Most Recognizable Chord in History

[davebrownbass]

With all the Chord talk on the "Teen Town" thread (talk about a hijacking) I got an idea.

 

What is the most famous single chord in pop history, what chord defined a song, a sound, a generation.

 

This actually will serve an educational purpose, since hearing these songs in your head will help you hear chord quality.

 

I have several ideas in mind, but I'll just list 2:

 

1. F Maj 7, the opening riff from "Colour My World" by Chicago.

 

2. G6, the closing chord on "She Loves You" by the Beatles.

 

I can think of several others, by people like The Who, Jimi Hendrix, ZZ Top.

 

Think of any?

[SoundWrangler]

How about the Gsus4/D (DGCG) at the beginning of "Hard Day's Night"?

[The Bear Jew]

"D."

 

For some reason, guitarists can't seem to play an open "D" chord without wiggling their pinky around on the high "E" string. Few (if any) can avoid doing this... It always shows up. That's why I think the open "D" chord is the most recognizable one ever.

[The Fonz]

Originally posted by davebrownbass:

2. G6, the closing chord on "She Loves You" by the Beatles.

i think the G opening hard days night would be more recognizable. try to hear that chord and not sing along.

[jeremy c]

How about the Taxman chord? Also called the Foxy Lady chord?

 

D7#9 for Taxman,

 

E7#9 for Foxy Lady

[The Fonz]

Originally posted by SoundWrangler:

How about the Gsus4/D (DGCG) at the beginning of "Hard Day's Night"?

geez i type slow.

[Scoot]

I was gonna say "A Hard Day's Night" also. How 'bout the Am arpeggio of "Stairway", opening trashy chord to "Wild Thing" (A5?), Lola's C, the two-note F5 of "Smells Like Teen Spirit"? We could go on and on . . . and I'm sure we will.

 

s.d.

[SteveC]

I have to second or third the "Hard Days Night" opening chord. I am not a big Beatles fan, but that is the first thing that came to my mind.

[SoundWrangler]

Although that harmonic-based Em chord at the beginning of Yes' "Roundabout" also rates pretty high for recognizability...

 

And OK, it's a sort of chord arpeggio, but the opening of "Portrait of Tracy" would probably get an instant rise out of many members (pun intended) in THIS forum, too...

[Mudbass]

Originally posted by SoundWrangler:

How about the Gsus4/D (DGCG) at the beginning of "Hard Day's Night"?

What he said.

[Alan Dalton]

I'd say the Ab at the start of "You Keep Me Hanging On" is one of the most recognisable chords.

 

I think A defined punk.

 

Em defines most riff-based guitar music, Rage Against The Machine and Pearl Jam have built their most famous songs around Em.

[Tedster]

I kinda picture Pete Townshend leaping into the air and whamming the open A in "Won't Get Fooled Again"

[Mr M Pulsive]

Originally posted by The Tedster of Christmas Present:

I kinda picture Pete Townshend leaping into the air and whamming the open A in "Won't Get Fooled Again"

That's the ticket!

-Mike

[BNC]

Well it seems we can all agree on "Hard Day's Night"

 

Maybe we should start another thread about the most recognizable riff or lick.....

 

I think I'll go do that now

 

Thanks for the good idea davenbrownbass

[davebrownbass]

Pretty amazing all the Beatles references here. Also, remember that the voicing of a chord also makes it unique and memorable.

 

An example is (the D chord was mentioned, and also, "Won't Get Fooled Again" was mentioned) Pete's open D played DADA...a power chord on an acoustic guitar.

 

Of course, there are many others...single chords that define.

 

How about the James Taylor A major hammered third on "Fire and Rain."

 

And what is the piano chord (getting too lazy to look it up) from Blood, Sweat and Tears "Spinning Wheel" Somebody's gotta know.

 

Keep thinking...this is a great exercise in applied music theory.

[jeremy c]

It's a good exercise in practicing your perfect pitch....if you really can hear a chord in your head and maybe even sing the root...then you are demonstrating an aspect of perfect pitch.

[Zack]

The C major chord that opens the Who's Tommy album on the tune "Overture." When played live, all fans hear is that first chord and they go wild. I also couldn't believe that no one mentioned one of the great Beatles chords with all the Fab 4 talk: the closing Em chord to "A Day in the Life." Played on 3 pianos simultaneously as the frequency was lowered, and sustained until only dogs could pick up on it as a result, it's a fabulous way of playing a great chord and an ingenious experimentation.

[dustybass6]

I'd say the E5 chord is most recognizable, pick any rock or metal song and you'll hear it.

[Bartolini]

In Teen Town thread, somebody said a major 7th sounds gay.

I was about to post that major 7th is the most identifiable chord anywhere.

[davebrownbass]

Originally posted by dustybass6:

I'd say the E5 chord is most recognizable, pick any rock or metal song and you'll hear it.

In that case, I might say that the E5 (or any "power chord") is the most anonymous chord in history.

[Dan South]

Originally posted by Bartolini:

In Teen Town thread, somebody said a major 7th sounds gay.

I guess that renders all jazz music gay. And anyone who plays jazz must be gay, too, huh? You have to wonder about people who think up stuff like that.

 

I think the most recognizable chord is the major triad, because most western music is based on it, especially rock music, which eschews sophisticated harmonic structures for parallel major chords.

