Taylor Swift's 5 favourite chord progressions
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- Опубліковано 12 тра 2024
- Get 20% off of my music theory for beginners course with code DAVID20 over at Artmaster: www.artmaster.com/course/musi... 🎼🎶
Taylor Swift has an interesting habit of returning to the same old chord progressions time and time again. So I decided to go through her entire discography and work out which chord progressions she is using the most.
Here’s the full list of songs for each chord progression I talk about in this video:
I V vi IV
- Should've Said No
- Teardrops On My Guitar
- Bye bye baby
- Love story
- Champagne problems
- Mean
- Crazier
- Change
- All too well
- Eyes open
- I knew you were trouble
- Out of the woods
- Clean
- This love
- The archer
- Midnight Rain
- Cornelia street
- We were happy
- Cold as you
- Epiphany
- Christmas Must Be Something More
I V ii IV
- Wildest dreams
- I know places
- Beautiful eyes
- Only the young
- Crazier
- Invisible
- Fearless
- The outside
- Tied together with a smile
- You belong with me
- Superman
- The way I loved you
- Afterglow
- Sad beautiful tragic
- Speak now
- Daylight
- Getaway car
- King of my heart
- Bigger Than The Whole Sky
- Treacherous
I vi IV V
- Blank space
- I wish you would
- Teardrops on my guitar
- White horse
- Sweeter Than Fiction
- The best day
- Ronan
- It’s time to go
- London boy
- Illicit Affairs
- Tim McGraw
- Beautiful
- Me
- Last kiss
- This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
- Everything has changed
- New Year’s Day
vi IV I V
- Teardrops on my guitar
- You’re not sorry
- Sparks fly
- Christmas Must Be Something More
- Better than revenge
- Snow on the beach
- A Place in this World
- Haunted
- Marjorie
IV I V vi
- All you had to do is stay
- We are never ever getting back together
- Bad blood
- Wonderland
- Breath
- Tell me why
- I Don't Wanna Live Forever
- Anti hero
- Midnight rain
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0:00 Introduction
1:15 her 5th favourite progression
2:43 her 4th favourite progression
4:22 her 3rd favourite progression
8:22 her 2nd favourite progression
11:35 Taylor's favourite progression!
14:41 is this a problem?
16:49 Patreon
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Thank you for making this video but I wish you hadn't mixed and matched the examples. It's hard to hear the full chord progression when you keep switching from one song to the next midway through. It's also hard to hear when more than one song is played at the same time.
What was that telegram thing?
@@schitlipz any telegram things you see on UA-cam are scams!
@@DavidBennettPiano Oh. Sorry pal. Nice and quick reply. I like that. You're good at all the music stuff. Thanks for some of the things you're helping me figure out. Ok. Later.
@@sunblock8717 I disagree
He was literally playing it on the piano, and the renditions of all the songs were beautiful
Please keep doing these
the mashups are so beautiful!! Honestly this video was so well done and edited perfectly
😊😊 thanks!
Right after I read your comment, I paid extra attention to the audio editing. It was right around 4:00... talk about bad timing! (I mean the deep rumble stuff... probably I wouldn't have even noticed it if not for the just reading the comment about great editing. This isn't a complaint about the rumble (it didn't bother me), just noting a weird coincidence of timing while reading g the comments. Plus, I had to pause the vid to prepare myself for the 3 truly overused chord progressions... perfect time to write my own comment...EDIT: ah, the rumble is during all the Nord recordings, I think. Maybe check for this in the future.
Honestly though,David has done an absolutely wonderful job with this
@@GizzyDillespee dude no one cares
@@DavidBennettPiano was that just a way to get around copyright strikes?
A lot of people mention Swift's lyrics, which are definitely very good most of the time, but I actually find her melodies her most enjoyable parts. The fact she can weave such diverse melodies and emotions over such generally simple chord structures is one of her strong suits. She also does have nice ways of mixing things up with the way she plays the chords (often incorporating some kind of drone note, or adding 9ths or sussing chords). Also, increasingly, and in part thanks to her collaboration with Jack Antonoff, her arrangements and harmonies are very interesting, and lend themselves very well to repeat listens.
Edit: For instance, All Too Well, Out of the Woods and Should've Said No are very different sounding songs with completely different energies, even though they use the same chord progression.
100% and absolutely correct, and what I said in my comment. I can't believe David didn't point this out in the video. Her musical genius without doubt is her outrageous gift for melody. Almost anybody can pick up a guitar and play a simple progression, but coming up with dozens and dozens of beautiful hook melodies is a LOt more challenging. "Forever and Always" is an absolute masterclass of melody. As is "Blank Space". It is great melodies that will make millions of people fall in love with your songs/music. Ask John Williams.
