With the theoretical introduction, and then a first practical application in Example 1, we have hopefully seen and learned something new, something cool, a musical strategy for playing and writing interesting and different chord progressions. It would be great to take this first idea further.
Let’s try to get creative and make our own music by building on the foundations laid here.
With guitar in hand, learn to do a quick play through of both versions of the Ab chord progressions. Hopefully you can manage the necessary barre chords.
A very useful first exercise would be to transpose the entire progression to a different key - using the Circle of Fifths to help of course.
Challenge yourself by taking this progression to new places. Try borrowing a different major chord from the key of Ab minor instead of the bVII (the Gb major chord). Try using the same bVII borrowed chord but in a different place, replacing one of the other chords in bars 2 or 3 instead of the Db in bar 4. Use your ears as you experiment. Do you like the progression more, less, not at all? Remember, if it sounds good it is good.
Further, you may be so inspired and sparked with the gift of musical invention that you feel compelled to record and share your progressions. You may even take the giant leap to use this as a springboard to start to write a song!
Alternatively, maybe this bVII business has left you unmoved, not floated your boat. We all have different ears and tastes. If this music (the Ab major progression) has lost its taste and you would like to try another flavour, worry not. There are many more examples to come in due course.
To continue with this journey into borrowed chords here is a further example.
Example 2. Progression in the key of D major
Here is the audio:
What do our ears tell us here?
Hopefully it sounds good. All very diatonic of course. Fairly standard for sure. No surprises. A little safe we might even venture to say. How can we spice it up a little, give it some teeth, make it more dangerous?
Let us again replace just one chord with a chord borrowed from the parallel minor key. As we have a progression in the key of D major we look to the key of D minor for our options. There are six to choose from (shown in blue).
What about substituting the F#m in bar 3 of the initial progression for a Bb major from the parallel key? That would give us a B minor going to a Bb major - a cheeky little chromatic, one-fret downwards jump in the chord progression.
What does this sound like?
Did the earth move?
Did you catch yourself unawares and gasp a little?
We had a I, vi, iii, V major key progression in the key of D major. It is now a I, vi, bVI, V progression. It is still in the key of D major. The borrowed chord is not a modulation, merely a temporary jump to an out-of-key chord.
Note, just as with the bVII in Example 1, this borrowed chord, within its home key of D minor is a VI chord. The 6th scale degree of the D minor scale is the note Bb and so the (major) chord built from that note must be a VI in Roman numerals. When that same chord sits within a D major progression as a borrowed chord, it must be labelled as a bVI. The 6th scale degree of D major is a B natural which we must compare and reference this borrowed chord against. Bb is a flattened 6th so Bb major is a bVI chord.
Here are the two mp3 audios again, side-by-side for easier comparison.
As with the first example, and with all examples to come, we are looking to understand the concepts mentally and hear the differences brought by the borrowed chords in our ears.
And, beyond reading and listening, what else?
We can take this as an invitation to make music, to explore what we can do on our guitars, what this learning can add to our creativity and enjoyment.
Come on, let’s get creative - make our own music, make our own sounds, build on this progression.
First, with guitar in hand, learn to do a quick play through of both versions of the D major chord progressions. As before, a useful first exercise would be to transpose to a different key - using the Circle of Fifths to help of course.
Next, we can challenge ourselves by exploring what else can be done with this D major progression.
What does it sound like if with a Bb major chord replacing the A in bar 4 rather then the F#m in bar 3?
Can we make it sound good / better by borrowing a different chord from the parallel minor key for bar 3 instead of the Bb?
What else? Perhaps doubling from four bars to eight and using one or more of the borrowed chords that sounded good?
As before, if inspiration does strike and the creative juices flow, we could share our music in the usual way!
It is time to drop in another instalment of borrowed chords goodness.
So far we have looked at major key progressions and have borrowed major chords. We will continue in major keys for now but stir things up a little. We are going to shift up a gear or two and move to the rocky side of the road.
This concept of borrowing chords is not limited to full major and / or minor chords. It can just as readily be adopted when playing a progression using power chords, and the borrowed chord(s) then get played as power chords. Power chords, having no 3rd, are neither major nor minor. But that quality is implied when played and that quality must be referenced when labeling them using the Roman numeral convention.
Note: these I, IV and V chords are all major chords within the key but are being played as power chords (B5, F#5 and E5). I have chosen not to add the ‘5’ to the chord names here and in the following posts for ease of reading the chord charts.
Let’s give it a listen.
Get ready to rock.
Mmh.
It kind of rocks.
But it is somewhat drab.
It starts on the tonic chord B, goes to the V chord then the IV and returns to the tonic chord B.
B is the tonic … b … b … b … but …
B is for Bland.
There must be more than this.
We might be able to perk this up a little, add some pep. Let’s call on our trusty friend, the Circle of Fifths, and check in at the parallel minor key of B minor to see what goodies we can borrow.
With one little squeeze of the spicy sauce we could energise this a touch and have a real belter of a rock song on our hands. What if we pulled out the tonic chord B from bars 7 and 8 and replaced it with a borrowed A chord from the parallel minor key instead? We have met a bVII previously so we should be confident and familiar with calling this A major chord by that same label. Note that the A chord is also being played as an A5 power chord.
Let’s keep the A major chord, but limit it to just bar 7. In addition, we borrow a D major chord too, played as a D5 power chord, placed in bar 8 immediately after the A chord.
The D chord is labeled as a bIII in the Roman numeral convention and we have not met that yet in the examples. So a little explanation may help understand this.
We are in the key of B major. The B major scale is B C# D# E F# G# A#
Within this major scale the 3rd scale degree is D#. The chord that we are introducing to this progression is built on a root note D. We must therefore reference the fact that this chord is built on a note that is one semitone lower than the 3rd scale degree. Upper case Roman numerals are used as it is a major chord. Hence it is labelled bIII.
We can also use this same analysis to double check that the A major chord we also borrowed is indeed correctly labelled as a bVII.
As with the examples already introduced, when we encounter, and listen to, each new example, we can gain extra benefit by actively engaging with the progressions in a variety of ways.
First, we can pick up our guitars (if electric maybe dial in a touch of overdrive), get the power chord muscles warmed up and have at it. Let’s play these three B major progressions. Get in to a rocking groove with them. Be aware of the bars containing the borrowed chords. Enjoy them.
Then we can branch out and explore and try things and see what sounds good. There are other chords within the parallel B minor key so far unused. What else could we do? What about swapping the borrowed bVII (A chord) with a bVI (G chord) instead? Or, make use of one of the minor chords (also played as a power chord).
Great stuff Richard. I love the ingredients analogy. It explains the concept perfectly: it’s just a way of spicing things up, triggering the listener.
I’m guilty of over-analyzing progressions whenever there’s a non-diatonic chord. A flat 7? Must be mixolydian. Wait a major 6, that’s Dorian. Or maybe the guitarist was just fooling around and made a mistake, but the band decided to keep the ‘error’ in because it sounded great. Who will tell?
Thanks @Jeff
I think you may be right in thinking that many songs have been written spontaneously by instinct, by sound and by feel, and not with a specific aim of using clever chord choices. That said, having the tools and knowing what the tools are used for can only be to the good. As I said to Clint, knowledge is power.
