There are not many chords you can borrow from the modes. If we add the 7 modes from the melodic minor scale, we still don't increase our options by much unless you like augmented chords. Rendered in D
All triads from Major scale:
- I (D), ii (Em), iii (F#m), IV (G), V (A), vi (Bm), vii (C#dim)
All triads Minor scale:
- i (Dm), iio (Edim), bIII (F), iv (Gm), v (Am), bVI (Bb), bVII (C)
And unique chords from Major scale modes (ignoring chords that appear in previous scales. For example Lydian Dominant shares chords with both the Major scale and Lydian. These shared chords are ignored):
- Lydian: II (E), #ivo (G#dim), vii (C#m)
- Mixolydian: iiio (F#dim), v (Am), bVII (C)
- Mixolydian b6: iio (Edim), iv (Gm), bVI+/I+/III+ (Bb+)
- Lydian Dominant: bVII+/#IV+/II+ (G#+)
And unique chords from Minor scale modes:
- Melodic Minor" bIII+/V+/VII+ (F+), V (A), viio (C#dim)
- Dorian: ii (Em), IV (G), vio (Bdim)
- Phrygian: bII (Eb), vo (Adim), bvii (Cm)
- Dorian b2: VI+/IV+/bII+ (Eb+)
And then you can borrow chords from the other side of the fence. For example, borrowing bvii from Phrygian when you are in a major key (which arguably might be borrowing from Phrygian Dominant, but oh well)
At any rate this is an incredibly finite list
Moving counter-clockwise away from the a major key on the circle of fifths, I noticed that people usually refer to these chords as “borrowed chords”, often from the parallel minor. So in the key of C, chords like Bb, Eb, and Fm are notated as bVII, bIII, and iv.
But moving clockwise down the circle of fifths, I noticed that these chords are often referred to as secondary dominants. In the key of C, I often see D notated as V / V instead of II.
Why is that? Is it because those chords often serve the function of a secondary dominant? When would notating it as II (or VI, III, etc) make more sense? Could they ever be understood as borrowing from the relative minor key turned major, so from A major when in C major?
Example 1: “Fuck you” by CeeLo Green. Chords are C, D, F. It is I, II, IV? How should we understand the D - a secondary dominant, or is it borrowed from C Lydian, D major, or something else? I don’t hear it as a secondary dominant.
Example 2: second part of “Mayonnaise” by smashing pumpkins, in Bb major. Chords are C, Ab, Eb, C, Ab, Eb, F, Eb, F, Ab. How would you notate this? II, bVII, IV, II, bVII, IV, V, IV, V, bVII is my guess. I don’t hear the C as a secondary dominant.
Hi All,
When using borrowed chords, is there a best practice to understand which mode they are taken from? I feel like using the parallel maj/min is most common, but beyond that it can be harder to identify. I mainly just want a way to internal these for improv purposes. For example, the 4 bar progression below:
Gmin9 - Dmin9 - Abmaj7 - Bmaj7
Gmin9 - Dmin9 - Abmaj7 - Gmaj7
It appears to be in Gmin. 1) For the Abmaj, I guess that's borrowed from G Phrygian? Since the half step interval, and the Ab being major. 2) I think the Bmaj is called a chromatic mediant modulation, but is this taken from any specific mode? Im not visually seeing it line up with the G in anyway. 3) Lastly, for the Gmaj, I think this is borrowed from the parallel major key, or could be seen as a chromatic approach from the previous chord.
Overall, any insight is appreciated! I know for a lot of this the answer could simply be "it sounds good", however having the naming conventions helps me internalize a lot of this, for use later.
Thanks,
Mike
Hi all! Holiday season is on the way, and in the holiday spirit I thought I’d do an analysis of “All I Want For Christmas Is You” and go through some of the interesting concepts within the song (mode mixture/borrowed chords, secondary dominants, voice leading/counterpoint, etc). The material in this song can easily rival examples of Bach in textbooks!
Hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer : I'm a guitar player who learned music and theory by my own, without any schooling, I am sorry if I misuse some words/concepts. Please, feel free to correct me. Also sorry, english isn't my native language.
I know this might sound dumb and unclear but let me explain what I mean :
I guess we all know what borrowed chords are, the use of non diatonic chords from parrallel keys in a given key. Like let's say we're in C major. Here is a minor plagal cadence progression :
C | F | Fm | C
I | IV | iv | I
Fm is non diatonic to C major and is from the C minor key. It is a chord borrowed from the C minor key, the [iv] chord, and brought to thr C major key.
