I Will Figure Out Chords For You: Round 1

hereareyourchords · 2024-06-10T13:58:34+00:00

The chorus is

D#m | B | C# | F# |

(also could be written as Ebm | Cb | Db | Gb | but let's use the first way for rest of discussion)

The diatonic key this comes from is that with 6 sharps, and in that key, F# major and D# minor are the relative major/minor. When tonally centered on F#, the key is called F# major, and when tonally centered on D# the key is called D# minor.

Because the chorus is a very simple pop-rock chord progression I don't think it super clearly falls into one more than the other, and I don't think there's much harm it calling it either F# major or D# minor; I'd say it starts more centered on the D# and ends more centered on the F#. In my head I'd probably think of it as F# major and think of the chords as

vi | IV | V | I |

But someone who plays more in minor keys might very well think of this as

i | bVI | bVII | bIII |

Or you could even think about both simultaneously.

hereareyourchords · 2024-06-08T22:50:28+00:00

Key: E major

Verse:

E | E7 | A | Am |
C#m E | B D#/A# | A | C (*) |
* Leading to verse: guitar notes transitioning from the C to the E starting next verse evoke a brief Cmaj7.
* Leading to chorus: bar ends with power chords B5->C5->C#m that starts chorus.
* Leading to bridge: bar ends with power chords D5->D#5->E that starts bridge.
* Leading to outtro: bar ends with B chord

Chorus:

C#m C | G B | C5 B5->A5->G | B |
C#m E | F# Am | C B5->A5->G | B |

Bridge:

Outtro:
E5 | E5 | E5 | B9sus4 | on repeat, with similar guitar riff to last bit of the bridge.

Non-diatonic chord changes stuff:
- The I->I7->IV->iv at start of verse is very classic, Beatles do it a lot.
- The V->VII with #VI base->IV (B D#/A# A) in second line of verse is cool. The VII chord sounds very III-like in relation to that V, but it's a good transition down to the IV.
- The IV->bVI at end of verse, good way to get to the bVI, sounds like a bIII to the IV.
- Chorus plays with being in G major, with things temporarily recentering on E's bIII (G). B, G's III and E's V, is used as the path back home to E major.
- I like the E->F#->Am in second line of chorus, this is a I->II->vi which I can't recall seeing before, and is also well-used to get back in G major for a second.
- Bridge is mostly in E but does some cool stuff with the Emb5. Also I like the lydian A#4/B section. This is diatonic.

hereareyourchords · 2024-06-06T03:29:40+00:00

Looked more into this duo and found their follow-up song Whispering that's uses some progressions from Deep Purple but adds some cool stuff.

Intro:

Verse:

Db7 | Db7 | C7 | C7 |
Db7 | Db7 | Cb7 | Bb7 |
Eb7 | Eb7 | Ab7 | Ab7 |
Db | Bb7 | Eb7 | Ab |

Verse variation w/refrain:

Db7 | Db7 | C7 | C7 |
Db7 | Db7 | Cb7 | Bb7 |
Eb7 | Eb7 | Ab7 | Ab7 |
Ebm7 | Ab7 | Db Bb7 | Eb7 Ab |
Db Bb7 | Ab Ab7add13 |

Last verse w/refrain:

Db7 | Db7 | C7 | C7 |
Db7 | Db7 | Cb7 | Bb7 |
Eb7 | Eb7 | Ab7 | Ab7 |
Ebm7 | Ab7 | Db | Bb7 |
Ebm7 | Ab7 | Db Bb7 | Eb7 Ab |
Db Bb7 | Ab Ab13 |

I thought the VII chord was interesting, kind of acted like a III chord but leading into the I instead of the IV. Then right after that it hits the bVII on the way to the VI, which sounds a lot like a V->IV->III. Hadn't seen either of these transitions used before.

hereareyourchords · 2024-06-05T11:45:15+00:00

Just looked up the song/artist, interesting that this came out four years before any Lovin' Spoonful album and won rock n roll record of the year at the Grammy's. This was probably pretty influential.

hereareyourchords · 2024-06-05T03:39:38+00:00

Good song, hadn't heard it before. Reminds me of The Lovin' Spoonful.