Thank you so much for appreciating her melodies. It's what i've been trying to point out as a fan of her while explaining why i love her music so much. Repeated chord progressions, yes, but you can tell most of the times that her songs are different from each other (with a few exceptions from lover area, i think)
Couldn't agree more. Her genius lyrical talent is only exceeded by her ability to find beautiful melodies amongst such well used chord progressions. I find this video somewhat simplistic because there are no mentions of her great middle eights or the way she moves around within the 4 chords that always seems to work.
@@TheflyingkiwiRC Oh yeah her bridges are goated, great point! How You Get the Girl is a great example. It's just the same 1-5-4 progression, but has such an incredibly tasty and different feeling melody over it. Loving all the points y'all are making in this thread, keep em coming!
I think working with Jack Antonoff too much ruins her melodies. Her self-written songs are best.
I’m not even a big Swift fan but I love this, it shows how even if her genre has changed over the years she still writes similarly to her old country music
Musically, she's boring AF. And yall call it, keeping her unique style. Good one. I'll remember it the next time I want to insult-without-insulting some artist for being very, very, very limited & repetitive. "Oh, she's so loyal to her own style & vision" wink wink.
Without saying I like it or dislike it, I'll say that I'd be hella bored if I were the artist. I feel the same way about 12-bar-blues artists, or reggae 2-bar bands. Dontcha wanna try something else? Especially Swift, who can do just about anything she pleases and retain fans. Try some wacky new chords, collaborations, instrumentation, beats,... I know she's a Beatles fan. Let's look at all the experimentation they did. John would have hit himself in the head with a rock if he had had to keep playing Love Me Do music, and Paul is always trying something new.
@ghost mall Using super common (and overrused) chord progressions isn't a "style" lol
@@jcarty123 Musically everything pop is boring. She is an artist targeting teens/young girls as her audience and in that category I have mad respect. She has limited grasp of musical concepts, plays her own instrument and seems open in regards to the fact that she's not a musicians musician, this is all I can ask of a pop artist. Most of them surround themselves with incredible musicians and give little to no credit. Also, in her Demographic (Young/Teen girls), she is in a powerful position of providing consistent music to people who DONT understand theory. All of us on this channel have a higher than average understanding of what goes into making music, people who just listen to Taylor Swift have no idea she's reusing chord progressions.
@@tatereis4031 Nice tone, very nice try, I like it.... so.... I do feel sorry to point out that you're still in the position of having to defend a s--- sandwich. "everything pop is boring" - TODAY. Which gets us to the discussion of how pop since the 2000s got fundamentally less varied. Suffice to say: Even teenage girls used to demand more. Beatles, Elton John, Zep, Clash, Nirvana, even Michael Jackson - all writing for teenage girls, all tried to make each track different from the last.
I think these chord progressions also elicit a pretty strong emotional reaction which is why they’re so effective
Much of modern pop has something in common with old folk songs or nursery rhymes. The harmonies are so predictable and comforting, but a bit too childlike or even boring to those of us that grew up in a different era. That said, Taylor must be greatly talented to keep finding something new and interesting to say over chords we've heard millions of times.
@@AutPen38
I was never a listener to her song and belong to Gen Z, but I agree.
I listen mostly old pop songs from 70s and 80s simply because of how creative their overall making of that music.
Taylor is pretty lazy at this
expression and delivery too
@@TrevorParsnipsnah
I second the lyrics being the key selling point of her music. I think the variety of styles and layers of textures she and the musicians she works with are able to bring in with instrumentation also helps keep her music fresh. Also, great job on the mashups.
I agree with all of that.
I also think she focuses deeply on the rhythm of the vocal as well as the melody. I would imagine the chords - initially sketched out on piano or guitar - are secondary in her writing process to the lyrics and the means by which they're delivered. I doubt that she writes to backing tracks very often (I think I remember an interview regarding "Out of the Woods" that attested to that - because that was a Jack Antonoff backing track that Taylor then wrote to - which was unusual for her).
Anecdotally - when I've tried to write songs melody-first* I tend to find the chord progressions naturally end up pretty simple - a lot of 2, 3, or 4 chord loops and consisting of only I IV V and vi. I can jazz it up with substitutions, but that can easily start stepping on the the vocal. And in pop music there's no bigger crime than stepping on the vocal.
