[iM@k]

I think everyone is familiar with the Vanilla Ice "Ice Ice Baby" vs. Queen & Bowie "under pressure" fiasco of the early 90's.

How many other songs out there can we come up with that use the same or very close to the same tune as another popular song.

The rules for doing this are simple: Parodies (ie Weird AL) and remixes/remakes are now allowed.

Another good example would be: Rick Jame's "Super Freak" and MC Hammer's "Can't touch this"

Now there are some that are borderline acceptable like Skynard's "Sweet Home Alabama" and the New Kid Rock "All Summer Long" (While not a remake or remix, it comes close), or to go the other way with the similarity being obscure like Ben King's "Stand by me" and "Beautiful girls" by Sean Kingston (Listen it's there)

How many others can we come up with?

[besson3c]

- Hot House/What is this Thing Called Love?
- Back Home Again in Indiana/Donna Lee
- All the tunes based on Rhythm Changes or the Blues

There are lots of contrafacts in all different forms of music.

[Dakar the Fourth]

So you're talking about sampling?

[besson3c]

Are musical quotations fair game?

[design219]

YouTube - Ukulele Orchestra of GB - Fly Me of the Handel

Music is often repeated over and over.

[BRussell]

A while back there was an amusing youtube video of some guy playing the exact same 3 or 4 chords on the piano (it was a 2-5-1 or 6-2-5-1 probably), but singing about a dozen different pop songs. I couldn't find it with a quick search - does anyone remember that?

[analogika]

That was Pachelbel's Canon in D.

Searching YouTube for that immediately turns up this:

YouTube - Pachelbel Rant

[BigBadWolf]

Originally Posted by BRussell 

A while back there was an amusing youtube video of some guy playing the exact same 3 or 4 chords on the piano (it was a 2-5-1 or 6-2-5-1 probably), but singing about a dozen different pop songs. I couldn't find it with a quick search - does anyone remember that?

ii-V-I is a very common cadence is many forms of music. If you add iii-vi before it is also common. So you see iii7-vi-ii-V7-I quite often. The most common (in classical music) is ii6-V7-I.

[starman]

Originally Posted by BRussell 

A while back there was an amusing youtube video of some guy playing the exact same 3 or 4 chords on the piano (it was a 2-5-1 or 6-2-5-1 probably), but singing about a dozen different pop songs. I couldn't find it with a quick search - does anyone remember that?

I remember that. I was even thinking about it the other day but I have no idea who did it.

[analogika]

I just posted the link to that video two posts above yours.

It's (He's) not as good as I remembered it.

[BRussell]

Originally Posted by BigBadWolf 

ii-V-I is a very common cadence is many forms of music. If you add iii-vi before it is also common. So you see iii7-vi-ii-V7-I quite often. The most common (in classical music) is ii6-V7-I.

Really?

[BRussell]

Originally Posted by analogika 

I just posted the link to that video two posts above yours.

It's (He's) not as good as I remembered it.

The one I was thinking of was on piano.

[edit: I think this is it.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by BigBadWolf 

ii-V-I is a very common cadence is many forms of music. If you add iii-vi before it is also common. So you see iii7-vi-ii-V7-I quite often. The most common (in classical music) is ii6-V7-I.

More common than iii vi ii V7 I in western music is iii VI7 ii V7 I, no? Or, iiim7 VI7 iim7 V Imaj

What is ii6? Figured bass?

[BigBadWolf]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

More common than iii vi ii V7 I in western music is iii VI7 ii V7 I, no? Or, iiim7 VI7 iim7 V Imaj

They are all rather common, I just simplified it.

What is ii6? Figured bass?

Yeah, I couldn't figure out how to do the superscript. So, when doing figured base I just notate it that way (IV6, IV64, V7, V53, V52, etc.)

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by BigBadWolf 

They are all rather common, I just simplified it.



Yeah, I couldn't figure out how to do the superscript. So, when doing figured base I just notate it that way (IV6, IV64, V7, V53, V52, etc.)

Except nobody uses figured bass notation anymore, nor are chord inversions notated in providing chord symbols to commercially trained musicians.

[BigBadWolf]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

Except nobody uses figured bass notation anymore, nor are chord inversions notated in providing chord symbols to commercially trained musicians.

There are still quite a lot of people who use figured bass. Have you never looked at organ or piano music? It is how most of us were taught theory. In fact, I would say that pretty much anyone who has studied theory learned figured bass. But, I am not a composer or a piano player, so I have the luxury of only having to deal with one note at a time.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by BigBadWolf 

There are still quite a lot of people who use figured bass. Have you never looked at organ or piano music? It is how most of us were taught theory. In fact, I would say that pretty much anyone who has studied theory learned figured bass. But, I am not a composer or a piano player, so I have the luxury of only having to deal with one note at a time.

It's how most of us are taught 4 part SATB common practice theory in school, but it is seldom used outside of theory classes. It is a good way to teach harmony, but there is little practical non-academic use for it in this day and age.

[- - e r i k - -]

You might have to be Australian to get this