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  • lol?! N1

  • In what key are they playing?

  • I'm just starting to teach a History of Pop course in college, and I'm going to use this as a teaching tool to teach the kids the difference between chords and melody. BRILLIANT!

  • shit i figured out C G Am F was every song years ago. i shoulda got on this

  • titanium - david guetta feat sia

    same chords ;)

  • Wow!

    Great songs and great voices♥

  • LOL at the ending on take on me!!!! :D

  • 0:29 dat asssssss

  • I think a lot of commenters are missing the point. This video is not a condemnation of pop music, but rather a demonstration of the power of simplicity. These songs do not "copy" one another - they are all vary significantly in melody composition. Who could ever confuse any one of them for another? If you want to criticize the re-use of a tried-and-true chord progressions, please see The Blues as exhibit A. Esoteric complexity does not equal musical value.

  • Being a complete newbie, I found this to be worth more than hours of twraling, explains why I keep changing song mid chord because I found a familair snip of tune, guys this is brilliant well done

  • 3:06 IS BEAST xD

  • What r the chords ur using???

  • There are lots of three and four chord videos on YouTube, but yours is HILARIOUS!

  • brilliant!!!!

  • Im sorry, I don't get it... people actually didnt know this was happening?

  • Love it!

  • 3:12 LMAO!!

  • Great job. At the same time... well, all those hit lists. Ridiculous. Unbelievable how little it takes to be a star.

  • not surprising really, iron maiden made way more than 36 songs that have i VI VII

    or for a more popular example, i can name dozens of country standards that are just the primary chords, I IV and VI

  • amazing!!!!!!

  • oh some!

  • very cool dudes !!

  • thanks bmw, you zoom. ;)

  • thanks this really enlightens me to play more with 4 simple chords.

  • the self esteem chords im finding are WEIRD! D:

  • this was on comic relief

  • It's I - V - VIm - IV; the chords themselves depend on the key you're playing in. If you play it in E like in this video, it's E, B, C#m, A, but a lot of the songs they play aren't in the key of E. For example, if the song was originally in the key of F#, it'd be F#, C#, Ebm, B, and so on. They're transposing everything into the same key, but the songs they play actually don't use the same 4 chords, just the same chord progression. It's always been a common progression, and it always will be.

  • @UltraMegaSuperPhil EXCELLENT explanation! (you must teach theory(?)) It's the secret revealed! The chord progression of fame! Now, go forth - sing, play, and write MUSIC!!! Or just enjoy with more understanding...

  • @ElleJayBlues I don't teach theory, I just find it very interesting :p

  • its funny because all those musicians sucks

  • what are the four chords  brother. can you please write it down for me plzzzzzz

  • awsome

  • BLINK :D 

  • But I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more. Just to be the man who walked 1000 miles to fall down at your door!

  • This is just the first bit of the Pachelbel Canon ostinato.

  • This can be done with almost any song and almost any chord combination. I only play about 4 chords on guitar and I sing a ton of songs. Kudos to this guy for making it sound so good. Love the video.

  • 4 chords, brainwashing you since......

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  • I feel like such a music geek for watching this... haha

  • @TomBurrow1995 @TomBurrow1995 Same progression, different key. I-V-vi-IV.

  • So tell me the chords these popular songs are played on? Some say E,B,C#m, A and others say it's C,G,Am, and F?

  • @michaelkelvin1 It depends on the key of the instrument (which is fixed), it really doesn't matter what the actual chords are. You can play a piece that's in C major on an F major horn if you transpose the notes, and it'll sound exactly the same. What is important the the progression of the chords, 1st-5th-6th Minor-4th.

  • @michaelkelvin1 It depends on the key. They play in E, so it's E, B, C#m, A, but not all of those songs use those chords.

  • Omg.

  • Whoa that is a lot

  • haha awesome voice!

  • 3:13 LMAO!!

  • its g d em c

  • hahaha its funny that in fact, as fry from futurama said once: "people want to watch (or in this case, listen to) the same thing over and over again"

  • you can also include 'one day' by matisyahu

  • alternatively c g Am f

  • lol oops, i watched this on my iPod, so i didn't see the top comments lol

  • GOT IT!!!! the chords are, E, B, Cm, A..it goes perfectly with the song...i mean songs lol

  • @WesAmbler C#m*

  • @AlexCClarke thanks dude

  • i know that the first two chords are E and B, but i can't figure it out from there

  • But I won't hesitate no more, no more

    It cannot wait, I'm yooooooours

    It's not just the C-G-Am-F. They are common in pop songs, but then take the same chords but go Am-F-C-G and you have every epic-climax song sountrack. Gandalf dying, Nascar commercials, a ton of Lincoln Park.