We all know that obviously. Now I'll dive into what I mean by "borrowing from a parrallel key of a chord that isn't the tonic"
Here is a progression to help you visualize what I mean in the key of C major :
C | F | F#Maj7 | C
This is how I'd note them as chord degrees :
I | IV | bIImaj7/IV | I
Now you might be weirded out by the bIImaj7/IV chord. I would explain this as the bIImaj7 chord borrowed from the parrallel phrygian key of the F chord. I would kinda call them, from a lack of musical theory knowledge, secondary borrowd chords. Like how secondary dominants help in perfect cadences to chords that aren't the tonic, secondary borrowed chords are, for me, borrowed chords from a chord that isn't the tonic.
Following that, I'll now explain what I mean by "borrowing chords from already borrowed chords" with this progression :
C | Dbmaj7 | Bmaj7 | C
Here's how I'd explain the degrees :
I | bIImaj7 | bVIImaj7/bIImaj7 | I
Again, you might be weirded out by the bVIImaj7/bIImaj7. Here's my explanation. C is the tonic. Dbmaj7 is the borrowed bII chord from the parrallel C phrygian key. Bmaj7 is the bVIImaj7 from the Db mixolydian key. I again used the same notation in the degrees as secondary dominants. This time however I'd call them nested borrowed chords, again from a lack of knowledge in theory. Just like how nested tuplets are tuplets within tuplets, nested borrow chords are borrowed chords borrowed from a borrowed chord's parrallel key.
So now that I may be clear, I just wanted to ask if this whole thing that I wrote and maybe badly explained has already existed before, if it is a thing already, If it has a name or if I am just saying theoretical gibberish
I know that same results can be acheived with let's say chromatic mediant chords, polytonality an
... keep reading on reddit ➡The Twenty Sixth Theme
A borrowed chord is a chord taken from the major or minor scale parallel to the key of the piece. If your music is in C major, the parallel key is C minor, and you would borrow chords from the key of C minor.
Some of the most frequently borrowed chords are iv, bVI, bIII, and bVII (minor 4th, flatted 6th, 3rd, and 7th scale degrees.) If your piece is in C major, those borrowed chords would be Fm, Ab, Eb, and Bb.
Why borrow chords? Well, interest rates are at historic lows - they’re practically giving them away! The actual reason is interest and color - you get some additional chords that will add interest to your chord progression, and more melody notes to go with them.
A couple of examples:
Space Oddity - David Bowie - borrowed chord is iv - at the lyric line, “and the papers want too know whose shirts you wear” at 1:36
What a Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong borrowed chord is bVI at the line, “and I think to myself, what a wonderful world.”
These examples and more are explained in more depth here.
Write a song this week that uses one or more borrowed chords.
#Your theme this week is Borrowed Chords
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Post template (remember to use the Markdown editor if using this template as-is!)
[Song Name](http://linkto.the.song) (Genre) [Themed|Not Themed]
This is where you can write a description of your song. You can talk about
how you wrote it, where your inspiration came from, and anything else
you'd like to say.
Remember to sort by 'New' so that you can see new song submissions.
New here? Check out this post - everything about songaweek.
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Hi please can someone help me?
If I want to borrow a chord I understand that I can borrow from the parallel minor of whichever major scale I’m using (e.g E major and borrow from Em) or I can borrow from the parallel major of whatever minor scales I’m using (e.g C#m and borrow from C#/Db major).
What would a borrowed chord look like if I was to write out a chord progression?
For example here is a progression with an Ab borrowed from the parallel major of C#m.
E - C#m - Ab - A
I - vi - ?? - IV
What would I call the quality of the borrowed chord?
Can anyone recommend a source where I can learn more about different popular progressions?
Thanks!
i think this is fairly common.
you want a certain sound to your chord progression, you want it to feel a certain way, you want it to be more than just the common 7 chords on a major or minor scale.
so you experiment with other scales and find it really hard to make something that sounds natural, something that "flows" well with the rest of the song
some artists do it so well it takes me years to realize where the borrowed chords were, take for example crazy little think called love (a day in the life and i feel fine by the bealtes are also some good examples)
and of course, as of most popular songs, i'm pretty sure they weren't written with the intention of having these borrowed chords, they just felt like the best option for the songwriter
but it seems impossible to incorporate them in my own songwriting without it sounding like i'm trying too hard to make it more complex
any tips?
Recently we were discussing common borrowed chords in pop, and someone pointed out that they largely come from open chords on the guitar.
(Sorry I don't remember who.)
I previously thought it came more from the ease of moving barre chords on the guitar; the player is already used to going down two frets from a 5 to a 4 chord, so going down two frets from 1 to 7b is natural. But the open chord viewpoint is very revealing.
This table shows the 5 open major chords in 5 keys: (all major)
KEY D A G C E
-----------------------------------
D 1 5 4 7b 2
A 4 1 7b 3b 5
G 5 2 1 4 6
C 2 6 5 1 3
E 7b 4 3b 6b 1
So, playing the easy, open chords, we have 3 keys with 1 4 5 - the most useful toolkit, one with only 1 4 and one with 1 5.
