We round off our batch of examples with another progression in a minor key.
This time, as with example 8, we have a progression that is built from the ground up to include borrowed chords. This is no diatonic progression followed by some swapping around. This has been composed by considering the whole palette of chords from the minor key itself and those from the parallel major key.
Example 10. A progression in the key of E minor.
This progression is:
The ambiguous nature of sus4 chords means that even it could be thought of as borrowed given that it leads directly to one that is borrowed.
But, it is ambiguous, not major nor minor, so it is considered as diatonic here.
If we took the alternative view and viewed the sus chord as an alteration of the E major, therefore borrwed, we would write the chord progression like this:
Whichever way it is viewed … holy macaroni. That’s a lot of borrowed chords.
Crikey.
Were you expecting that much seasoning in your soup?
And … wait a moment … what on earth is the story with that E major chord. We’re in the key of E minor and there’s a major chord built on the tonic note! Huh?
Well, some questions and confusion but perhaps the best thing to do is to taste it and see how we like the flavour and texture.
Listen here: