The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    I don't know about 'most complex' but it's awfully complex. A Cynthia Weil / Barry Mann tune. And it was a big hit.


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  3. #2

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    It's a great tune! I'd forgotten it after all these decades. I wish more music was at that level.

  4. #3

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    Exclaiming, "What?!" about a dozen times suggests he's mugging for the camera or has not had much exposure to Black church keyboard musicians, who just grin and press out those chords, changes, and modulations with ease. I was in a band with two that each had over 25 years of playing Sunday services... the musicianship was extraordinary.

  5. #4

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    Seems like a lot of songs from the 80’s were like that…lots of chord changes and modulations.

    BTW, not so much a fan of 80’s-era Sergio, but John Pisano and Michael Landau did play guitars on that album.

    As far as complexity in pop songs, Steely Dan’s stuff is way up there, with Aja perhaps taking the record for most unusual chords in a pop song.

  6. #5

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    The weirdest part is the chorus after the solo bridge being a half step lower...

    I unironically enjoy this song. Definitely played at every wedding I attended as a kid.

  7. #6

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    It's called songwriting.

  8. #7

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    We used to play that song at catered gigs. I had to fake it, while the keyboard player read it from the sheet music, and the singer used file cards with the lyrics on it. There was no bass player; the keyboard player played LH bass. We NEVER had rehearsals. If you couldn't hear it, you were out.
    Other songs we did that were complicated were:
    What A Fool Believes
    Visions (Stevie Wonder)
    How Do You Keep the Music Playing?
    A House is Not a Home (tough bridge)
    Lately (tough modulation)
    Send One Your Love
    Etc...
    The singer had a great musical memory, and was able to start some tunes without an intro being played (like Stardust- we didn't know the verse).

  9. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by pauln
    Exclaiming, "What?!" about a dozen times suggests he's mugging for the camera or has not had much exposure to Black church keyboard musicians, who just grin and press out those chords, changes, and modulations with ease. I was in a band with two that each had over 25 years of playing Sunday services... the musicianship was extraordinary.
    Church musicians can be incredible. When I lived in NOLA I went to some jazz Masses. Amazing stuff. But there's a difference between "jazzing up" familiar music and writing a song like this. I don't think Harold Arlen or Cole Porter ever wrote a tune that complicated (and they both wrote a lot of great tunes, standards.)
    Last edited by MarkRhodes; 06-26-2021 at 12:01 PM.

  10. #9

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    All those changes on that tune... reminds me of the charts from my college big band days. Big Band Charts, that kind of complexity is pretty common, but you do have a chart.

  11. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by Doctor Jeff
    As far as complexity in pop songs, Steely Dan’s stuff is way up there, with Aja perhaps taking the record for most unusual chords in a pop song.
    Aja, not a pop song imo, maybe played on mainstream radio a bit, not sure, don't remember. If it was, it was because it was done by Steely Dan they did get a lot of radio play from some of their other tunes.

    But I agree, general Steely Dan is up there in complexity, in general maybe not as much as the song Aja, but up their none the less. Josie, for example, which did get a lot of play, with it's disco groove, a wolf in sheep's clothing.
    Last edited by fep; 06-26-2021 at 02:36 PM.

  12. #11

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    A complex pop song is a contradiction in tones.

  13. #12

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    Old Steely Dan... as they lead into singing, "Fire in the hole ", some nice unusual changes.


  14. #13

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    Whatever happened to “3 chords and the truth”??

  15. #14

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    Quote Originally Posted by Doctor Jeff
    Whatever happened to “3 chords and the truth”??
    "Alternate facts" == altered chords