 

Typical rock chord progression (no song in particular):

 

A C G D F G E G (repeat)

 

Also recognizable is the diminished seventh chord which has added a villainous effect to many a movie or TV soundtrack.

 

example: Adim7 = A C Eb F#

 

I can think of some recognizable chord SEQUENCES. One is the series of suspended and major triads that Pete Townshend played on Pinball Wizard. Also, the circle of fifths which has been used to some degree on another in western music since the Baroque period.

[The Fonz]

actually, i always suspected those major 7ths werea little swishy. now a MINOR 7th, that's a real mans chord

[Bartolini]

actually, i always suspected those major 7ths werea little swishy. now a MINOR 7th, that's a real mans chord

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

come to think about it..........ya, I feel its kind of true. Maj7ths are like..angel-sound? Or a little sissy?

[Graybass]

How about the arpegio at the start of "Tell it like it is".

[_Sweet Willie_]

While I don't think my suggestion (which follows) would be the "most recognizable chord in history," it does get some recognition in hip hop.

 

The opening chords for A Tribe Called Quest's "Award Tour" off their Midnight Marauders album. They're sampled from Weldon Irvine's "We Gettin' Down," which I think was off his 1970s Spirit Man LP.

 

Peace.

[Dan South]

Originally posted by Bastid E:

actually, i always suspected those major 7ths werea little swishy. now a MINOR 7th, that's a real mans chord

I don't know about that. Elton John NEVER uses major sevenths, but his music is FULL of minor sevenths.

 

I think it depends on the voiceing. If you play a major seventh in its straight "Colour My World" form, yeah, it sounds a little wishy washy. But pack those notes together in the right way, and a major seventh can sound spooky, sinister, pensive - lots of cool stuff going on in there. If you have access to a keyboard, try some voicing variations on a major seventh. Also try the minor ninth, which is essentially a major seventh with a bass not three half steps below the major seventh root. The minor ninth is one of the most strongly emotive chords - very powerful.

[Sexy Bastard]

By far the most recognizable chord (even among non-musicians) has to be a F#b6sus2add#11/F

[D_dup3]

Originally posted by Dan South:

Originally posted by Bastid E:

actually, i always suspected those major 7ths werea little swishy. now a MINOR 7th, that's a real mans chord

I don't know about that. Elton John NEVER uses major sevenths, but his music is FULL of minor sevenths.

 

I think it depends on the voiceing. If you play a major seventh in its straight "Colour My World" form, yeah, it sounds a little wishy washy. But pack those notes together in the right way, and a major seventh can sound spooky, sinister, pensive - lots of cool stuff going on in there. If you have access to a keyboard, try some voicing variations on a major seventh. Also try the minor ninth, which is essentially a major seventh with a bass not three half steps below the major seventh root. The minor ninth is one of the most strongly emotive chords - very powerful.

Dan (& others), I suggest that you refer to scale tones as by their nuemerical equivalent & terms like "flatted" or "sharped", reserving the terms "minor", "diminished", etc., to the discussion of chordal effects.

Though the term "minor" is often used in just the way you used it there, I think it is ambiguous & can lead to confusion.

When someone cits, for example, a "minor 7th", it isn't immediately clear if that's a minor chord with a seventh or a chord with a flatted seventh---see what I mean?

It just a pet peeve of mine but I think clarity is better served by using the terms "flatted" & "sharped" for intervallic references.

[davebrownbass]

Well, I understand the confusion.

 

I would suspect that we need to provide contextual clues.

If you are a music college-educated poster who studied classical music theory, you think of intervals in precisely that way, minor-Major 2nd, minor-major 3rd, Perfect/Augmented 4th, dim/perfect/aug 5, minor-Major 6, dim/minor/major 7th.

 

If you are a theory expert primarly as it relates to chord charts, you would normally think the other way.

 

In one syntax, you could assume that if you read "minor seventh" that would refer to the interval, and when you said "minor sevens" that would refer to the chord. ("Jazz is full of minor sevens.") Hard to be consistent with that.

 

Is there really a problem? If I refer to the "major seventh" whether I'm speaking of the interval or the chord containing the interval it works out to the same thing. "Play the major seventh there" gives the instruction clearly enough.

 

Minor is probably the most confusing...but a minor chord has only one definition (minor third) If I say "play the minor seventh there" I might cause confusion, but if I say "play e minor seven" it's clear.

 

I hesitate to use "flatted" or "sharped" as descriptors. The implication is something is altered from the scale...but suppose you are in a pure minor key. You could hardly call the naturally occuring minor seventh a "flatted" seventh without explaining that you want to remain diatonic. I'm in a natural minor; you say, "now play the flatted seventh" and I'm thinking you want G flat.

 

I've never run into much confusion here in the real world. I almost always hear the suffix "th" indicate an interval, and the absence indicate a chord. (of course, we're not careful enough with that distinction.)

[jeremy c]

Interesting that a minor 6th chord does not have a minor sixth interval in it, it has a major 6th.

Cm6 = 1 b3 5 6 =C Eb G A

 

The chord names are reasonably standardized. You can find some definitions of common practice in Clinton Roemer's book, "The Art of Music Copying", and in the introductions to Chuck Sher's "The New Real Book" series.

 

Every music student should know the names of intervals, but on gigs you won't hear people using the interval terminology.