“i will survive” has almost every diatonic triad in it, and almost nothing else. it’s probably a little more complicated but i roughly hear it going down a fifth through all seven diatonic chords (in tetrads?) like am7 dm7 G7 Cmaj7 Fmaj7 bø7 but then instead of doing the em7 it does like an esus and then an E7. this kind of song seems like it would be very good for teaching music theory! since you have to play every basic chord in the key and nothing else (if it weren’t for the e major). are there other songs like this? this one just seems unbelievably convenient but maybe there are more
'I will survive uses a chord progression which has been used in classical music for some hundred years. As it’s chords progress in descending fifths, it’s also called the descending fifths sequence.
Here is a video I’ve found on YouTube, full with songs using that sequence:
I’m not sure if those are the songs you want to play but I guess you can easily search for more.
do songs that use this descending fifth progression usually borrow a major III the way i will survive does? are there any contemporary examples of songs with this progression that don’t. it would be cool for teaching purposes if there was a recognizable one with the minor iii