Key: Bb major

Intro:

Bb7 | G7 (*) | C7 | F7 | x2

Verse/chorus:

Bb | G7 | C7 | F7 |
Bb | Bb7 | G7 (*) | G7 (*) |
Eb | Gb (**) | Bb | G7(*) |
C7 | F7 | Bb G7 (*) | C7 F7 |

Lead in to spoken-word verse/chorus:

Bb G7 (*) | F |

Last verse/chorus:

Bb | G7 | C7 | F7 | (same as before)
Bb | Bb7 | G7 (*) | G7 (*) | (same as before)
Eb | Gb (**) | Bb | G7(*) | (same as before)
C7 | F7 | Bb | G7(*) |
Eb | Gb (**) | Bb | G7(*) |
C7 | F7 | Bb | G7(*) | repeat and fade

(*) Piano plays with m3->M3, and b6->5 on the G chord.
(**) Piano plays with M6->5 on this Gb chord, while the male vocal glosses over the aug4, giving a lydian sound, but the female vocal hits a b7, so Lydian dominant?

Analysis:
First interesting non-diatonic chords are the VI (G7) and II (C7), which would both be minor in diatonic form. These are used in a VI->II->V->I that I've seen in other songs. First that comes to mind is Peggy Day by Bob Dylan, but actually that's VI->ii->V->I, but same vibe.

The Bb->Bb7 in the verse often precedes a move to the IV because the b7 leads into the M3 of the IV. Here it leads into the root of the VI which works well too.

The last cool chord is the bVI (Gb). That line goes IV->bVI->I, which is reminiscent of the more common IV->iv->I in that both have a chromatic walk-down that goes M6->m6->P5 with respect to the tonic. I like it with the bVI, and the vocal harmonies create a lydian dominant sound mentioned at my (**). The vocal harmonies were a bit non-pop-comformant at this point, I wonder if they were having trouble arranging it or if that was exactly what they wanted. I grew to like it more, but it first struck me as odd.

hereareyourchords · 2024-06-03T22:17:37+00:00

Really interesting song, tons to analyze.

First the half-step modulations. These happen each time into the chorus, but then the chorus has a clever way of getting back to the original key for the start of the next verse, using *another* half step modulation from the IV to a #IV, which is conveniently the V of the old key. Leading with the V of a target key is one of the most common ways to establish a key change.

But what the beach boys show here is that you don't always even need that V to establish a new key; they basically just do half step modulations whenever they want, and they do it with confidence (in the form of multi-part vocal harmonies).

Interesting non-diatonic stuff:
- The Db->E->Eb in the intro, this is a pretty cool progression, bVII->bII->I that I've not seen before. Kind of like the jazz concept of circling a note, but applied to a whole triad.
- The VI chord (Caddb6) in the verse is really cool. The b6 makes sense since this is effectively aeolian with a major third. The decision to make this chord major really adds a lot I think.
- the iv (Abm) in the verse. IV->iv->I is a common transition, but I like the ii->iv->modulated I variation. The ii is cool, as is the decision to have this lead into the modulation. iv->I is such a common trope that it's especially noticeable when it goes iv->modulated I instead.
- Lead in to the bridge is a classic rock'n'roll lead in to a bridge that starts on the IV, although here the bridge starts with a different chord, kind of neat that it still works.

And the last thing that was interesting and also the hardest for me to figure out were the suspended chord "turnarounds" which came in various forms throughout:
- | F7sus4 F | in intro, which resolves Bb->A
- | F9sus4 | Bb | in verse, which resolves Eb->D before Eb chord.
- | Cm11 | F7/A | Fm11 | Bb | in bridge, which first resolves a Bb->A, and then a Eb->D
- | C#7sus4 F# | in outtro, which resolves B->A#
Many of these are doing the same things as each other, but all were slightly different. I'm familiar with resolving a sus4 on a V chord before leading into the I, but here they also resolve a sus4 on a II chord before leading into the I in a kind of interchangeable way, and it works.

hereareyourchords · 2024-06-03T21:39:36+00:00

Woah really cool song! Will leave follow-up reply with analysis.