    And not just that either, same idea - the whole repeated chord progression starting on the 4th chord of the sequence, going F-C-G-Am. Numa numa song, (love always feels like a) battlefield.

  • it doesn't really matter what chords you use it's a pattern it's major major minor major. this particular song is Emajor Bmajor C#minor and Amajor

  • WOW - NEVER KNEW BOUT DIS! - Silly Me

  • God I fucking hate that chord. Very simple and very kingergarten like. So pissed off how many songs have used it and they all really suck.

  • C-G-Am-F

  • @bmw123321 What are those 4 Chords?

  • what are the chords?:L

  • so the chords are???

  • 2 things ... wow... n music success is actually based on research n deliberate action rather than a fluke ... they don't wing it...

  • More than 36 haha

  • Is it awesome that my science teacher played this in class? Something to do with the brain... I weren't listening, to busy concentrating on this piece of awesomeness.

  • It's Friday! Friday! Gotta get down on Fri-dayee!

  • It's E, B, C#m, A 

  • @SkeletonGuns Used to play 'Dont Stop Believin' back in the day...yes, twas in E. Cheers

  • @SkeletonGuns no it's not, it's C, G, Am, F.

  • @TomBurrow1995 you're fucking stupid fuck you

  • @TomBurrow1995 It's all relative... Root, Fifth, Minor sixth, Fourth...

  • @TomBurrow1995 no A, F,C, G

  • Totally awsome!

  • One missed - the first 2 lines before "birdplane" are Five for Fighting's "It's Not Easy (Superman)".

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  • u forgot when i come around! Green Day

  • U can use: g d e and c

  • is this in E?

  • Depending on how deeply you break things down, you could claim that nothing is original. I mean hell, the vast majority of books use the same set of words, and even more deeply, every book uses the same 26 letters over and over again. How unoriginal is that? :P

    Often, the "originality" of a song or book is an abstract pattern that goes beyond individual words/chords or letters/notes. :)

  • WOW

  • What are the 4 chords?

  • @Hoobahoo E B D#m A

  • @altf4nubs what?

  • @Turbo5Turtle thats the chords

  • none of these songs actually share the same 4 chords over and over...they bring them down/up in scale so they match the 4 chords they're playing lol. you're all retarded

  • @mosespwns

    by "the same four chords", they're talking about that specific *chord progression* which you can play starting on any chord. Just like you can do the same dance in your room or your brother's room; it's not the *absolute* position of your feet, it's their *relative* position in relation to each other during the dance/song.

  • wow.... amazing

    

  • This one of the first thing my music teacher thought us.

  • I haven't heard half these songs in ages!

  • Hearing how all these songs sound exactly the same make me wanna throw up.

    R.I.P. Standard Chord Progressions

  • I just want to learn how to play this!!! :/

  • This is just called vamping isn't it ?

  • People talked crap at some songs I listened to yet they listened to different songs that used the same 4 chords. Hypocrites.

  • @crazydudetz harmony is part of music, not everything

  • Is it awesome that my music teacher played this in class?

  • @tehsupervampy only if her point was, "be an original musician, don't be like this"

    if her point was, "isn't this cool," then you have a shit teacher that should broaden her horizons musically

  • @DeeZStankYNutZ Humans have particular hearing that makes us all alike, in the root of it. These songs are original; it's just that unless you break all the rules your music will have its root in this way. Not necessarily 4 chords; there are other similarities that tie all music together. Look up "atonal" music if you want something that breaks all the rules. What makes every song different is the mood, style, meaning, instruments, voice, and melody. Every detail counts in music.

  • @CatFlashBlue while I partly agree with you and I admit that you presented a well thought-out post, and I admit that perhaps calling her/him a "shit teacher" just for playing this is jumping the gun a bit, but I have to disagree when you say, "these songs are original." some of the songs are very pretty, and I like several of them in their own in the right setting and as you correctly said, mood as well, cont...

