How To Write A Song With Just Two Chords
Whether it's Wilco's majestic album opener "Misunderstood," Grateful Dead's explorative "Fire On The Mountain," or Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The USA," the two chord song is alive and well in the world of popular music. Even still, some musicians are skeptical of simplicity by nature and see these masterpieces as "beginner" songs. In reality, I would argue that a musician who cannot see the value in a simple two chord song is actually the beginner. They are blind to the endless possibilities that lie before them. As songwriters, we should not concern ourselves with something so trivial. Our goal is to write a good songs and we know full well that this can be achieved with two, three, four, or ten chords.
Two chord songs may be simple to play, but they are not necessarily easier to write. It takes a great deal of creativity to spin a song out of so few harmonic variables. Instead of thinking of these two chord structures as constraints, think of them as opportunities. It is an opportunity for you to really dig into the musical makeup of chords that may have been overlooked in a more harmonically complex composition.
Two chord songs lend themselves well to simple melodies. The kind of melodies that get stuck in your head for days on end. I think of the melody from Wilco's "Misunderstood" daily. It feels just as fresh now, as it did when I first heard it years ago. Now, I could take that melody and re-harmonize it. Reharmonization is when you take an existing melody and add new chords to it. In which case, I could add a different chord to every melody note just to impress my musician friends, but this would ruin the song. Songwriters don't write two chord songs simply because they are incapable of writing anything else; they do it because it is the right thing for the song.
This week, I want you to write a two chord song. Pick your two favorites and have at it. As you're doing this, don't think about simplicity or complexity. Just focus on the music. Last weekend I was jamming with a friend and we were having a blast. At the end I said, "can you believe all of that jamming just came from two chords?" He had no idea. When you are living in the music you don't notice such things. Or, if you do, you realize that they don't matter. Less is more and more is more.
The only true restriction in songwriting is accepting the limiting belief that you can't do a, b, and c because of x, y, and z. Once we rid ourselves of these beliefs we become free to experiment with complexity and simplicity, free of judgment. Both have unlimited potential for beauty.