*I typically write "harmony first" - which I think is pretty common of "rock" and "jazz" musicians and less so of "pop" musicians. But by writing that way and trying to craft the melody to fit the chords it's a lot easier to end up with "special" chord changes.
^^ this
Yes, the lyrics are important to many of her fans, but one thing that was overlooked here was Taylor's utterly amazing sense of melody. Melody, and strong melodies at that, are a huge key to making memorable songs that people fall in love with. Her variety in melody makes songs which happen to have the same progression sound distinctly different harmonically.
@Hazel Allison As a percentage, the songs she has "written to track" are pretty small. Taylor's real musical brilliance is her melody composition, and she is still doing that even if someone else crafted a backing track. On 1989, "I Wish You Would" has an awesome vocal melody hook, and she composed that. And it would be no different if she was in a band.. other members coming up with various instrument parts. I think she really enjoys writing with others because it is fun. Even when she takes a song she essentially wrote herself (like Blank Space .. pretty much) to a producer, there's a ton of fun to be had adding all the instrumentation etc.
The entire Red album was written the with C G Am F chords (not in that order, but only those chords were used). That album is completely versatile and is a great example how four chords can change so much
Edit: I meant 1-5-6-4 chords, not C G Am F
I remember learning to play guitar because of Taylor Swift and her Fearless album has a lot of D A Em G chord songs, easiest way for me to learn guitar with my favorite songs of her that time 😍
And how to give another boring, commercial, uninventive album
actually if I remember correctly, Red was mostly in the key of E. So E A Bb and C#m. there may have been a song or two in C (all too well maybe), but saying that C G Am and F were the only chords used on the entire album is very not true.
@@kayajones7629 actually I meant that if you play all the songs on the guitar, you can capo it for some songs and it'll all end up using those four chords. For example, you can capo your guitar on the 4th fret and play those chords and the result would be Red
By the way- this is called the I- V- vi- IV progression; it's relative to whatever key the song is set in
The first time you played the 4 chords of her most used progression (I V vi IV), my mind automatically filled in "... speaking words of wisdom, let it be."
Amen!
As did my mind lol
Me too!
Yeah, a progression is just a backbone. The melodies make the song. Let It Be is a beautiful melody. And Taylor is a first class melodist.
I swear sometimes the internet just reads my mind
This just gave me the sudden urge to learn every single Taylor Swift song on piano.
Oh boy, the Swifties are going to love this. Might take their mind off of Ticketmaster.
I think everybody should be thinking about how awful Ticketmaster is, not just Swifties
As a European Swiftie I have no connection to Ticketmaster whatsoever and since she’s probably not even doing a European tour this time I care even less. She’s just not popular enough here which is a shame but I still think Americans overstate her worldwide popularity
I think David is very aware of the Swifties jumping onto this vid..
Might be interesting what Swift inc. is going to do. The vid is for educational use and friendly to artist and fans.
Like the video, the comment’s intended to be neutral, read into it what you will. Swifties aren’t exactly known for their nuanced online behavior, or understanding of issues. Hard to say how many knew of Ticketmaster’s history with Vedder or Pearl Jam until they “discovered” it. Or whether they’d stick around for David’s summary at video’s end or how they’d take it. Swift’s music is perfectly fine in my book, but I’m more impressed by her storytelling and production. Her fandom is another story, but that may be more a product of it growing up with social media. I feel Swift could do more to tame its more toxic elements, however.
@@CommanderGinyujust wanted to drop in and say this comment aged like Milk 😂
A student of mine told me that she has a friend who only knows 4 chords and played the same 4 chords for an hour and figured out 20 Taylor songs.
Also, you should really do a video on Bob Dylan's chord progressions. A lot of people say that his lyrics are better than his music and while that is largely true, he's quite clever with his chord choices and very often they act as the song's main hook, more than the melody. You can recognize several Dylan songs just by the chords.
yup
wow! any particularly noteworthy examples?
@@gamer966 Simple Twist of Fate, Idiot Wind, Just Like A Woman, Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands, Hurricane, Dark Eyes, As I Went Out One Morning, It's Alright Ma, This Wheel's On Fire and many more.
@@NeonRadarMusic thanks a lot! have a nice day
@@NeonRadarMusic perfect!
Thank you for the way this was presented. I feel like I’ve seen these types of videos before where the person calls this type of pattern “lazy and bad writing” because of the repeated chord progressions. But this was very educational and respectful of Taylor’s craft, which I appreciate so much.
Anyone who says it's lazy and bad is just wrong. A chord progression is just the harmonic backbone of a song, the melodies, rhythms and instrumentation and arrangements create a unique song. And Taylor is a genius melodist.. melody is where it's at. Nobody, and I mean nobody, does it better than she does.
It may not be bad, but it is lazy and leads to predictable melodies.
@@guitarcontestthrowaway7809 if you think her melodies are boring and predictable you’re clearly unfamiliar with her music
@@guitarcontestthrowaway7809 agreed
@@guitarcontestthrowaway7809 you think you have a clue but you don't.
I think the ability to create an interesting melody is one of her very strong points. It's so catchy, even with just using a common chord progression. Freaking 41 different sequences of melodies and lyrics written in just 2 chords progression and all of them sounds different but still nice and catchy. Not many artists can pull that stuff. Buying her album is not something I regret. It mostly contains 15++ songs (over 60 minutes) and all of them sound nice.
Bingo. Her melodies are her genius.
Agreed. It's incredible really how she does it. Her last album hasn't got a bad track on it. They're all catchy.
@@noradosmith When you (and others) say "she", are you suggesting she writes her own melodies? There's like half a dozen people credited each on these tracks.
Her melodies or the melodies of her composers? 👀
@@jasonfanclub4267 What?!? Do you know anything about Taylor? She composes virtually all her songs herself. More than 50 of her songs are solo written (including an entire album), and include some of her BEST songs like Red, Forever and Always, Love Story, and Blank Space (yep, she wrote that on guitar, Max Martin just changed into a synth pop track and helped with arrangement). When she collaborates, she usually does most of the vocal melodies, on songs like Out Of The Woods, Wish You Were and Getaway Car.
The chills I get every time a new group of songs is played.
😃😃
As a huge fan of what some might consider weird music, here’s a takeaway I have: All of these chord progressions are strictly diatonic. There’s nothing weird about them. That makes them feel comfortable and familiar, and easy to listen to.
Contrast that with songs like Bliss by Muse, which is in C minor for the verses and switches to C major for the chorus, or The Cure’s song End which has a G minor, G major, F sus2 chord progression. Chromatic and adventurous chord progressions like that intentionally interrupt the flow, change the mood, and shake your foundation, and probably would not be appropriate for storyteller songwriting like Taylor uses, simply because it would be distracting.
True! Im not a fan of her music, but i listen edm music mostly, these chord progressions are edms base of emotion, and im happy with it
She also uses unconventional chord progressions on occasion which are only unconventional when used on occasion. Not exactly the same thing but the reason her two 5/4 songs (tolerate it and closure) work so well is because they break from convention and use the time signature to convey a very specific message - the cognitive dissonance of unappreciated love or a situation in which the narrator is barely holding back her anger
It's worth noting that she uses some chromatic chords too (like in Lover or Sweet Nothing); they're just not among her most common progressions.
this doesn't make any sense, especially considering how a lot of folk and popular songs are written in modes (like Mixolydian or Dorian). You can write songs in non diatonic way it has nothing to do with interrupting the flow
@@merna5685 modes are diatonic, you have to go outside the key to be non diatonic. There's 7 diatonic modes in any key.
It’s so weird when I heard the I V ii IV chord progression by itself, I instantly recognised it and it made me feel like home.
As soon as I heard it, I thought of Getaway Car and Wildest Dreams, which are my two favorite TS songs haha
I think it's her most recognizable chord, at least for me anyways. I heard it and started blasting out all the songs that came up after.
For her #1 chord progression, I didn't actually recognize it until Love Story.
Hearing all her songs mixed together so beautifully made me so emotional 😭 You are absolutely right about these chord progressions being a familiar "bed" for her lyrics and stories to lay on. That is why so many like me always come back to her music. It's ever-changing but always feels like home 🥰
Let's also remember that Taylor has a discography of over 200 songs at this point. Most artists are lucky to ever reach that number. Of course there's gonna be stuff that gets repeated.
That's what I was thinking. This video was well-presented though.
The Beatles had well over 200 songs (in only 7 years), but I don't hear them constantly repeating themselves by using the same chords and the same (autotuned) sound.
@@keith1222 Autotune's kinda a problem with modern music, but Taylor's a really bad example of complaining about autotune cuz she hardly ever uses it.
It's a LOT of repeating, not just some stuff.
@@craigmoon2121 WHAT? You have big ear problems if you don't hear the use of her autotune on her songs
Interesting to note is that her 4th and 5th most common progressions (vi-IV-I-V and IV-I-V-vi) have the same chords in the same order, they just start the loop in a different place.
It's also the same as her most used chord progression. It's just the axis of awesome chord progression but with different starting points.
