Songs That Only Use 3 Chords

Although most songs do use more than just three chords, songs that only stick to three chords are quite common and we shouldn't be surprised by that as, between the three main chords of the key, I, IV and V, we have everything we need to make a functional chord progression.

And, an extra special thanks goes to Chase Heeler, Peter Keller, Douglas Lind, Vidad Flowers, Ivan Pang, Waylon Fairbanks, Jon Dye, Austin Russell, Christopher Ryan, Toot & Paul Peijzel, the channel’s Patreon saints! 😇

0:00 Three chord songs
1:27 Chords by number
3:06 I, IV & V
3:38 Three chords and the truth!
4:07 Folk
4:27 Country
5:02 Punk
5:22 Common People by Pulp
5:49 Key change but still just 3 chords
7:04 Minor key
9:04 ToneGym
9:51 Rock 'n' Roll
10:15 Why I, IV & V?
13:00 What counts as a chord?
15:26 Secondary colour chords
17:44 Patreon

[DavidBennettPiano]

📌 CORRECTION: “Brown Eyed Girl” does actually feature one other chord briefly in the chorus! Oops! Thanks to the commenter who pointed this out, and sorry for any confusion caused!

[Tiemewitte]

I don't know why, but this video has unlocked a deeper understanding of functional harmony for me. just the idea of the I, IV and V being the primary colors of harmony is the thing I needed for a lot of theory I already knew to fall into place and finally understand it a bit better. crazy that simple things like this aren't often taught, let alone taught so well! Thank you David!

[idralag]

‘King of Carrot Flowers’ by Neutral Milk Hotel also only uses the I, the IV and the V (on all 3 parts of the song). i guess it’s part of the folk influence.

[richardb]

Your knowledge of theory is so thorough and so deep and you have the gift of teaching it in ways that anybody can understand. I wish you would do a video on tritone substitution. I've heard others explain it but I still don't understand it.

[schlafzimmersessions]

You mentioned Julian Casablancas 🤩 "Is this it" by The Strokes is another wonderful example for a 3 Chord Song. Great Video as always!

[erink]

I would love a series of videos explaining music genres (the hallmarks of blues, swing, salsa etc) <3

[isomeme]

The best snarky concert review title I have ever seen was for a Go-Go's show: "5 Bouncy Girls, 3 Great Chords". :)

[uHuRu]

The way you explain music is awesome. I loved every second of this video.
Btw, you were half the reason I bought myself a keyboard and started to learn playing it 😊

[Abazions]

I love how well you explain music theory!

[fnjesusfreak]

I know you mentioned punk and the Ramones but if I hear 1-4-5 in sequence the first thing that comes to mind is Blitzkrieg Bop.

[andreagagliardini]

Very, very, very well explained. I love your way of explaining "music" GRAZIE Thank you David

[Pchła]

In Poland we have a saying that goes like this: "3 akordy i darcie mordy" which roughly translates to: "3 chords and tear apart your vocal cords" (it rhymes better in Polish, haha). We use it in reference to music that is very poorly written in terms of both music and lyrics. It can also be used to describe a stereotypical guy in a subway with a guitar performing well known songs but with very little talent. Nice vid!

[AidanEyewitness]

Brilliant explanation as usual, many thanks. An interesting example of a song based around these three chords is 'Dizzy' by Tommy Roe. It keeps changing to different keys to build up the drama, taking the three chord structure to a different level!

[statueofliberty]

16:12 The colors on the chords you were playing look so cool 🤩

[stephenmessano]

A nice example of this from musical theatre is "Love Changes Everything" from ASPECTS OF LOVE. Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber said that he intentionally wanted to write a three-chord song (though he does consider V and V7 to be basically the same chord -- as do I!). Thank you for another informative and well-made video.

[Varnosha]

Really like the primary color examples. It is a pretty neat way to conceptualize a key.

Sidenote: I noticed right after referencing "4 chords of the apocalypse" and that you dont consider A7 a separate chord, then showed the painting with 3 colors bit. I noticed there are actually different shades of blue, which wouldve actually described what you mean perfectly. (That the shades of blue, or different flavors of an A chord, are variations or embellishment)

Hope that makes sense lol

[axlhyvonen]

Thanks to You, I use Tone Gym since 2021😊It has very useful, helpful excercises of different type😊

[jrvr]

ABBA's "I have a dream". And it's a masterclass on when to drop the chord change from V to IV.

[wyattstevens]

Here's a 3-chord song that dips into the secondary chords: Jolene uses i, bIII, and bVII (and maybe bVII7, but I don't remember)

We Don't Talk About Bruno *almost* sticks to 3 chords (i, iv, V7 _or_ Cm, Fm, G7) throughout, but then in Isabella's section of "[he] really only had a positive outlook on *my* life, " first it changes key from Cm to EbM (since they share the exact same 7 notes, I won't *count* this as a key change, and will still write the chord numbers as if we're still in Cm) and starts playing what in minor would be bIII, bVII, i, bVI. So yeah- all consonant chords in the key, but you could consider each major chord as a variation on a minor one (a bit of a stretch, but bIII a variation of i, bVI of iv, and bVII here of V- technically v) so it could *almost* be considered 3 chords! The section with 4 isn't that long.

[jhsounds]

Those three chords will always be "La Bamba" to me.