Each key also gets some borrowed chords. They are either borrowed from the "parallel minor" - 7b 6b 3b or from the opposite direction - major 2 3 6.
(parallel minor is the same as modulating up a minor third, like C to Eb)
The tonality of Kids in America is the G row, plus one extra chord.
So I've recently learned about borrowed chords, and I understand that borrowed chords are just borrowing chords from parallel scales and modes like C minor. But something I'm still confused on is if the function of the chord changes if the quality of the chord changes as well. For example, if I was in the key of C major and borrowed the D half diminished chord from the parallel minor, would the D half diminished chord still act as a subdominant? Or if I borrowed the E flat major chord from the parallel C minor key, would it still act as a tonic chord? (I'm not completely sure about the function of the mediant and submediant chords, I've heard that it works as a tonic and subdominant chord?)
So I'm starting to learn about non-diatonic melodies and harmonies, and I'm noticing that pretty much every time I try to use secondary dominants, borrowed chords or modal interchange it always sounds either super jazzy, or super cheesy in this wannabe-epic movie score kinda way. I don't particularly like jazz, and I'm not trying to sound like a movie score either.
There are plenty of older pop, rock, singer/songwriter, and other genre examples that sound great, but I can't seem to figure out the trick to it. I just end up with jazz or movie score sounds for some reason. Anyone have tips for how to avoid sounding jazzy or cheesy when going beyond the diatonic?
I'm having trouble understanding the chord progression C > E7 > FMaj7 > Dm7
I understand that the C FMaj7 and Dm7 seems to originate from the C Ionian Mode notes, but is the E7 being borrowed from another mode in another key? The G# in E7 doesn't exist in any other C mode type which is what is confusing to me.
I'm playing the following chord progression in C minor: EflatMaj7 - F - AflatMaj7 - Cm9
I was trying to improvise over this progression and my understanding of borrowed chords is that you can switch to the relative major (or minor) key of what you're progression is in, when you borrow a chord from that relative major (or minor) key. This must not be true though as when I borrow the F major triad in C minor, playing C major to improvise sounds incorrect, but F Mixolydian seems to work.
Where is my understanding of borrowed chords falling short. Am I confusing the ability to use the major Pentatonic as opposed to C major itself? Or is something else at play here because this is the IV chord?
When the pandemic hit and I found myself without any gigs, I decided to learn how to spend my time learning to write better songs. I started really analyzing some of my favorite artists and trying to determine WHY I find their chords, melodies and harmonies so interesting musically.
My all-time favorite is Jeff Lynne of ELO - and one of the things I discovered about Jeff's chord structures is that he uses a lot of borrowed chords. One of the biggest drawbacks to current pop music (IMO) is the constant use of diatonic chords (using only chords within the key).
A borrowed chord is basically using a chord that's borrowed from the parallel key (minor or major key with the same tonic). If you want to spice up your songwriting, and make your songs NOT sound like everyone else, experiment with borrowed chords.
Here's a video from Rick Beato that's the best explanation I've found so far.
How common are secondary dominants of borrowed chords and do they have a specific function besides spicing up boring harmony?
Hi friends, hope you are well. In this episode of Music Mechanics we delve deeper into the minor scales with a comparison of the natural and harmonic minor diatonic chord formulas. We'll also introduce the hybrid minor diatonic chord formula, borrowed chords, and the melodic minor scale, exploring Bach's Prelude #10 in Em from "The Well Tempered Clavier: Book 1" to illustrate the historical use of the ascending as well as descending melodic minor scale. Music tracks featured in this episode are from my good friend Loren Pickford's album "Dancing in the Spirit Fires". Hope this is useful! :) MM29: Natural/Harmonic Minor Diatonic Chords, Hybrid Minor Diatonic Chords (Borrowed), Melodic Minor - YouTube
Are they interchangeable? Or is one more specific than the other?
I've been watching videos about how to use borrowed chords, and all of the examples involve playing a progression in a major key and then borrowing chords from the parallel minor. So my question is: can you play a progression in a minor key and borrow chords from the parallel major? Is that very common and does it sound good? and if there are any progression examples that y'all have I would be super interested in hearing them!
I was watching a video of a guy analyzing the harmony of a song, after a while there was a chord that was very obviously out of key ( It was an E/G# chord in Bm ), i assumed that it was a borrowed chord from the paralel major (Bmaj), however he later mentions that the chord is borrowed from the Dorian mode, indeed this chord is also in the B dorian mode, however would it not be just as acceptable to say that it is borrowed from Bmaj?, he later goes on to describe the chord as feeling more " Medieval " and "Epic" which is actually very accurate lol, anyways this left me wondering if there is a certain "Guideline" that composers/transcribers use to determine from what mode a certain chord is borrowed from, here is the chord progression that im talking about:
Bm7 - A6 - Gmaj7 - E/G# - F#sus4 - F# ( Key of Bm )
Many thanks in advance!!
