The Best Songs Have Only 3 chords

This week on SongTalk we look at a simple songwriting technique that may be more complicated than you think – songs with one chord progression.

That’s right, no guest this week just the SongTalk team – Phil, Neel and Mike – talking about the ways songs with just one series of chords repeated over and over have become huge hits. What’s the secret? Take a listen.

We talked about:

• where the single-chord idea came from historically
• how lyrics can make a big difference
• what arrangement of melodies work best
• how production can be help and when it’s a cheat
• creating dynamics with tension and release

Listen to the songs in full on our Spotify playlist or watch the videos: