The examples from the previous sections of this chapter have all been composed purely in a single mode; however, this is actually fairly uncommon in popular music. Songs are often written in the major and minor modes, of course, but pure use of the other modes is relatively rare. There are not very many popular songs written unambiguously in the dorian mode, for example. Instead, it’s more common for the other modes to show up in a different way. A song can be written in the major or minor mode but also borrow chords from one of the other modes to invoke some of that mode’s feel. Chords substituted in this way are known as bborrowed chords, and the practice of using them is known as modal mixture since you are mixing chords from two or more different modes in the same progression.
Modal mixture works by briefly taking a chord built from a parallel mode’s scale that isn’t normally found in the mode your song is currently in. For a concrete example, let’s see how to borrow a chord from the minor mode while writing a song in the major mode.
A song written in the key of C major will use chords built from the C major scale. If we want to borrow a chord from the minor mode, we will use a chord built from the C minor scale instead. Below are the C major and C minor scales.
If we wanted to borrow a “four” chord from the minor mode, for example, we would use the chord built from scale degrees 4, 6, and 1 of the minor scale. This corresponds to an F minor chord using the notes F, A♭, and C. In C major, we would normally use an F major chord comprised of the notes F, A, and C.
The A♭ in this borrowed iv chord is not present in the C major scale. Because it is a half-step lower than scale degree 6, this note corresponds to scale degree ♭6 of the major scale. Borrowed iv chords from the minor mode thus contain scale degrees 4, ♭6, and 1 when used in the major mode.
Aside from ♭6, there are two other scale degrees from the minor scale that are different relative to the major scale and will show up in chords borrowed from the minor mode; they are ♭3 and ♭7. The following figure shows explicitly why this happens:
The iv chord turns out to be a very useful borrowed chord. Let’s look at how this chord shows up in popular music.
The borrowed iv turns out to have a very specific function. It almost always appears at the end of a progression as a cadence chord going to I. Listen to how it’s used in the song “Wake Me Up When September Ends” by Green Day. Note that in this and all other examples in the book, we label the mode that a chord is borrowed from in parentheses below its name:
As soon as we hear the iv, our ears know what they want to hear next. This tendency as a cadence chord can be explained by the proximity and pull that the individual scale degrees contained in iv have to the scale degrees contained in I. Scale degrees 4 and ♭6 of the iv chord both lie one note (a “half-step”) above scale degrees 3 and 5 of the I chord. This creates a gravity that tends to want to pull them down. The ♭6, in particular, has extra tension and pull due to its position outside the major scale. Resolving this note downward by step provides the relief our ears are looking for. Lastly, the other note in iv, scale degree 1, happens to also be contained in I, conveniently allowing this scale degree to be held as a common note during the change.
Borrowed iv chords show up over and over again in popular music, and it’s almost always in this context. IV → iv (borrowed from minor) → I is a great alternative way to cadence in style. “Jar of Hearts” by Christina Perri is another song that uses borrowed iv chords in this same way:
Adele uses this progression as a sort of “mini” cadence in the verse of her song “Make You Feel My Love” before the final cadence using V¹¹.
As we’ve seen, the borrowed iv chord has a very specific function. This isn’t true of all borrowed chords though. Many times borrowed chords are simply used to add some color to a progression and show up in lots of different contexts. One chord that does this is the borrowed “six” chord.
Like the borrowed “four” chord, “six” chords from the minor mode are different than in the major mode. Below are two pianos showing the notes of the C major and C minor scales with the “six” chords highlighted showing why:
In C major, the “six” chord corresponds to an A minor chord, while in C minor, the “six” is an A♭ major chord. With borrowed iv chords, the only thing that changed was the quality of the chord, but here the actual chord itself has changed as well because the root is different. The principle is the same, however. If you were to write a song in C major that used a few A♭ major chords instead of the usual A minor chords, you would briefly be giving your song a “minor mode feel,” even though the rest of the song was in the major mode.