Honestly, it’s quite understandable that these are her favorite chords if you remember her background is playing a guitar and all that country music.
Those chords (C, G, D, Am, F) are basically the most popular chords and kinda the first chords any person learning a guitar would in fact learn. Lots of rock music (played with a guitar obviously) is played basically with only those chords, with a few additions here and there.
It all makes sense. She isn’t some Jimi Hendrix type of a person, she’s a lyricist first, so it makes sense that her music might be seen as quite basic in terms of chords.
UPD: corrected guitar virtuoso's name
Exactly and those 5 chords are also physically easy to play and mess around with. When was the last country or pop music song that had a Bm7 in it?
Not only because of the lyrics. For someone that likes to improvise on a base (not taylor's case), those chords are simple and easy to play with
@@locustkllr F physically easy to play???
@@memeteam2692 lol
@@locustkllr I have no idea and I'm not about to go looking for it (I hate country) but I'd be willing to bet Kieth Urban has played it.
i think a very cool thing of hers is that she can hold on to a chord for a long time. many people go through the progression very quickly, but she usually holds each chord in the progression for a long time, making the melody kind of more satisfying. that's why she doesn't need that many weird or varied chords, because her melodies already do so much within each single chord
“Now you come around here just to break me like a promise / so casually cruel in the name of being honest.”
That’s such a good lyric that it’s going to get people regardless of how many times you’ve heard it before
That’s not what she sings. It’s “and you call me up again just to break me like a promise”
Even as a budding music theory snob (and marginal TS fan), I've never detected all these chord progressions she uses so much--I think it's a bit of a testament to how she's able to make them sound so different with her lyrics, vocal melodies and rhythms, etc. It's cool; thanks for the video!
if you haven't detected that, you are obviously not a music theory snob dude sorry
Exactly, it's her MELODIES that are her genius, and she creates so many memorable and beautiful ones. That's what maked people fall in love with her songs... melody is always the strongest suit in music IMHO.
your mashups here are really beautiful!
as a huge swiftie, I was amazed at how many times some of these have been used
great video!
don't you feel like a fool when you realise your favourite musician is just recycling the same shit over and over again?
this is inspiring. it always feels a bit like cheating anytime i use a chord progression more than once
I’d say it is
@@badgasaurus4211 well cheating seems to contribute to Taylor’s massive success so… why wouldn’t you cheat lol
@@badgasaurus4211 how
@@badgasaurus4211 it's statistically impossible. There are only so many progressions and songwriters write hundreds of songs (usually all in genre)
@@badgasaurus4211 why?
Yo, give this to Taylor Swift, she's gonna need it for all the mashups in the Eras Tour 😂
she just did a mashup in Buenos Aires. I'm hoping she'll do more!
Also, 3 of the 5 chord progressions are just shifted versions of each other (the chord sequences are identical, it's just which chord you start on that changes). So you could play 39 of the songs using the exact same loop of chords, you would just need to shift the start of your lyrics phrasing.
When I taught myself to play guitar, all I played was Taylor Swift songs because I could play so many of them with the few chords I knew. Definitely an interesting topic for a video! It brought me back to that for a minute
This teaches us music, not that she is limited. A Chord progression contains infinite songs.
Bennett doesn't really say that. Clearly he has respect for Taylor but what I got from the video is that she repeats herself often. And that's her sound.
No she’s pretty limited
@@LS-us1jm limited or not, she the 3rd biggest artist in the world on spotify so who cares
@@viktor_h787 the people who would care are those who know better songwriters and artists exist out there and aren't getting the recognition they deserve. While someone else can repeat the same chord progression 21 times and make it to the top 10. Not saying she's bad or lazy even, just that other people may also deserve that kind of recognition. I like Taylor Swift tho. She has some great music
@@happygilmore8321 yeah but you cant force the people to discover said great songwriters. it either happens or doesnt happen, so we might as well not shit on the ppl that are currently in the spotlight
I’ve been arranging covers of 13 songs from each of her albums (did 13 Days of Red last year for the re-recording release) so thanks for saving me a lot of time going forward 😂 Also the mashups are a great example of how she could go about performing more than 10% of her output for the Eras tour. 👏
Can you imagine if she did huge mashup/medleys like this on tour 😱😱 Amazing 😭
@@MJ-he1hf i remember when she did a medley of back to decemeber/apologize/you're not sorry during her speak now tour and i loved that arrangement, especially with the strings.
