There's a sort of rule of using a minimum of 4 different chords in a song. Whether explicit or implicit harmony is used. I've been making music for years now and even I follow this unwritten rule. I learnt from emulating what the pros did, which is why I have this habit. Is there anything in music theory that explains why this is? Is it because less than 4 chords is too simple? Could it be meter? Since most songs are in 4/4? What song has the fewest chords?

When I say 4 different chords, I mean say a C Major, E min, G Major, F Major progression. Not to be mistaken with using 4 different types of a note's chord e.g. C: C triad, C Major 7, C sus 4, C add 9.

 

4 chords is like the sweet spot it will get you there a song can be great with 12 chords but at times even tho it does sound good with 12 chords sometimes it be too much chord changing and it doesnt catch the ear so 4 chords is the sweet spot of really catching the ear and easy for the listener to remember and harmonize over

 

As long as there is more than one chord, you can create a sense of movement. By far one of the biggest songs of the year Montero by Lil Nas X goes I-II-II-I for 2 minutes in just power chords, and not because his songwriters and producers don't know their theory. I'm sure plenty on this forum would knock that song's simplicity, but it has 1.1b streams on spotify alone

 

Is that I-II-II-I, the chorus? Or throughout the song?

 

Last edited: Dec 2, 2021

very interesting, mind blowing.
that song sounds really well mastered, too. i think that goes a long way in making even very basic music exciting.

 

"One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz."
-- Lou Reed

 

You can't just leave something as controversial as that without explaining

 

i'd say it's more like "2 by section", as in 2 chords in the verse, 2 differnet ones in the chorus, 2 different in the bridge, and so on.

TBH i have no clue, maybe because each section has to have some level of variation and the minimum of different elements you can have is two.

Could also be marketing from assisted chord-creating tools and the music theory book industry, always trying the analog warmth of single-chord songs away from you. The system is flawed, wake up.

 

I like the way u said that lol

 

Just for the record, Bohemian Rhapsody has 48 chords.

 

Attempting a thorough answer...

(auto-edited by AudioSex to comply with the four-word limit on comments)

 

that is a lot of chords he was trying to make a chord bible

 

entire song, absolutely no variation. Give it a listen, but you've probably already heard it in passing

 

An excellent topic to post this masterpiece: 5 glorious minutes of (mostly) C major (and some detours to F and Em)

 

Popular music follows a trend. Some people (not all) follow a formula. To try and answer your question properly, to be honest, other than knowing that so many tunes sound exactly the same no matter the style or tempo, I am not sure anyone can completely . There are writers who march to the beat of their own drum and writers who want to be popular and be liked by everyone with the goal of making money and 15 minutes or more of fame. Each to their own.

 

it s not an unwritten rule, harmony is suppose to support a melody, nobody keeps anyone from using the same chord over a melody as long as it it sounds good,but eventually the voices of the chord have to go somewhere, to the end at least, to give a conclusion. Basically every song on the planet based on a diatonic melody could be supported by a three chord progression (I said song, other forms of musicmight not necessarily respect this concept), and to some people four chords are even too much ( basic blues is coded in a form of three chords, but those who invented it didn t give a crap of what white people decided what a blues progression was, and musicians like john lee hooker could make songs with one chord), even the progression you posted , that I ve just realized to be "life on mars" , as an example,could be reduced to three chords, since E minor is a secondary chord and could be replaced by C major, which is the primary chord. I read that 80% of Bach's music was built over primary chords. To answer your question on what songs have fewest chords, the list is quite long acutally, a lot of Santana s stuff ( Frank Zappa even made fun of him) is built on two chords, but that s just the first name that came to my mind, i think there are millions of songs built over two chords and i m sure a lot of people, with the excuse that most listeners are distracted listeners,made some sutiff with just one chord and made it up with some weird sound

 

When we live in a world with 7 billion+ people, 195 or so countries, a bunch of different cultures and music genres, saying that "most songs follow [whatever rule]" is quite a bold statement, haha.

Tbh, I think it has to do with the fact that binary metric is much more prevalent in modern and contemporary popular western music, which connects to the fact that simple harmonic rhythmical patterns (like e.g. one chord every first downbeat of each bar) are easy to follow and to understand, and since this type of music aims towards a super wide audience, it makes sense to be formulaic to a certain point.

 

Bohemian Rhapsody is remarkable and it is (to a certain extent) structured around the Rhapsody format, so it's supposed to be a bunch of songs and popular themes in one single piece of music, so if you take a look at the song's form you will find it has 4 main sections (that are kinda like self contained songs), so 12 chords per section. Of course I'm just making a simple division to illustrate how it makes sense that Bohemian Rhapsody can have 48 chords or so, each section has it's on share of those.

 

Last edited: Dec 2, 2021

I can only imagine who was the madman that analysed more than a thousand manuscripts to come to that conclusion about Bach

 

Many songs are built over extended chord progressions, but they are not the majority. Luckily for songwriters and composers, copyrights and r royalties are based on the melody and not on harmony, otherwise everyone would have to pay royalties to everyone else

 

Last edited: Dec 2, 2021