Best Artists/Tracks at Chord Changing

I was an early fan of The Heartbreakers,the hit ,Breakdown was big with us kids
in Ocala ,which is right down the road from Gainsville,Fl. where Tom was
raised,and where Elvis filmed a movie that Toms uncle worked on the set,Tom
got to watch, and or meet Elvis .But I had not heard of Mudcrutch at the time.We
used to go to G,ville a lot to party and shop at Thouroghbreds,which later
became Sam Ash,a big music store chain.One of the only stores around back
then where you could plug into a Marshall stack with a Strat or Paul.One of his
first guitar teachers was Don Felder. I think they are very good .

My favorite chord changes are mostly lean towards Steely Dan.
Green Book, Peg, Josie, Haitian Divorce, Deacon Blues
Much more sophisticated if study what Alan Holdsworth does, but be aware not to go mad. Many jazz folks would say that he's out of real human possibilities.

Petty often favors those ringing open major key chords. There are lots of others who bark up that tree, but rather than listing them here (one LONG list), I'd suggest that you might check out Pandora. Create a "Tom Petty" channel and Pandora will seek out similar music. It's far from perfect, but the odds are pretty good that you'll find a lot of what you're after.

BTW, Petty's songwriting is so archetypal in so many ways that I always joke to my wife (a huge Petty fan and a huge Pandora fan) that - no matter who you enter in Pandora - it will eventually end up back at Tom Petty.

Marty

Tom uses sus chords a lot i think, which he then resolves back to the root chord

Steely Dan, Holdsworth, Ponty, Happy The Man, Prokofiev, Ravel, Chicago, The Mars Volta.

I don't see anything hard or extraordinary to juggle with sus chords. Typical american guitar

I dont think its about how simple the changes are, or how complicated the progression is or how often it is used.Good music could mean someone using one chord or throwing everything but the kitchen sink in a tune.But I seem to be attracted to good songwriting and well performed pieces ,rather than songs that are more or less a platform for a musician to show everyone how fast he can play,or how many tricks he can do.I would rather listen to Hubert S. with Howling Wolf do Smoke Stack Lightning than,,,,,,,,,well,any number of the so called super players. Some folks can make 3 chords sound so good.Having said this,I also Love Steely Dan,Early Yes,Frank Zappa,Jaco,many busy players.

I agree that Petty plays a pretty straightforward rhythm guitar. IIRC, Petty often plays a major chord thru a measure and susses either the second, the fourth or both of those beats - very simple but very catchy. It's not difficult or unique, but it's a distinctive feature of his songs and I understand the appeal.

Mike Campbell OTOH has chops and plays the tricky (i.e. lead) parts in The Heartbreakers.

Marty

Someone's got to mention Robert Fripp, so I'll do it. Strumming or picking - in fact, picking in particular. And they're not majors.

Also, every rhythm guitarist on Talking Heads' Speaking In Tongues, Alex Weir in particular. See esp. Girlfriend is better, Pull Up The Roots.

Oh and Carlos Alomar.

Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers' sound attracted me not so much for the chord changes (I'm a guitar player who played in bands around NJ and NY in the 60's and 70's), but the sound of Petty's electric 12-string. Very Byrds-like due to his use of a Rickenbacker (just like Roger McGuinn back in the Byrds days).