I really like your conclusion to this, that chords are colours and painting and liking the same colours isn't always a bad thing. I think Taylor Swift does it well because while I knew some of her songs had similar progressions, I had no idea about the amount that shared the exact same ones (and I've been a big Taylor Swift fan since my teenage years when I first heard Love Story). They sound similar but different enough, and I enjoy that, honestly. It made me curious about an album that's just one singular progression but each song is done differently, trying to make it sound unique despite sharing that progression. I don't know if anyone has done this - and I'm definitely not the right person to do this!!! - but I would be really interesting in it if they have.
I like this idea alot, I'm probably going to steal it for a project. But I'll let you know when it's done haha
replying here so that i’ll get notified cause i’m genuinely curious and excited about the project :)
@@91fallings Same :)
This actually turned out to be a demonstration of how much the melody makes the song.
your mashups give me major goosebumps. as someone who’s grown up with taylor, they hit so hard. someone must be cutting onions in here
These mashups made me cry. Goes to show just how effective her melodies are.
You've Just sensitive
@@jayazoriginal4879 It's nearly impossible for anyone with a heart to listen to Ronan without at least wanting to tear up though.
and here I was, wondering who could like this trash, most generic and boring kind of music...
Awesome video. I feel like the reason Taylor uses so many simple chord progressions stems from the fact that she focuses so heavily on lyricism and telling a story in her songs which can be difficult to portray on top of having complex chord progressions
In the past, there were "storytelling songs" that also had chord structures that wandered off in interesting directions (e.g. The Beatles), but I don't think modern audiences have the attention spans that listeners had in the past. We all just want simplicity served up these days. Fast food microwave pop music. There's nothing wrong with it, per se, as the world has changed since the old days, but one has to wonder where pop goes next. I can't see any reason why we'd go back to using 8 or 10 different chords in a song, when the message can be understood with 3 or 4.
So it’s fair to say T Swift is bad at guitar then right? Because she’s a lyricist first?
Danny Elfman wrote very complex music for his band Oingo Boingo but his lyrics were really good as well. Though I have to say that his songs that are stronger musically are weaker lyrically and vice versa.
@@digitaldirtbagg David is a good musician and teacher, I wish I could get lessons from him. He knows how songs work and their structure regardless of who he’s talking about. He’s never bashed an artist but understands things from their point of view. He’s one of my favourite UA-camrs but unfortunately he attracts a lot of pretentious music chords with one armed arguments, just like Taylor being bashed for the ‘same chord progression’ when many artists will do the same including people from the rock and punk genre.
I don’t listen to contemporary music but it’s refreshing to know that someone still uses the good old I vi IV V progression
Nice work! I always watch your videos, cuz I find they help me with my guitar journey! Keep making videos!
i remember learning all too well on the piano for the first time and being like "cool..." and then i learned champagne problems and i was like "woahhhh these are the same chords!!" and then learning cornelia street... "THESE ARE STILL THE SAME CHORDS!!"
i do realize i chose the most similar-sounding songs out of all her songs with this chord progression (what can i say i love a good cry) but i love how she uses melodies, lyrics, beats and other parts of the song to make songs with even the most basic chords extremely intriguing and different from each other. great video!!
As soon as I realized that #5 was just a cyclic reordering of the I-V-vi-IV, my immediate reaction was, "Oh, man, are they all like that? Is that the whole list?!"
It's not. But, with the exception of that ii in the "Believe" progression, they are all _permutations_ of I-V-vi-IV.
I love this video so much. Thank you for the hard work you've clearly put into it.
This is simply brilliant! Thank you so much for giving me my Saturday morning Taylor buzz - those mashups are so good!
I think this makes me respect her more as a songwriter actually, to have reused the same progressions so many times but without the songs sounding like each other. I've never noticed any of her songs being just like an old one. That's impressive
Dude the mashups are masterfully done - your quantization skills are insane 👍
I love the mashups! So well done and sounds really pretty 😊
Such an awesome analysis and those mashups are beautiful!! Thank you so much for your work! I’m off to listen to her the rest of the day now❤
I appreciate how much work you put in this video!!! I love Taylor and I’ve been working on playing some songs on piano and this makes things so much easier. Not to mention the mashups and editing. Thanks for this (:
I really did enjoy the mash ups, I've had my fill of Taylor for the day haha!
Thank you for the wonderful explanation and tips of what chords are best to use.
Thanks a lot. Informative, respectful, with lots of work from you behind the montages. Thanks!
Love the concept and execution of this! Beautiful to watch, easy to follow. 🤙
These mashups give me chills. I need full versions
chills mate listening to the compilation of Taylor songs clipped together
Really good video. The production of this was so creative in how you mixed the examples of the songs.