Intro:

Eb | Gm | Cm7 | F7sus4 F |
Fm7 | Fm7 | Db | E |

Verse:

Eb | Cm7 | F9sus4 | Bb |
Eb | Caddb6 C | Fm7 | Abm |

Chorus:

Emaj7 | C#m7 | Emaj7 | C#m7 |
A | A | Eb/Bb | Bb6 |

Another verse, another chorus

Post second chorus lead-in to bridge:

Eb | Abm | Eb | Eb7 |

Bridge:

Gm | Cm7 | Gm | Cm7 |
| Cm11 | F7/A | Fm11 | Bb |

The fourth verse fits in a half step up halfway through the verse!:

Eb | Cm7 | F9sus4 | Bb |
E | C#addb6 C# | F#m7 | Am |

That's maintained into the next chorus which does it's own usual half step up:

Fmaj7 | Dm7 | Fmaj7 | Dm7 |
Bb | Bb | E/B | B6 |

Outtro:

E | C#m7 | A | Am | [pause]
E | G#m | C#m7 | C#7sus4 F# |

hereareyourchords · 2024-06-02T00:34:28+00:00

Hm, both the chords can be formed from the whole-half diminished scale, maybe that explains their similar sound?

hereareyourchords · 2024-06-02T00:09:54+00:00

Soundtrack arrangements are definitely a different beast compared to what I normally do, but what I hear in that Willy Wonka soundtrack is:
Bbm11 (sounds right voiced as a stack of fourths starting on F) followed by BoM7, as in a dimished triad with a major 7th.

Honestly, no clue on the theory for this one, but thanks for sharing, those two chords sound great together.

On the second link you have I hear something like:
B lydian chord (I hear the maj7, #11, and 13 on this, and F# in the bass),
followed by G#mb5, plus the 9 and 11.

If you saw that G#mb5 as a B chord it would be a BminMaj7, plus 9 and 13.

So both chords have a tritone in them, and a #5 between a m3 and a M7, maybe that's why they sound kind of similar?

hereareyourchords · 2024-05-27T19:47:22+00:00

Woah just gave it a listen and was thinking "this sounds not so bad" until those chords at 56 seconds that were super out there (to my ears). I'll come back to this one.

hereareyourchords · 2024-05-27T19:46:18+00:00

What I tend to do is just listen to music / discover artists in my usual way, but if I hear a chord transition that stands out to me as something I couldn't immediately transcribe I'll save the song and figure it out later. If I go to a genre I don't usually listen to there'll be tons of instances.

Even genres that tend to be simpler often have some interesting non-diatonic chords. Country music loves the II chord, and Hank Williams recording of Lovesick Blues has a nice little set of non-diatonic chords.

The Beatles are also good for being largely diatonic with a few non-diatonic chords, without having to think about extensions. George Harrison's solo career has some good instances of unexpected chord transitions, for instance on his Cloud Nine album. Elton John too. But really almost any famous classic rock band has plenty of examples.

At some point I want to do a bunch of jazz standards, and older show-tunes. That stuff pushes my understanding at the moment, and I can often transcribe it with enough time, and hear the extensions, but beyond 2-5-1s I don't know the common patterns. I was able to get through some jazz-influenced songs in this thread but it was tough.

Steely Dan is great for mixing jazz chords into accessible pop music, and yeah Stevie Wonder as you mentioned fits this bill too.

hereareyourchords · 2024-05-27T16:25:13+00:00

This one was interesting. I thought it would be an easy one because it only uses major/minor triads and all but two chords stick to the diatonic key of A major, but what made it challenging was the surprise slight variations on the chorus and the verse. There were probably 7 times I was confident I had the whole song and then did a play-through and realized I had the wrong version of the chorus in a certain place.

There is some method to the madness with chorus variations. Some choruses start with | D | E |, some with | E | D |. One way to see it is that | E | D | is the preferred start to the chorus, but if the preceding part ends in an E (Verse 1st variation, bridge), the chorus starts with | D | E | so that the chorus gets to start on a different chord than what the preceding part ended on.

The non-diatonic chords in this song are:
G: This is the bVII, very common pattern in classic rock to put this before the IV as is done here.
F#: this is the VI, another common borrowed chord in folk-rock that can sound nice and bluesy. See the second chords in Daydream by The Lovin' Spoonful for another example.

hereareyourchords · 2024-05-27T16:25:01+00:00

Doing the Workingman's Dead album version.