  • @CatFlashBlue but to assert that blink 182's "dammit" or the black eyed peas "where is the love," has any musical integrity simply because "every detail counts" is a bit weak and pandering in my opinion, and granted I may be wrong or biased, but a band that releases an entire album of 4 chord songs generally gets less respect from musicians than a band that doesn't stuff itself into the "easy" 4 chord come up with a pretty melody, couple of choruses and a bridge pattern, and for good reason

  • @CatFlashBlue my point was primarily that I would expect a music teacher to have slightly higher musical standards than the average pop listening teenager, if a music teacher did play this in class, I would have more respect if it was an example of either copying repeated patterns to mimic other commercial success or just lack of skill presented in a negative or atleast unoriginal light, instead of "look isn't this cool!, I would think twice about a music teacher that was excited about this vid

  • @DeeZStankYNutZ I generalized that all these songs were original. However, originality doesn't always speak for good music. I would like to say that all music has a point and purpose, even if these songs are just there to make other songs look better. I'm not a fan of mainstream but that's because it's redundant and doesn't have much heart to it. Someone else may think the opposite of me, including a music teacher. It's like a creationist becoming a biologist. They have a right to their opinion.

  • @CatFlashBlue opinions are all we have here as you can't scientifically prove that a song is good or bad, a person asked if it was cool that his/her teacher showed them this vid, I didn't think so based on my expectations of a music teacher being a tad more musically "educated," you disagree because you say all aspects of said music count and contribute to the experience, I said that your statement, while partially true, seemed a bit weak and pandering, you say they have a right to their opinion

  • @DeeZStankYNutZ Your other comment confused me a bit, but I got most of what you were saying. I guess then the only thing left to say is that my opinion is that a music teacher doesn't have to limit the music they listen to just because they are more "educated". We shouldn't create such a hierarchy of music. Nonetheless, maybe someone somewhere else thinks that THIS is good music and the teacher shouldn't be listening to the crap you like. I threw in a bit of satire there =)

  • @CatFlashBlue ofcourse a music teacher doesn't have to, or even should, limit what music they listen to, but with that education should come some recognition, recognition of talent or lack thereof, patterns, originality, musical aptitude, etc.

    also I agree we shouldn't create a hierarchy of music as it would be extremely difficult to declare one sound good and another bad

    however, with education comes recognition like I said before, for instance...

  • @CatFlashBlue play guitar for 6 months, and you will likely be fascinated by Slash/Kirk Hammett or someone like them, play for 10 or 15 years and you will likely be fascinated by Jason Becker/Shawn Lane or someone like them, now I ask you, who is the more talented musician? Slash or Jason Becker?

    clearly Jason Becker is light years ahead of Slash, and I would dare to say that you won't find a "good" guitar player to disagree, the hierarchy is unavoidable in some instances

  • @DeeZStankYNutZ Yeah and the hierarchy could also be set up so many different ways. I don't know names very well unless their art [any sort not just music] REALLY stands out to me, so I don't know the guitarists you named. But, I can follow example and say that with opinions, a person could argue why slash is better than Jason Becker. I played guitar for 4 years and never found heart in it. So I don't even like the instrument we're on.

  • @CatFlashBlue similarly, an educated music teacher or professor will always give more musical credit to Bach than they will Blink 182, they will rank the originality of the Beach Boys far above that of Katy Perry, and for good reason

    I understand your position, but I stand behind my position that a music teacher should instill originality and talent instead of glorifying mimicked patterns, and that was my point however poorly I originally said it

  • @DeeZStankYNutZ Actually, I have found inspiration in Katy Perry. I don't know the title of the song, but 2 friends of mine were playing on piano and singing, and they described the song as "one of the few she sings in her lower range". Anywhoozel, I took the chord arpeggio from the piano and transposed it into ukulele, changed up the rhythm, altered a few other things, and now it's a completely different song. If you look deep enough, you will find scary connections. [Stravinsky + Star Wars]

  • @CatFlashBlue and by the way, thanks for the interesting conversation, I like it when someone intelligently disagrees with me, it forces us to examine why we have our ideals and beliefs and whether or not they are actually valid, it's nice to see someone debate a topic without it turning into meaningless insults, feel free to disagree with me anytime you want, I welcome the adult conversation

  • @DeeZStankYNutZ This last comment annoyed me. "adult conversation"? ERG. I love all people and would not belittle them in such ways, just because of first impressions and reactions on the internet. And further, adult conversation implies limits because what our society describes as adult is professional, mature, calm and collected, and thus gets rid of all the "childish" creativity. I know what you meant with your comment, and I know you meant well, but 90% of social interactions are impressions

  • @CatFlashBlue well ofcourse they have a right to their opinion, that doesn't make their opinion any more valid, the poster asked a question and I gave my answer, and your response is that they have a right to their opinion...

    that may be a valid comeback if I am advocating for all pop music to be banned, but i'm not, i'm just answering a question, and ofcourse you are entitled to your opinion as well, but "they can have an opinion" is hardly a counter to my response to your previous statement

  • @tehsupervampy my counselors performed this at camp. it was really cool

  • @tehsupervampy same!

