Different songs, same chord progressions

[dixonge]

So this morning I was tossing and turning and couldn't get an old CCM song out of my head. I started thinking about how I might rework the words in a way that they could apply to a secular crowd, specifically the retired expats here on the lake south of Guadalajara, Mexico. Once I managed to actually work the name of the lake into the song I got so excited I had to get out of bed and start working on it. 

 

It was 3:45am 

 

Magically, once I changed the lyrics, removing the intense evangelical zealousness, I realized it kinda sounded like a bar song. The more I thought about it the more I wondered if it kinda sounded like something by Billy Joel. And, as it turns out, it was, in fact, using the same chord progression and meter (3/4) as Piano Man! Check it out.

https://www.e-chords.com/chords/keith-green/my-eyes-are-dry

 

https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/billy-joel/piano-man-chords-1051336

 

You can find some minor differences (Dm vs F) but they share the same walking bass, from C down to D. And you can easily sing either one to the other's chords. Did Keith Green, consciously or *un*-consciously, 'steal' this from Billy? Piano Man was '73, My Eyes Are Dry was '78. 

 

Any way, maybe someday I'll sing it for a few friends and maybe they'll get a chuckle out of it...

[JamPro]

I saw something similar on HBO's Treme - the plucky young street-musician/classically-trained violinist decides she has to write some originals, and after a couple of days of hard work, shows off her new creation to her friends, who immediately recognize the chord progression of Dylan's It's Alright Ma.  (I heartily recommend Treme - it's about residents of New Orleans trying to get their lives in order after Hurricane Katrina - every musician of stature in New Orleans gets a cameo )

 

And right now the YouTube algorithm is inviting me to view a video detailing how 4-5 contemporary pop songs are built around the chord changes of Pacobel's Canon.

 

Every time I'm stuck for some ideas, I play thru the Rule of Octaves to see if I can make any of that fit my needs.  After all, it was originally written as a song-writing aid.

[Mark Zeger]

Big +1 on “Treme”!

 

Today’s word is “contrafact”. All the jazz musicians here know contrafacts, when a new melody is written over the changes from another song. The new melody can be copyrighted. Maybe the best known example is “The Flintstones Theme” written over “I Got Rhythm”. The “IGR” progression became known as Rhythm Changes.
 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_jazz_contrafacts

And there’s this:

 

 

 

[dixonge]

58 minutes ago, JamPro said:

I saw something similar on HBO's Treme - the plucky young street-musician/classically-trained violinist decides she has to write some originals, and after a couple of days of hard work, shows off her new creation to her friends, who immediately recognize the chord progression of Dylan's It's Alright Ma.  (I heartily recommend Treme - it's about residents of New Orleans trying to get their lives in order after Hurricane Katrina - every musician of stature in New Orleans gets a cameo )

 

And right now the YouTube algorithm is inviting me to view a video detailing how 4-5 contemporary pop songs are built around the chord changes of Pacobel's Canon.

 

Every time I'm stuck for some ideas, I play thru the Rule of Octaves to see if I can make any of that fit my needs.  After all, it was originally written as a song-writing aid.

Loved Treme!

[Joe Muscara]

59 minutes ago, JamPro said:

every musician of stature in New Orleans gets a cameo

Season 3, Episode 8 features our own @Josh Paxtonaccompanying the beloved Little Queenie, Leigh Harris at Chickie Wah Wah. I often watch that scene and tune out the characters rambling whatever they're whining about to listen to the music. That being said, the one woman's comment at the beginning of the scene about "that piano player" is a ringtone I use for Josh!

 

I think some guy named Jon Batiste is also in that episode…

[analogika]

Different key, but (apart from the solo) the same changes: 

 

 

vs.

 

 

[stoken6]

Circle of fifths is a rich seam as well: I Will Survive, Still Got The Blues, Autumn Leaves, Fly Me To The Moon, Killing Me Softly, etc.

 

 

 

Cheers, Mike.

 

[Docbop]

If chord changes were part of copyright Blues musicians would be in court everyday.   

 

 

[Adam Burgess]

12 minutes ago, Docbop said:

If chord changes were part of copyright Blues musicians would be in court everyday.   

 

 

At least they'd have a reason for their wife and dog leaving them.

[EscapeRocks]

to this day the Axis of Awesome is one of my very favorite routines about this...

These guys nail it

[bfields]

I once started going through that Axis of Awesome video comparing to the originals and only got through the first few.  But it's clear they're doing some careful cherry-picking:  e.g., there's a reason they only play the first four bars of "Don't Stop Believing"--because the next bit goes I V iii IV. And then of course there's a different progression starting on "strangers....".  The second chord in "You're Beautiful" is in first inversion--minor thing, but you'd want to get it right if you were actually covering it.  They move on from "Forever Young" *very* quickly--since it's actually something like I V vi IV V ii9 IV vi, I think?

 

Not a criticism, it's clever and funny.

 

And it's fun collecting these things.  I figure it helps improve my ear for progressions.

[CEB]

Music is a lot like Chess.  They both involve a great deal of Pattern Recognition!!!

 

It's why we can learn so many songs so fast.  More songs you learn the more progressions and changes you internalize.  There are only 12 notes.

[elsongs]

75% of all Taylor Swift songs? 😄


Okay here's one (2018):
 

And this one (1988):
 

 

[elsongs]

9 hours ago, bfields said:

I once started going through that Axis of Awesome video comparing to the originals and only got through the first few.  But it's clear they're doing some careful cherry-picking:  e.g., there's a reason they only play the first four bars of "Don't Stop Believing"--because the next bit goes I V iii IV. And then of course there's a different progression starting on "strangers....".  The second chord in "You're Beautiful" is in first inversion--minor thing, but you'd want to get it right if you were actually covering it.  They move on from "Forever Young" *very* quickly--since it's actually something like I V vi IV V ii9 IV vi, I think?

 

Not a criticism, it's clever and funny.

 

And it's fun collecting these things.  I figure it helps improve my ear for progressions.

Yeah, also the second chord in A-ha's "Take On Me" is also an inversion. The difference between older songs that used the "Millennial Chords" (my term for them) is that they were only used for a section of the song (usually the Chorus), whereas today's hits have them repeat for the entirety of the song.