Cheers!
So my chord progression is F#maj7 - Bbm - Amaj7#11 - Dbmaj7 - Fm7 and loops from there.
I know the F# and Bbm are both diatonic and the Amaj7#11 is borrowed from Dorian mode but where are the Dbmaj7 and Fm7 borrowed from? I know they function as VImaj7 and vii7 but don't know where they are borrowed from? Lydian Mode perhaps?
The chord is vii7 (Em7) in the key of F. Is this a borrowed chord or some kind of modal thing?
In harmonic analysis, I’ll often see it pointed out that a chord can be viewed as being borrowed from another scale. I can see this useful for finding a scale useful to work with, retaining the same tonic.
Other than that, what does it really tell us? I can’t imagine that as we listen to music we internally pick up on what parallel mode a chord could be from.
It seems like the majority of chords can be seen as borrowed, rendering the analysis as sort of hollow. There are of course exceptions that can sound great, such as a tritone sub or augmented major triad.
Is there value in this analysis? Or does this tie us unnecessarily to the diatonic scale?
Could someone help me explain dim chords formula?
Note: This is a duplicate thread from a thread I made a month ago. I went to fix a typo in the post today and mods need to approve the edit so until then you can't see the post. Not sure who's a mod or how to contact them, so if they do approve the edit on that one I'll delete this copy. If they don't, here it is
There are not many chords you can borrow from the modes. If we add the 7 modes from the melodic minor scale, we still don't increase our options by much unless you like augmented chords. Rendered in D
All triads from Major scale:
- I (D), ii (Em), iii (F#m), IV (G), V (A), vi (Bm), vii (C#dim)
All triads Minor scale:
- i (Dm), iio (Edim), bIII (F), iv (Gm), v (Am), bVI (Bb), bVII (C)
And unique chords from Major scale modes (ignoring chords that appear in previous scales. For example Lydian Dominant shares chords with both the Major scale and Lydian. These shared chords are ignored):
- Lydian: II (E), #ivo (G#dim), vii (C#m)
- Mixolydian: iiio (F#dim), v (Am), bVII (C)
- Mixolydian b6: iio (Edim), iv (Gm), bVI+/I+/III+ (Bb+)
- Lydian Dominant: bVII+/#IV+/II+ (G#+)
And unique chords from Minor scale modes:
- Melodic Minor" bIII+/V+/VII+ (F+), V (A), viio (C#dim)
- Dorian: ii (Em), IV (G), vio (Bdim)
- Phrygian: bII (Eb), vo (Adim), bvii (Cm)
- Dorian b2: VI+/IV+/bII+ (Eb+)
And then you can borrow chords from the other side of the fence. For example, borrowing bvii from Phrygian when you are in a major key (which arguably might be borrowing from Phrygian Dominant, but oh well)
At any rate this is an incredibly finite list
Can someone please explain borrowed chords to me? I’m not sure if I’m doing it right.
Hi friends, hope you are well. In this episode of Music Mechanics we delve deeper into the minor scales with a comparison of the natural and harmonic minor diatonic chord formulas. We'll also introduce the hybrid minor diatonic chord formula, borrowed chords, and the melodic minor scale, exploring Bach's Prelude #10 in Em from "The Well Tempered Clavier: Book 1" to illustrate the historical use of the ascending as well as descending melodic minor scale. Music tracks featured in this episode are from my good friend Loren Pickford's album "Dancing in the Spirit Fires". Hope this is useful! :) MM29: Natural/Harmonic Minor Diatonic Chords, Hybrid Minor Diatonic Chords (Borrowed), Melodic Minor - YouTube
Hi friends! Hope you are well. In this episode of Music Mechanics we'll explore Bach's Prelude #10 in Em from "The Well Tempered Clavier: Book 1" to introduce and illustrate the historical use of the ascending as well as descending melodic minor scale. We'll also delve deeper into the minor scales with a comparison of the natural and harmonic minor diatonic chord formulas. Finally, we'll introduce the hybrid minor diatonic chord formula and borrowed chords. Music tracks featured in this episode are from my good friend Loren Pickford's album "Dancing in the Spirit Fires". Hope this is helpful! MM29: Natural/Harmonic Minor Diatonic Chords, Hybrid Minor Diatonic Chords (Borrowed), Melodic Minor - YouTube
Is there more to modal mixture than just borrowing chords?