  • @tehsupervampy our did to :)

  • @tehsupervampy Mine too.

  • @tehsupervampy mine did too :3

  • Axis of Awesome!!

  • LOL, that was incredible. Bet you guys had lot of fun making this. Great job bro's!

  • Brilliant very clever.

    But for people to say this makes those artists talentless is harsh, it's just that this is a very successful chord progression that mentally with or without recognising it, musicians already know it works.

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  • "man in the mirror" isnt that progression...

  • This is why rock and roll , without interesting lyrics, holds little interest for me.

    Cool pot.

  • @sndymornful that's not rock and roll

  • Let it be the oldest song in the video?

  • @juffan Waltzing Matilda's a bit older, I'd say.

  • Jessie J - Price Tag

  • im a f***ing birdplane? was that supposed to be funny? i think it ruined it for me

  • @franklymydearrr

    It´s a song by themself (Axis of Awesome)

  • @franklymydearrr its one of their songs.

  • gay

  • this can be played in any key as long as you use the I V vi IV chords from that key for example in the key of C which is how aixs of awsome play it the chords would be in order C, G, Am and F

  • Nice job directly copying someone else's video with a gay title

    Asshole

  • iv play a few of these songs and all have been F, C, Dm, Bb

  • @sampark17 ..no its C Am F G

  • @iggrut No? It's C G Am F

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  • legends !

  • ummmmmmm.... you realize that there are only 35 songs in this vid right?

  • es ist einfach geil geil geil! :P

  • C G A F

  • @pianoworm C G Am F

  • @t3hpwnzerer ur right, forgot to put minor

  • 4:00 - 4:11 best song of all.

  • @dmilic such a good song :D

  • the best part of the song is only from 0:00 to 1:40 IMO

  • To those of you asking what chords, it really doesn't matter. You can play:

    Em, C, G, D... or really any of the other variations people have commented, as long as it's the same I-V-vi-IV progression. If you don't know what that is, google it.

  • HEY SOUL SISTER , TRY IT :D

  • This is actually one of the lesser versions of this song/gag - it's been improved considerably in their live shows where they start combining multiple songs simultaneously, and the use of different songs (or a different order of songs) also increases the energy in the live shows.

  • So these 4 chords should be the most beautiful chords to put together.

  • Lol holy shit Nice B5 on" take me on"

  • so true ive often thought when i was playing my keyboard that there must be pattern but never realised till you hear a good few just how many use the same chords, .

  • @bromchifray

    Rather than comparing these 4 chords to the 26 letters of the alphabet, I'd say it looks more like using only 6 or 7 of those letters. And if people were to write using only those letters, then, yeah, that'd be pretty interesting.

    @joshycooky1

    E, B, C#, A.

  • what are the 4 chords??

  • @jarenchacon @bromchifray Another way to look at it would be to compare it to literary concepts like "love". The word is used disproportionately to it's relative importance in, say, a dictionary. One certainly wouldn't say that a writer who elaborates on the concept of love is unoriginal.

  • This makes the song writers look so dumb.. lol

  • @JaredChacon Why? Everything that was ever written and all words ever spoken in the English language for example, can be quite adequately expressed with the same 26 letters in the alphabet. That makes all English speakers look so dumb, no?

  • @bromchifray

    Don't be so defensive, I only said they "look dumb", of course I couldn't judge their compositions based on an overused progression, the chords are only a small part of the effectiveness of a song when compared to other things. It makes people look dumb when they think they are have such original chords. At least acknowledge that the chords are overused, then impress us with something else in the song. But they really don't realize that they use the same chords are in every song..

  • @JaredChacon And you are not being defensive? About your comment I only meant to say they look dumb - at least not well thought over. And I didn't even LOL. ;)

  • I'm no musician but had a good laugh mate

  • I'm a f''cking birdplane, doesn't that sounds miliure XD

  • awesome idea. unbelievableyou found all these songs. and a talented singer too!!

  • @MaurijnMusic they R called "the axis of awesome" ^^

  • 46 people clearly had some part in writing those songs.

    And are ashamed.

  • I'm a f**king birdplane! LMAO!!!

  • We looked at this in Science, its to do with our Brain. Theres a reason why people like heavy metal and can hear the music, but when people who don't like it, only hear noise.

  • at 3:00 Take on me... LOL!!! Kewl!!! :)