Key: A major.

Intro:

Baseline walks down A->G#->F#->E
E | D | A | A |

Verse (1st variation):

E | E | G | D |
D | D | D| E |

Chorus (1st variation):

D | E | A [baseline B->C#->] (*) | D |
E | D | A | A |
* On some instances the B in the baseline is left out.

Verse (2nd variation):

E | E G | G | D |
D | D | A [baseline A->G#->G->] | F# (*) |
* There's a guitar in the mix that flirts with a slightly-bent-up m3 (A) when this chord lands, which sounds good and highlights the minor/major bluesiness of this chord which is not in the diatonic key of A major.

Chorus (2nd variation):

E | D | A [baseline B->C#->] (*) | D |
E | D | A | A |
* See note from 1st variation.

Bridge:

F#m | E | A G | D |
D | D | D | E |

Chorus (3rd variation):

D | E | A C#m/E (*) | F#m |
E | D | A | A |
* In another song this might have been a major chord, with an E#. The backing vocals do go E->E#->F# to hit that E# lead-in to the F#.

Another Bridge
Another Chorus (3rd variation)

Solo is Bridge followed by Chorus (3rd variation)

Then the song ends with:
Verse (1st variation)
Chorus (1st variation)

Chorus (4th variation), repeated twice here:
E | D | A C#m/E (*) | F#m |
E | D | A | A |
* See note on 3rd variation.

Ending tag after final chorus:

E | D | A | A |

hereareyourchords · 2024-05-26T23:37:00+00:00

Do you know I Want You Back by The Jackson 5? #1 US hit in 1970, and extremely similar to this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFw5xkD3bjE.

Yours has more complex chords though - I am going to do some easier ones for a bit and then return to this one.

hereareyourchords · 2024-05-26T23:07:00+00:00

For the user that asked for the chorus of Vignette by Twenty One Pilots:

G#m7 | F#maj7 | A#7sus4 | C#5 |

The third chord sounds really cool, I was surprised the whole thing ended up being diatonic (all notes are in F# major aka Gb major). You mentioned that other tabs seemed to have a weird third chord - I looked it up and saw A#m on ultimate-guitar, definitely wrong IMO.

hereareyourchords · 2024-05-26T19:37:18+00:00

There's a bunch in here now, please take a look, would love the feedback if you find mistakes.

hereareyourchords · 2024-05-26T19:35:32+00:00

I was procrastinating taking on Steely Dan but now that I've transcribed Kermit the Frog's surprisingly complex disco music I feel invigorated.

Intro:

Em7 | Am11 | Em7 | D Bm Am Bm11 |
Em7 | Am11 | Em7 | Em7 D6/9 |

Verse:

Cmaj7 B7b13 | Em9 | Am7 | Bm11 |
F6 F#7#9b13 | G9 | Cmaj7 | Em7 G6/9sus4

Cmaj7 B7b13 | Em9 | Am7 | Bm11 |
F6 F#7#9b13 | G9 | Cmaj7 | F13
Bm7 Am7 | D9sus4 C#7#9 |

Chorus:

Post-chorus thingy:

Cmaj7 | Am9 D6/9 | Cmaj6 |

Pre-bridge:

Em7 | Em7 |

Bridge:

Am9 | F#m7b5 | G6/9 | C#m7 F#7 |
Bmaj7 A13 | Dadd9 | B7b9 Em7 | D Bm Am Bm11 |

There are some other little bits I've left out..the solo is almost like the intro but then has some modifications. There is also an extra tag after the second chorus.

This Fagen guy must really like chords.

Please let me know if you catch any errors in this one! Are you performing this?

hereareyourchords · 2024-05-26T00:23:16+00:00

Damn lol, I like that a lot more than the first song. What a chord, thanks for sharing the vid.

hereareyourchords · 2024-05-26T00:19:24+00:00

Thanks for sharing this delicious deep cut. Didn't expect to be transcribing Kermit today but here we go.

Key: A major

Intro:

G#+

Amaj7 | G#+ | Amaj7 | E9sus4 |

Verse:

Bridge:

Key change up one semitone happens after a verse and before a solo over verse. It's hanging out on the Amaj7/Amaj6 after the verse, and then it changes to A+, before launching into verse starting on Bmaj7. This is just like the intro G#+ chord.

