's actually shifting back and forth between c and c6 well some people might say well that's a third chord this song has c c6 and g7 but to me i would say that these are just variations on the same chord adding the six to the c chord doesn't change how the chord functions it's still a c major triad but with an extra flavor on top ultimately chords are a construct they're a tool we use to conceptualize how different notes are interacting with each other so different musicians will have different opinions on what constitutes a chord change let me know what you think and i'm also sure there's plenty more examples of two chord songs out there so if you can think of another example then do leave it down below in the comments i'll leave you today with my very own two chord song running man which maps between the chords f major 7 and b flat minor 7. [Music] if you'd like to hear running man in full it's available on spotify and on youtube i've linked it down below in the description and as always a massive thanks goes to everyone who supports me on patreon including the names you see on screen right now and abigail allen andre science diagram andrew andrew brown austin barrett austin russell bob mckinstry brittany parker cameron oliveira colin aiken chris cabell christopher ryan david rivers donald howard dr darren wicks elena scorchenko as ben hansen eugene leroy fd hodor gillamo latona hamesh brocklebank hugo miller james ko j.a cookensberger john dye jonas sodastrong justin vigor lavenderman rose mark height mark ziegenhagen max o'keefe melody composer squared michael vivian nancy gillard nathan lawrence paul miller or paisley peter dunphy pioche minowski roger clay sam lin scott finley sean kennedy steve daly stephen lazzaro tim beaker tricia adams tim payne toot victor levy vidad flowers vladimir kodakov and volte [Music]

Channel: David Bennett Piano

Views: 286,119

Rating: 4.9712253 out of 5

Keywords: 2 chord songs, songs with two chords, easy songs, music theory, analysis, functional harmony, roman numerals, tonic, dominant, subdominant, minor key, major, explained, examples, list, born in the usa, fallin, billie eilish, chords, guitar chords

Id: zpURr5COwI4

Length: 13min 58sec (838 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 30 2021

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