What's your favorite song with only TWO chords? Mine is "Baby Come Back" by The Equals. Yours??

That's funny, my son just started learning guitar and called me from college the other day all excited because he (thought he) could play this because it was only two chords, and Em may be the easiest chord to play.

I know the D9/6 (2x0200), but how to you play Em9 and Dmaj9?

 

The very first chord in the song (intro) sounds like an Fmaj7 (this could be the same Dmin chord that is throughout the song but with a different voicing) followed by what sounds like an Emin (with an F# or an Emin9). Also in the chorus "I'll keep holding on", the chord over top of the "holding on" is a variation of the G chord heard in the verses. All of the chords are complex (there are no basic minor or major chords - lots of 9 and 13 chords), but even if one says the variation of that G chord does not constitute a separate chord, that 2nd chord (Emin9 ?) is definitely unique to the others. So in fact, there are at least 3 chords in the song.

 

+1 for Born In The USA. I don't know if the outro should count (additional V and maybe more).

 

Clearly we're not classically trained musicians that can spot chord changes that could be mistaken for the musician choosing another note that's part of a 4 note chord with a low and high octave and two other half step harmonics in the center referencing a chromatic scale. I can tell you for sure I can't name a chord by hearing it in a song. I was a sheet music reading musician session player.

But I have relatives who are prolific at playing by ear very complex songs and none can tell me what chord they're playing.

 

Roadrunner by Modern Lovers.

 

Lou Reed has a lot of two chord songs, I think there's three on one album alone, "Rock and Roll Heart".

 

Jonathan Richman? That has more than two.

 

... three chords!

 

I’m pretty sure the verse has two chords.

 

How many chords in this song? Sounds pretty simple enough...

"Working In The Coal Mine" by Lee Dorsey...

 

That has more than two chords. Don't forget the "Roadrunner once, roadrunner twice" bit.

 

Definitely more than two, I hear four at least.

 

"Coconut" by Harry Nilsson is another one chord song, by the way.

 

How many chords? Eric Burdon & War's "Love Is All Around"...

 

What we would call "verse" and "chorus" have the same chords based on the same triads Dm and G though.
They are embellished with 7th, 9th and 13th but i don't hear no other triad than those two (just listen to the bass guitar part).
The first chord played on what you call the intro is a Dm9 (followed by a G9 wich would become a G13 thanks to the strings arrangement in the instrumental part between the verses. Example : around 1'44").
According to me, there are only two chords basically but i can understand that you disagree.

 

Sorry, gotta' name them. Someone playing a half step harmonic as part of the melody could be misjudged as a chord change. The only way to know for sure is to name the point in the song where there is an alternate chord change that makes it more than 2 chords.

No one is doing that here. They're just throwing musical notation on the wall to see who scoffs. The proof is in the fact everyone seems to not hear more than 2 chords in a song. Guess there's not too many technically talented musicians here.

 

Running it through in my head it sounds like four.

 

Do you think that kind of instruction is going to stop folks from posting songs where they don't hear or understand what you are saying? I don't think so.

 

Temptation, by New Order

 

I think your referring to notes, not chords there...

 

This kinda counts, two “chord areas” if you will:
No One Receiving, Eno

 

I don't think you actually need to be a musician to recognize different chords?

 

I was quite interested in this thread. But, when I look up the two chord songs, and then listen to them while reading the chords, all the songs I've tried so far have had more than two chords. One of them had five chords.

I don't want to point out individual examples as I'm interested in hearing examples, rather than having an argument. But, it seems that many songs that on the surface sound a bit two-chordy ... aren't.

 

Eno's another one with quite a few two chord songs, off the top of my head: "Third Uncle" and "Baby's On Fire"

 

There's songs that are two-chordy most of the time and might only use different chords very briefly - "Roadrunner", for instance.