writing a song with nothing but diminished 7th chords

Never thought I’d see alex turner in one of these thumbnails

I can’t even read music and I enjoy this guy’s videos.

Raiders of the Lost Ark - The Map Room Theme is all minor chords

Wow, I never realized all those hits were just one or two chords... Great job.

Songs with only minor chords? Old school black metal.

""Slow Down" and "Blue Chair" by Morcheeba are the best example of songs that consist only of minor chords without sounding weird!!! Absolutely masterpieces!

"Smooth Operator" (Sade Ado): dm7 - am7 - gm7 - am7 etc. I love that song, that's why I remembered it immediately in the context of a 'minor only' chord progression.

That would kind of explain why 505 is so rough on my poor little heart

gotta do a separate video on "1 chord songs!"

Freelove by Depeche Mode must be all minor chords. It's such a sophisticated song. Most might not catch the tricky modulations, until trying it on the guitar

"Lick My Love Pump" by Spın̈al Tap was written in D minor, which is the saddest of all keys, I find.

That was amazing - expertly researched, compiled, and taught.. I better go to sleep now

"Everybody loves the sunshine" - Roy Ayers, four minor chord progression, and not within a same minor mode.

❗️CORRECTION: I've decided to cut out "Get Up, Stand Up" and "He's The Greatest Dancer" from this video as, although both songs are almost exclusively minor chords, they both do contain small moments of other types of chords. Sorry for any confusion caused.

I am just an Arctic Monkeys fan.. I see Alex I click..

Dance music is also very often written in minor keys specifically to avoid sense of movement and then builds musical interest through progressions of changing instruments, tones, drum loops. A second reason is that it is often built on samples (eg minor 7th) that are transposed in sampler to form parallel harmony. Great example is famous "big fun" by Inner Coty where sampled minor 7ths give it sense of suspension, timelessness, sadness, and nostalgia that amazingly clashes with lyrics "we're having big fun". Though one can argue that m7ths have a major triad in them and don't function the same way as pure minor triads would.

As I recall, "Spoonful" by Howlin' Wolf can be interpreted completely in Em...

Here’s a list of other minor-only songs I can think of, many of which I’m pretty sure I am correct about: 1. Dr Dre ft Snoop Sogg - Still D.R.E. (Rap song with Am and Em throughout). 2. Gorillaz - Dirty Harry (Bbm, Fm and Ebm11 throughout) and GorIllaz - DARE (Gm and Cm13 throughout, although there is an implied E natural in the main hook).

there are house tracks from the nineties using only minor chords. They usually feature very short progressions resulting in large parts of the song staying on (at?) one chord.

I've decided to bite the bullet and start learning music theory via youtube after watching your videos for ages and wishing I fully understood! I've only just started but it allowed me to follow what you were saying a lot better! Thanks for always making great and really informative videos! Could you please do one on typical chord progressions in gospel? I'd love to learn that, gospel often sounds so upbeat and I'd love to know the science behind it!!

I was just writing a comment about "Ain't No Sunshine" when you mentioned it. It comes so close, so close but not quite.

I love how you analyze the chord structures. It makes me think back about 45 years to when I studied music theory and harmony. There is one piece I would love to see you analyze. Same Old Blues has some very interesting progressions if the performer follows the notes as written.

The famous 4 Chords here is “Let It Be” in a nutshell.

My favorite Bill Evans piece which uses non-functional harmony is “Time Remembered.” It only uses minor and major 7th chords, no dominants, yet it has its own inner logic and is absolutely gorgeous.

There are plenty of Reggae songs that only use minor chords

*David:* So, why is it difficult to write a song just using minor chords? *Black metal guy:* Hold my goat...

Money by Pink Floyd. Moves between Bm, F#m and Em throughout the song, in various modes. Still manages a pretty fluid and diverse harmonic progression, the guitar solo alone has 3 distinct sections that sound totally different despite all being built around these three chords.

I was really surprised to find out just how many songs there are out there that have only one chord

A lot of Pink Floyd's music and the new Arctic Monkeys album is written predominantly with minor chords, but they often use it to make any switches to major that much more epic-sounding (like with the Eb in Imperial March).

The song “Nocturne” by Secret Garden has only minor chords. That song won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1995, and I think it is extremely beautiful.

I literally just found your channel. I love how clearly you explain music theory. It’s amazing!

Remain in Light is an album by Talking Heads compromised almost entirely of minor chords

Edwyn Collins had a sizable hit in the 90s with "A Girl Like You", which I believe is exclusively played with minor chords. Its also structured like a typical rock/pop song with frequent chord changes rather than a single chord being held for a long period of time, as in your funk/modal jazz examples.

I am subscribing because your analyses of music are clear and fascinating. I had not considered that there would be so few pure minor key songs.

Only recently come across your videos and I must say that your breakdown and analysis is phenomenal. As a musician, theory and breaking the theory down had always bored me, I'm more of a practical musician, but listening to you explain things and the visuals audio excerpts you use are so pleasing to me. Keep up the good work, man

“Touch Me I’m Going To Scream part 2” by My Morning Jacket.

You can similarly cheat with “Ain’t No Sunshine” by calling that G chord Em7/G no root 😂😂😂😂

a lot of oldskool rave songs from the late 80s to early 90s were minor chord only, because the main sound would be a sampled chord, meaning it'd play a minor chord by just pressing down one key, and it'd be minor no matter which one you pressed. Prime examples would probably be "Good Life" and "Big Fun" by Inner City

I can't tell you how much I love your videos! Super easy to understand!

Saw the title and thought to myself 'bet I can think of loads'.. how wrong I was

Dude you're amazing I'm so glad I found your channel great stuff

dude you rock, you must put so much work into these videos and they are excellent! thanks for your work! keep it up!

Being a fan of Synthpop and industrial certainly leads to primarily minor songs and I adore it. Major chord songs can often feel... Uncomfortable (?)

Thanks for yet another interesting topic!

Analyse No. 1 party anthem by the Arctic Monkeys. It’s got a couple of cool things going on.

Dont ever stop making videos Mr Bennett!

Love your videos. As a pianist and physicist, I really appreciate your treatment of technical music - acoustic - theory. You have a lucid way of presenting material. Bravo!

Loved it, I’ve never been interested in music on a technical level until I found your channel.

Ilomilo by billie Eilish only uses Cm, Gm and Fm as far as I'm aware

6:07 This allusion is just too good!!!!

I love music theory! 😍 love how much effort and research you make into giving these examples making understanding so clear!

Your videos actually make me interested in music composition and theory! Thank you!

"You've changed" by Sia uses four minor chords all the way through the song!

Amazing how non functional harmony can sound so acceptable to your ear. It'd be interesting to experiment with shifting between functional and non functional harmony in the same song. I'm sure it's been done (some songs come to mind) but cool to think about especially when there's so many other ways to "bend" your ear with chord substitutions, modal interchange, modulations, etc. My brain is going to explode!

“hey what’s that chord?” “uhh.. Dm..?” “ah yeah, cool. let’s only use that one. “

i would love if u could look into "I Wanna Prove To You" by the lemon twigs. I would love to know why it feels so confusing yet alluring to listen to

Love this. Would be interested in you doing a video about how (relatively) rare in popular music songs that are purely in minor key are, as compared to major. The Beatles for instance only stayed in the minor key in few songs like "Mr. Kite", I know other bands and styles do so more often but my understanding is that it's relatively rare compared to major and a discussion of that would be interesting. thanks again for a great channel

Thank you for explaining how music works, and why things that "don't work", sometimes do. I've come to creating music after retiring from thirty-two years working in a factory. Many of the songwriting workshops I've been to focus on creating marketable popular songs, which I have very little interest in.

I've watched about 10 minutes of your content and have already learned more than in hours of watching other creators. Thank you!

Great video, David, thank you! It shows you can make colourful and interesting music with barely any changes at all. Top work as always, bruv!

Pretty sure most of the songs on Portishead's second album use only minor chords.

i wish i had discovered your channel before i did music theory grades because it took me forever to learn cadences yet i understood them so easily here

Wow, this is really eye opening! TY as always.

Sure would love the kind of in-depth analysis you do for the Beatles music applied to Electric Light Orchestra.

The first one that came to mind was 505 to me as well.

"quero ser feliz também - natiruts" its an example. the song have only 3 chords, Ebm7//Dbm7//Abm7

3:50: Hey, it’s Let it Be

Love your work man! Its like I listen to music with new ears now

Love your vids.

Kudos, you really do your homework! I can't read music myself (wish I could), but you def help me to understand the concepts composers use when writing...

that Eb guess of the bit of Goodness in DV almost gets me in tears

Excuse me why are you so adorable. Watching your soothing videos late at night as I can’t sleep 😔

Beautifully done, as usual.

I have only watched 2 or 3 videos about you and I already think you are one of my favorite musical youtube channels.

Shakin All Over, one of the first British Rock and Roll classics, is apparently all in minor. Surprised me too.

The entire genre of black metal. Most songs is just squeezing as much minor out of a guitar as possible while distant screaming can be heard.

Massive quality, you deserve more subs!!

There's a kind of minor blues that uses three minor chords.

Thank you for the information in this video! I love watching your videos! Very informative!

House and Rave music often used alot of minor chords strung together (typically piano) in the songs main riffs, often chords out of the key. But I always found it interesting on the ear

Hi David, there's a chord progression that I'd like you look at: It's in the chorus of La Flaca by Jarabe de Palo and the chord progression is bVI - bVII - i - IV (in this case: F - G - Am - D) It works but I can't figure out why. I would appreciate if you helped me figure this one out

Great job thank you for posting

Great stuff, as always

The main portion of Santana’s “Black Magic Woman” is just Dm, Gm, and Am

I had "move on up" stuck in my head all day, so I got a chuckle from seeing it in this video. I'd love to see some videos looking at funk music from a music theory point of view.

awesome video left me with alot to think about

6:23 had me hollering. Lovely video as always. Thanks for it, DB!

Who dislikes these videos? Great stuff. Thanks.

Upstairs by lovepoint has loads of minor chords in and no major chords

Thank you this was helpful for my module.

The more I watch your videos the better I understand. You explain this stuff well enough even for a simpleton like me to eventually get it. Thank you

Awesome video!

Showdown by ELO is all minor from what i can hear. And it’s not just one or two chords either.

it is shockingly amazing, how he does these video tutorials. not just takes it his musical geniusness but particular in this video .... if i think of all searching and researching , digging for examples ... this is crazy ... and the result presented to us ... always awesome

This is a really cool and well-researched video. Your use of popular examples is very effective in explaining music theory to someone uneducated on the topic. Keep up the good work! 👏

"Nowhere To Hide" by Antiloop. Chord progression : Gm - Dm - Fm - Cm

"Dark Funeral - The Arrival of Satan's Empire" is a pretty clean example, but also many many other Black Metal songs! I'd even go as far as to say there is definitely harmonic movement, with emphasis on it. It's just a different musical language. Of course it can be hard for an unaccostumed ear to hear past the drumming and screaming!

Great video David.

I've been watching your videos for a while and you have given me the motivation to learn the piano so that I can put into practice what you have talked about. This is big news since I was the kid in choir class that teachers always said to just move my lips and not make a sound.