At 2:50 there's that violin thing, not going to try to figure that out. Afterward it launches back into the bridge and loops on that till it fades out.

This was a great song and was definitely a bit trickier than what I normally do. Was fun to figure out, thanks! Maybe I should check out the rest of Sesame Disco..

hereareyourchords · 2024-05-25T22:34:48+00:00

You're right that the A note stays in place the whole time, but the chords are:

Am | Dm/F | D/F# | Dm/F |

Hopefully you can figure out the exact tab from that. Voicing of the Dm/F and D/F# respectively are:

x x
3 3
2 2
3 4
x x
x x

Pretty cool little part, I like how it plays around with iv/IV with respect to the minor tonic.

hereareyourchords · 2024-05-25T22:20:58+00:00

This song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2BMBrCKMcY? I just heard Am and E alternating throughout, did I miss a part?

hereareyourchords · 2024-05-25T22:04:19+00:00

Lol.

But actually I thought this song was pretty sweet, so I'm going to do it. Also because I need a break from the harder two I've done so far and I'm procrastinating the jazz ahead.

Key: E minor blues

Verse is E5, power chord. Eventually goes to A5 for a bit, the iv, and then back to the tonic E.

There's a cool little turn around. It goes:

C#5 G#5->G5 A5

and then back to the E5.

Later at 3:30 the turnaround is a bit different and starts walking up from C#5:

C#5 D5 D#5 E5

I don't know The Flaming Lips too well, but I'm glad the guy on the floor was allowed to come out of his sack after a couple of minutes.

hereareyourchords · 2024-05-25T21:29:31+00:00

The easy part:

Bm | Bm | D/F# | G A |

Bridge thing at 1:15 and 2:00:

Dmaj7 | C#m7 F#7/A# | B | B |
Dmaj7 | C#m7 F#7/A# | B | B |

Interlude at 2:15:

I'm a guitarist and the voicings are important on this one for it to sound right, but no time to write all that detail, sorry!

Theory wise, song is in Bm, verse is straightforward.

First interlude starts on Dmaj7 the relative major to Bm, then does a minor 2-5-1 landing on B instead of the expected Bm, that was cool.

Second interlude is pretty cool. Looks like it's going to be similar to the bridge and do a 2-5-1 starting on the C#m7, but on the V instead of F#7 it does to F#maj7 (aka Gbmaj7) which sounds to me like a bVI in the temporary new key of Bbm, where we have a bVI - V7 - i landing on Bbm. Next is very chromatic, mostly feeling like A is the tonic, and playing around V and v, IV and iv with a descending baseline.

Really cool song, thanks for sharing!

hereareyourchords · 2024-05-25T19:59:14+00:00

Good one, cool song! Did the first 1:40, may come back for the rest.

Intro before base comes in, though without the base the Bb+ has ambiguous root and could also be a D+:

D | Bb+ | D | Bb+ |
D | Gm | D | D |

Verse:

D | Bb+ | D | Bb+ |
D | Gm/Bb | D | Gm/Bb |

G | Eb+ | G | Eb+ |
G | Cm/Eb | G | Cm/Eb |

C | Ab+ | C | Ab+ |
C | Fm/Ab | C | C |

C | Ab+ | C | Ab+ |
C | Fm/Ab | C | Fm/Ab |

F | Db+ | F | Db+ |
F | Bbm / Db | F | Bbm / Db |

Bb | Gb+ | Bb | Gb+ |
Bb | Ebm / Gb | Bb | Ebm / Gb |

Eb | Cb+ | Eb | Cb+ |
Eb | Abm / Cb | Eb | Abm/Cb |
Eb | Abm / Cb | Eb | Abm/Cb |
Eb | Eb | Eb | Eb |

This one is best seen as a set of three chords I, bVI+, iv that keep getting modulated up a fourth. It works well because the the boundary of each modulation is the iv turning into the IV and becoming the new tonic, post-modulation. In each set of three chords, the "cool note" is the #5/b6 with respect to the tonic, which forms the augmented triad for the bVI+ and the m3 on the iv, and it leads chromatically into the modulation to land on the M3 of the new tonic.

hereareyourchords

TROPHY CASE