I love your videos but this video has quickly become such a calming presence for me, something about your voice and how the video is arranged. Was super anxious today and this really helped.
Hearing all of these repeated chord progressions makes me think that this is what makes so many of her songs feel familiar and like instant loves when she creates new albums and new songs. These chords are the building blocks that create the whole vibe and atmosphere we associate with her.
I thought I was the only one who pays attention to the chords Taylor uses in her songs lmao and immediately whenever she has a song with the chord progression IV I V vi, I fall in love with it because it's just beautiful. I also love it when she uses IV vi V ii like in New Romantics, it's just a pretty chord progression.
Kinda silly you thought you were the only one listening to the chords used by one of most prolific American singers of this generation.
@@Mermelephant music training is cut from education and not a lot of theory analysis is done on pop music. while you might be right in any absolute sense (there's more than a handful) the relative number of people allen might encounter in life or social media is objectively tiny.
the thing is, realistically, no one cares about chord progressions, unless you're really into music. as someone who grew up with music, I pay attention to even the tiniest details, and with Taylor, I pay attention to her chords usage. You might think it's silly but throughout my life, I have never met someone who is as interested to chords as I am. But I do agree that she is one of most prolific American singers of this generation; I can't argue with that.
Loved this video! And what I found interesting is that very few of my favorite TSwift songs were mentioned here, so I guess I like her work best when it strays from her norm a bit. But of course there's a lot of songs in here I still enjoy
This is such a great video and I adore the mashups!
Thank's for this massive effort you put into these videos! I have an video idea: There is a long tradition of these 'story-telling songs' in pop music you mentioned at the end of your video. All the classic song writers have a few 5min+ songs with a simple chord progression looped throughout. Newer examples I can think of are eg by Father John Misty or also The National (Not in Kansas)
This is a great video, thanks for being so thorough and informed. I do agree that the lyrics are why we keep coming back to her music, but for her there is also an element of performing the songs. She often plays her own instruments, there are so many words to all her songs lol and she’s also performing with her entire self. There’s only so much room for mistakes this way, and allows her to mash the songs together easily when singing live
the intense effort put into this video is astounding- as a major swiftie thank you!!!!
your videos are so well made! appreciate the work you do
Fantastic video! The amount of work involved in splicing and tempo-shifting those mashups must have been immense, but so worth it.
Chord recycling aside, I think Taylor’s genius (and yes, i think she is one) is in finding unique and memorable hooks that fit over these classic progressions. Her lyrics are relatable and often striking too, but her melodic sense is unmatched, while never being pretentious (unlike this comment 😬)
Agree!
Love 😃
Ok, I've never really been a Swiftie, but the mashups you made were so beautiful that it's got me interested in digging into some of her back catalog to see if I can get more into it.
Great video!
Loved the way you managed to put chords with her vocals with different songs♥️♥️♥️👌👌👌👏👏👏
Wow. All I can say is wow... what an amazingly compiled and edited video. Thoroughly explained the use of each of the chord progressions which was amazing, and the mashups of each of the songs that use the chord progressions were absolutely beautiful. Genuinely incredible, appreciate the hard work. Wish more people put this much effort into their videos, it's definitely something to admire!
Thank you! Very cool! It’s like chocolate chip cookies have certain ‘main’ ingredients but can taste quite different depending on the person (or company) that makes them. She makes sweet songs because she has a solid base recipe and then her lyrics/vocals are the different added ingredients or toppings.
I know I already said it but it deserves it's own comment alone: The vocal editing showing the progressions and songs and how they work together are brilliant! Beautiful! Amazing!
This video came out at a perfect time for me! I’ve been listening to her discography in preparation for the eras tour! This includes a few albums that I haven’t listened to as much as others for one reason or another. I’ll be thinking about these chord progressions as I continue my T Swift deep dive.
really appreciated your mashups here. great video
Great timing for me, seeing this, as I just created a cover of Love Story which has 1564 in the chorus but also other progressions in the verses, refrain and bridge. And a massive key change at the end.
Any chance you could also share a list of the I IV and I IV vi IV songs? Always looking for more of those as they are good chord progressions for beginning ukulele students (since C, F, and Am are some of the first chords they learn)
Love your work!
Your videos are so well put together, you are pleasant human being. I thank you young sir.
Brilliant video! Very enjoyable to listen to, and educational to boot. Loved the editing. Thank you!
All those progressions tend to form nice comfy loops. They set a mood for the story in the lyrics. Seems to work just fine.
