First I had this as piano stuff and thought that was too limiting and so I figured let’s make it chord in general and then thought let’s just open it up all the way.
Now then, I’m not talking about favorite songs, song parts (chorus, bridge, riff, etc.) but a more narrow feature of a particular song that does it for you.
I’ll go with piano chords.
The opening punch of Steely Dan’s Aja. Such a cool chord and one that’s quite easy to play on the piano. Sometimes I can toodle around with just it but it’s such a distinct arrangement of notes that perfectly sets the tone for the rest of the song. That’s choice number one.
The other is the money chord from the piano outro of Layla. You know which one I’m talking about. The one that opens what has to be about the fifth measure. I used to play it incorrectly as a variation of a D-minor when a music teacher showed me the proper notation and then Blam-o, super chord!
That’s got to be the (I think) B-flat chord in there, no? Nice spot for sure.
One thing that always comes to mind is at the end of the live version of Invisible Touch off of Genesis’ album We Can’t Dance, right before the final resolution to an E chord, the band holds out a Bsus with a C in the bass. Great great sound and resolution. Stood out to me enough that the first time I heard it I went to the piano and figured it out.
Would you spell 'em out, so the rest of us who aren’t familiar with the songs, nor
sufficiently adept to work them out from the music can punch up the chords?
Not really due to any technical considerations or any other reasonable measure, but I just like the guitar ‘twang’ that ends both the MST3K’s opening theme (‘Love Theme’, “In the not too distant future…”) and the closing theme (‘Mighty Science Theater’ - right before the ‘stinger’)
On a guitar note, I’ve always liked the sound of the opening chord of Black Mountain Side, Led Zeppelin, as well as the basic progression of Dogs, Pink Floyd.
In both cases, there’s something about the production I really like.
Black Mountain side uses an open tuning (DADGAD) which isn’t good for much else. I don’t know what the chord in the song would be.
In Dogs, there is either some guitar re-tuning (down a full step) or some studio trickery used. The chord should be a Dmin9, but I learned to play it as an E…
Pink Floyd, “Shine On Crazy Diamond”. The intro gets quiet and suddenly four guitar notes* ring out . Not matter how many times I hear it, it makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck.
This impossibly-long-held-note (starts just a bit after 5:57) is one of my personal shiver moments in music. (YouTube doesn’t do it justice the way a stereo/headphones does)
The unfeasibly big fat organ chord at the opening of the last section of Saint-Saens’s Symphony No. 3. Were you dozing off, dear listener? The Iron Voice (all stops out) requests your attention.
Oooh, two moment really stick out from Stravinski’s Le Sacre du Printemps; a little over 3 minutes in, when I like to imagine is when the audience at the premiere began to really freak out, and about 6:20 in or so, when the tympani drums kick in. Oooh, chills!
Mine’s kind of silly, but in the ABBA song “Money, Money, Money”, the “beat modulation” at about 2:31 here (go to about 2:20 or so to get the full effect). I know it’s kind of cheesy to cite ABBA for musical moments, but I like 'em.
It’s a one of Steely Dan’s longest songs (and one of my personal favorites) but you can just listen to that opening cord to see what I’m talking about. On the piano it comes out as:
Left hand = Lower B - B played as an octave left hand.
Right hand = All the black keys. Start with your thumb on F# and progress upward with G#, Bb, C#, Eb. Easy.
For Layla (I have to go the piano downstairs for this one).
The first part in chords are: C major // C major with LH on E octave // F major - repeat - (If you’ve never played this, I’d bet you could piece together the missing melody notes).
This leads up to LH = Bb; RH = F minor with added 6 which is a D in this case --I don’t know the names of the funkier chords and am terrible at reading notation.
Someone needs to try these out to make sure I’ve written it out properly.
