Why does this work ? and how to write it in harmony

it works because you're used to the f#min in the key of A, and there's just a small one note difference. you'd just write it as VI, not VImaj, since upper case means major when referring to chords, and lower case means minor.

it works because you're used to the f#min in the key of A, and there's just a small one note difference. you'd just write it as VI, not VImaj, since upper case means major when referring to chords, and lower case means minor.

Actually, although that is the way it would be transcribed by classical musicians (and the manner I prefer for writing chord progressions out), the fact is most jazz musicians I've seen always use upper case roman numerals for everything, major and minor, diminished and augmented. They tend to use the symbol "-" to denote that it is minor.

Coolnama - you can 'borrow' chords from other modalities (not sure if modalities is really the most apt term here). This is fairly common in jazz and, if my ears' recollection is right, it also happens in Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay by Otis Redding, as well as in various other soul tunes (SOTDOTB is all major chords). That's what you're doing here, by the look of it.

As a really simple example of what I mean....

Say I have a chord progressions which goes:
Am | E7 | Am | E7 | Am | Em |Am | Em | Am | E7 |

we could say the entire progression is in Am. But when it goes to the E7 chord, it is A harmonic minor (or melodic minor), and when it goes to Em, it is A natural minor (or dorian). Overall, you're still get the A tonality, and a minor vibe to everything, but the colour of that A minor vibe changes depending on whether you use E7 or Em. You can mix and match chords from different scales in this way - one oft-used example would be going I to i (e.g. Cmaj7 to Cmin7 - the opening two chords of On Green Dolphin Street). That gets used in various Beatles songs and a whole heap of jazz tunes, OGDS being one off the top of my head, The Man I Love being another (Ebmaj7 to Ebmin7).

Noteboat or Fretsource will (hopefuly...the sacrificial lamb is being prepped, I swear it! :wink: ) tie up my loose ends, as I've been a bit careless with my use of the terms "modalities" and "tonalities" here, but I'm knackered and can't think straight. Off to bed, I think. :o <= a yawning Scrybe

I prefer "tonalities" when the notes change, and "modalities" when the tonal center changes. But other folks do use them other ways - there's not a real standard when it comes to communicating.

Jason's right, it works because you've got two notes in common in the chord. It's kind of like using a diminished 7th chord in place of a dominant - if my progression called for A7, I could use Bbº, because there are three notes in common... your ear notices it's different, but there's enough the same so it doesn't sound wrong.

You'll see 'borrowed' chords all the time - you're borrowing from a related key. In this case, you're in the key of A, so you'd expect F#m, but you're borrowing the tonic major of F# instead.

If you want a down-and-dirty rule of thumb to use, a progression will generally sound ok if each successive pair of chords is either found in the same key (even if it's not the key you're in), or share the same chord type. So you could get away with something like C-D-F-Gm-Em-Dm-Bb-C if you wanted to... try it; it'll sound odd, but not awful.

Hmmm...

So more questions.

I was playing a simple song the other day it was a I VIm IV V ( with some other parts but whatever ) that the school teacher was playing with the chorus ( school chorus) and in one part he switched the V for a bVII for 2 beats of the 4 beat bar then went to V then I.

The song was in G so he switched the D for an F major chord. He switched D-F#-A for F-A-C... hmmm that could be like playing a D7#9, then going to D then resolving ??

So what was that ???

Yes, you can use vii as a substitute for V (normally V7) but don't forget that leading note is F# not F so what I suspect he did was:

In G that would be F#dim - F#-A-C

replacing D7 - D-F#-A-C

and switching from vii to V mid -bar was just him dealing with boredom.

A :-)

I said bVII not vii...

He didn't use F#-A-C-E ( which would be F#min7b5 the diatonic vii in G ) He used F-A-C which would be a flat VII, that is the reason why I thought he was substituting for a D7/#9...

Playing on the A and C being common in both chords by the sound of it then, the F moves by step to F# in the dominant D7 which then resolves to the tonic in the G - good old chromatic scale. What chord did he play before the "F"? Could be just throwing something in for chromatic interest/ prepared dissonance/ using the F natural as an auxiliary note/ delaying the harmony (see Bach for a how-to).

A :-)