The first thing I thought of when you showed the #5 progression was "That's the Axis loop, but starting at a different point" and then you showed #4 which was that same progression but starting on another chord. It became quite obvious what the #1 would be. It's really quite remarkable how many songs can be harmonized with simply the 1-5-6-4 chords.
Congrats on this video by the way. I think it will prove to be one of your most popular uploads, but it must have driven you half mad getting all the bits together and then syncing up the various album covers. Well done!
Wow, this is an incredibly well done video. great mashups!
What a video! So much work behind! The second you put for me sounds Cold Play
Interesting piece and your comment at the end, that TS is simply using a reliable foundation for her story-telling is very true. They may have similar chords but they certainly don't all sound the same! (By the way, you're picking-up a lot of low-freq. stuff on your mic - you might try a bit of roll-off).
I don't know how anyone can belittle this style of songwriting while praising 12-bar blues, or minor pentatonic solos, or any other genre-defining trope. It serves its purpose beautifully, even if it's not the purpose some of us would prefer.
Yes, Taylor Swift is the new Robert Johnson! So gritty! So authentic! No one can share the pain of being a wealthy female celebrity like Taylor!😜
@@jcarty123 Trying to be funny and edgy, but dumb comment really.
@@BeatlesCentricUniverse If (if) that's your manner of defending Taylor's poor "music", your criticism works out as a compliment. Thank you.
@@jcarty123 I stand by my 1st comment.
@@BeatlesCentricUniverse Pissing off Taylor-supporting dummies isn't my chief intention - yet proves to be fun anyway.
video production on point. explanations on point. summarization on point. subscribed.
I loved these mashups so much!!!
So insane that these songs all sound so different. I can’t handle this woman’s genius.
Great mashups in this video!
Lol, it doesn't take a a genius to write familiar music once you recognize a pattern.
@@jonasvalero Then why are not having more people like her?
@Will-sb4hf Because most people don't have the rare combination of good looks, determination, and an extremely wealthy family.
lol "genius"
they don't sound different at all and there is nothing genius in what she does. you can find these melodies in countless other songs done before
Brilliant video! David could you break down melodies of popular artists? (Bob Dylan, Taylor Swift, Sting, etc.) Your chord progression breakdowns are really interesting, but just as interesting and intriguing (I would assume) are melodies.
I want one for Danny Elfman (his songs from Oingo Boingo)
this video is so cool! the editing is also well done
Love the way he explained everything !! Thank you ! You gained a new subscriber!
Thanks for being so humble, modest and benevolent ♥️
Thank you!
Can’t blame her - those progressions are so in our ears - they just will work. Thanks for this Video (I never followed her)
Bravo! This was so well done. Very enjoyable!
The editing of this video is absolutely impeccable, it must've taken so long and it TOTALLY paid off
all of those mashups were so beautiful and actually got me emotional 😭😭
I think to me her 2nd most common progression I V ii VI is what I most associate with her music. It might just be that they're the songs I listened most to other than her axis of awesome progression
It feels like coming home. I can’t describe it any other way
Same! A lot of my most favorite songs from her are in the list.
I needed to see this video to recognize WHY I enjoy Taylor's music so much, and you're right, these are all chord progressions that lodge in my head in such a way that I never DON'T have a taylor swift song milling around in there. It makes the lyrics easier to memorize, too.
I loved the way you handled key change transitions and time signature differences in the mashups. I thoroughly enjoyed this video.
1. I hear those nice key changes as your going through the songs. Big respect!
2. Where’s our video on the “Creep” chord progression?
Lots of artists do exactly the same, virtually all Noel Gallagher songs are Wonderwall with a different melody. What you say is so true, if the listener likes something then they usually want more of the same.
I dont know a thing about music theory but the proof in the mashups are amazing
The edit was perfectly done I don't know how much effort it takes but seems so much and the result is worth it
kind of wish u would post just that snippet of mashups of her songs,,, it was so beautiful i wish i could loop it on repeat,,,
How can you use the same 5 chords and still make it sound new and fresh every time you apply it to a song. Taylor!!!!!!! How?!!!!
Hey David, love your chord progression analyses. Could you do a session on one of the most deeply moving progressions I know. It's by Rachmaninoff. It occurs towards the end of the slow movement of his 4th piano concerto. But it's much more powerfully done in his Etude Tableau No. 3 in C minor. It's such a haunting, deeply moving melody with harmonies that move me to tears. Maybe you can figure out why or how it conveys such powerful emotion.
I got an ad for your Artmaster course while I was watching one of your videos the other day!