Smells Like Teen Spirit does not have minor or major chords

Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana does not use full minor or major chords, but power chords in the intro and chorus, and the verse only features a note structured bassline.


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the song is in F minor… so maybe someone was assuming minor chords instead of the power chords?

The point of a harmonic analysis is to convey the implied harmony and not to be an exact copy of what is being played.

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Implied harmony, that is just Imaginationland. It either has that harmony or not. Let’s not pretend that those chords are there when they aren’t. We already established it is in F Aeolian (minor) because either way we play the essential 3rd and 6th chords Ab and Db.

And the tabs already exist to tell you what major and what minor chords belong in what scale.

You should properly explain the songs without your own imagination being put in them.

Oh, I see, so when analyzing songs that use arpeggios, let’s just leave the chord staff blank because reading harmony into a monophonic sequence of notes would mean we’re using our own imagination, right?
That’s actually brilliant, why haven’t I thought of that before?

But I’m not talking about parts with arpeggios with 3rd notes

And that’s why arpeggios can be listed with instrumentals. Look at Montero (Call Me By Your Name) by Lil Nas X, it has an accurate context

But some more of the same exact false chords would include in the chorus to Killing In The Name by Rage Against The Machine.