Songs with lots of chords

[Alan Sharkis]

Agreed ( first paragraph above ). The song "Dem bones" would be a good example as from 45 sec in in the attached link

Great example of a simple, one-chord structure that progresses up and down chromatically. Sort of reminds me of the bridge in The Girl From Ipanema?

Way back, my high school chorus did essentially the same arrangement of Dem Bones with sound effects provided by the percussion section of the orchestra, so I sang along with the video.

 

[wirralaccordion]

If you want something with lots of chords, take something that contains chromatic progression, like for instance Melody in F by Anton Rubinstein.

Interesting that you say that Paul as I already had a go at it - it's quite short too

 

[debra]

Interesting that you say that Paul as I already had a go at it - it's quite short too
...

Well, your version of Melody in F is actually missing the chromatic chord progression...
Here is one with the chords:
The chromatic chord progression from high to low starts at 1:26 and from low to high at 2:42 in the recording.

 

[wirralaccordion]

Well, your version of Melody in F is actually missing the chromatic chord progression...
Here is one with the chords:
The chromatic chord progression from high to low starts at 1:26 and from low to high at 2:42 in the recording.

Thanks Paul.
Yes, my version is one I learned when I was learning to play the piano and so I guess must be a simplified version.
There is a piece called Doll's Dance by Nacio Herb Brown that has a similar progression in it at the intro and so when I learned to play it on the accordion I deliberately missed it out! ( as you ( I ) do! )

 

[debra]

Thanks Paul.
Yes, my version is one I learned when I was learning to play the piano and so I guess must be a simplified version.
There is a piece called Doll's Dance by Nacio Herb Brown that has a similar progression in it at the intro and so when I learned to play it on the accordion I deliberately missed it out! ( as you ( I ) do! )

My version is based on the original piano score, so indeed you must have used a simplified version, not the original (full) composition by Anton Rubinstein. (My version has a few "jazzy" notes added to some chords, but it only deviates from the full composition in these few notes.)
Check out imslp.org for a free copy of the original composition.

 

[Siegmund]

Most of the examples of "lots of chords" songs are the type that play one pattern all the way around the circle of fifths.

This got me to thinking - always dangerous. Just how many chords could a person use, WITHOUT resorting to modern atonal effects or extreme modulations, and without ever having any chain of fifths longer than vi-ii-V-I? Could I still use a button from all 12 columns of the Stradella bass?

Challenge accepted!

Attached is "Sonatina in D Minor," a left-hand torture device for your listening pleasure.

Sheet music: PDF link

Computer-generated sound file: MP3 link

It's a short classical-sonata-form piece. Any one passage should sound like could have been lifted from, say, a Haydn string quartet or piano sonata (though the overall effect is more 19th century.) Modulations only to closely related keys (G minor, A minor, Bb major, F major, C major), even in the development.

The final score: 28 chord buttons, 11 fundamental basses, and 8 counterbasses, including at least one chord button and at least one bass in each of the 12 columns. Buttons used highlighted in black below:


It is admittedly "not very accordion-istic;" it's written more the way you'd write for an organist, who is happy to play any two chords in succession and cares a lot about the voice-leading in the inner voices and bass line. And it uses chord buttons in a lot of places where it makes more sense to give one or two extra notes to the right hand and omit the button.
But the point was more to illustrate how many chord buttons COULD be used, if you cared only about the notes and not about making the player's life easy.