Hello people, does anyone recognize this little tune ?
Thanks.
Well…
• It’s a jazzed-up version of the intro and refrain of “One Tin Soldier” for one thing; not limited to that, see below.
• The style, as presented in the Vocaroo, is Zydeco, aka New Orleans flavored jazz.
• The chord progression — which defines what one’s ear might acknowledge as “what it sounds like”, and includes “One Tin Soldier” but not limited to it, (could sound to someone like Pachebel’s Canon just as credibly), is I-V-vi-iii-IV-I. One chord, five chord, six chord, three chord, four chord, and back to one chord. Set it in A major, as per my not-necessarily-in-tune piano, that would be A major, E major, F# minor (or major), C# minor (or major) (or back to A major) (it’s not really very orchestrated here, mostly just accordion melody line), D major, then back to A where you started from.
That certainly fits the bill !
Thanks !
Looks like it has !
Or it could be at least 21 other songs
Yeah, chord structures are rather broad things. Entire genres revolve around some simple shared chord structures, including original-vintage rock 'n roll and the blues.
Part of the reason the chord structure is so ubiquitous is that it’s the most logical set of chords to use for a descending major scale.
Since this appears to be in A major, let’s do A major. Sit yourself at a piano (or other instrument of your choice) and play a descending A major scale: A, G#, F#, E, D, C#, B, A.
Now let’s set each of those melody notes to appropriate chords. Start with A major for A of course.
G# is very prominent in the V chord, the E major chord. Try it, just those two notes while strumming or playing those chords with them. See what I mean?
F# works really well with the relative minor of A major, which is F# minor.
Drop down to the E. Now we have several choices. We can go back to the A major we started out with. Or we can do the E major chord again, the V chord. Or we can do C# minor, which is the relative minor of E major which sounds really cool here. They all work.
Now down to the D. D major is the IV chord. Or we could spice it up and do it as a minor, the iv chord (D minor). F# minor (the relative minor of A major, again) would also work for this note.
On to the C#. A major is a natural choice although you could go with C# minor.
B almost demands F# minor here.
The ending A could of course use A major, our home key, but if we’re about to repeat the sequence (which we are in many of these pieces), going with E major leaves the next (aka first) note, the top A in key of A, feeling like the perfect resolution.
Neither Pachebel’s canon nor One Tin Soldier, nor most of the others are, strictly speaking, descending scales, but you can superimpose a descending scale on the melody line and it fits as harmony. Or to put it another way, these are all variations on a descending scale, moving the melody pitch to a different note in the natural harmony that you’d construct if you were doing a descending scale.