To notate this “borrowed six” chord in relative notation using Roman numerals, we represent the quality of the chord with the case (upper case here to denote major quality). However, we also must do something to capture the fact that the bass of the chord is one note lower than we expect (A♭ vs. A in C major). We therefore call the “borrowed six” chord from the minor mode the ♭VI chord (read “flat six”).
To indicate that the bass of ♭VI is not in the scale, we use a striped pattern to indicate which scale degrees it lies between. In this case, we color ♭VI half purple and half blue to show that its bass lies between scale degrees 5 and 6.
♭VI is also a common chord to borrow from the minor mode when in the major mode. Let’s consider a few ways that this chord shows up in popular music. One example of a song that uses ♭VI is “You Are Not Alone” by Michael Jackson:
Borrowed chords like ♭VI often sound like they don’t “belong,” and many times they’re used to give a song a little more color. For this reason, it can be hard to define specific rules and tendencies for how these chords function. However, because they can sound foreign and out of place, the way the songwriter returns to normalcy is important.
In “You Are Not Alone,” the resolution of the ♭VI to the V⁷ₛᵤₛ₄ chord eases the song back into more familiar territory in several ways. First, the transition from ♭VI to V⁷ₛᵤₛ₄ is a smooth stepwise motion downward; in the bass, scale degree ♭6 falls down to the neighboring 5. In addition, the use of the i⁴ in the V⁷ chord means that both chords share scale degrees 1 and 5. V⁷ₛᵤₛ₄ contains scale degrees 5, 1, 2, and 4, and ♭VI⁷ uses scale degrees ♭6, 1, ♭3, and 5. Holding common tones between chords is a good way to provide a feeling of continuity as the song returns to more harmonically familiar territory.
“Only Hope” by Mandy Moore is another example of a song using the ♭VI chord in this way.
Notice in this example how the borrowed ♭VI is used to set up a clever deception. The phrase in measures 7 and 8 using IV⁽ᵃᵈᵈ⁹⁾ → vi repeats itself again in measures 9 and 10, and we are expecting to hear another repetition in measure 11. Instead, we get not only a different chord but a chord from a different scale.
So far we’ve focused on using modal mixture to introduce new chords into your progressions. Since borrowed chords use the scale from other modes, it should not come as a surprise that there are additional considerations when writing melody over these chords as well. This topic will be addressed in the next section.
Check for Understanding
When in the major mode, “six” chords borrowed from the minor mode are labeled ♭VI and their color is striped (blue and purple to indicate that the bass, ♭6, is in between 5 and 6).
What two other basic chords borrowed from the minor mode also have striped colors? What are the colors in each case? (Hint: Borrowed chords have striped colors when their bass note is outside of the home scale.)
Check for Understanding
Let’s take another look at Adele’s song, “Make You Feel My Love”
Invert the four chords from the IV to the V⁷/V to create a progression that has a ichromatic descending bass line (i.e., the bass scale degree of each successive chord is directly below the last, including scale degrees outside of the major scale).
Check for Understanding
The examples you have seen so far have all involved borrowing from the minor mode. However, in practice, you can borrow from any of the modes. Let’s explore this in this exercise.
Part 1 of 3 How is scale degree 7 of the mixolydian mode different from scale degree 7 of the major mode?
Part 2 of 3 When writing in the major mode, how would we notate scale degree 7 borrowed from the mixolydian mode?
Part 3 of 3 How would we write a “seven” chord borrowed from the mixolydian mode, and what would its coloring be?
Check for Understanding
In this section, you’ve learned that the iv (borrowed from the minor mode) is a great cadence chord. Take a look at Ariana Grande’s “You Don’t Know Me” below. Instead of cadencing with iv, she used a different chord also borrowed from the minor mode, the iiø⁶₅ ( iiø⁷ in first in version).
What are the scale degrees of this chord?
How is this chord related to the iv chord?