Songwriting: Simple versus Complex

[launched]

Me too!

[Bluesberry]

One Chord.......one chord.......one chord........

[Oldrottenhead]

i tink i did one in c

[maxit]

quoting mr. Desilva 'Why bring more stress to life?' ... let's do the one chord fest ;-) I'm with you.

[Geir]

i tink i did one in c

i did 1 in c 2, ... well ... c7 actually .... a cover tho

[OsCKilO]

i tink i did one in c

i did 1 in c 2, ... well ... c7 actually .... a cover tho

I Love that song!  And was surprised When you told me it was one chord!

[T.C. Elliott]

Might have to have rules or something. Like, if you chose C would C Major and C minor work? Or could you go to C7 or a suspended or something? Personally, I think it all should count so we get more options, but that kinda defeats the whole idea.

At any rate, if we do a one chord song challenge or fest, I'll surely do a new song for it.

[64Guitars]

If you record a 12-bar blues with just bass guitar, lead guitar, drums and vocals, is that zero chords or three? Assuming that the guitar and bass are playing single notes only.

[vigwig]

What constitutes a chord?  With my ignorance, I probably made one already and didn't know it.
Vic

[IanR]

What constitutes a chord?  With my ignorance, I probably made one already and didn't know it.
Vic

Bloody good question. 

I started to draft some rules with my previous response but I thought I might get into hot water, so I deleted it.  My limited understanding of music would lead me to think that a chord is usually thought of as the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of a scale but you can vary this by adding other notes, by taking notes away and/or replacing them with others from the scale. 

Some chords have two notes, while others might have as many as 5 notes.  Then of course, each chord can have different voicings by playing them at different places on the neck, or by using other instruments.  As well as that, you could use arpeggios or travis picking, etc to pull some melodies out of the chord you chose.  I think there are lots of options.

I think the challenge would be to do it and then explain what you did. 

Legislating for it would be too hard and not much fun.   I'd rather try to have a go and then tell you what I did.

Ian