Which Chords Can You Borrow? - Music Composition

Learn about the most commonly used borrowed chords and chromatically altered chords. Many composers and arrangers find themselves limited to diatonic chords and lack the confidence to use borrowed and chromatically altered chords. Yet these are the chords that add colour, surprise and emotional shifts. This music composition lesson takes us through various options and illustrates them in musical contexts, empowering you to use these wonderful harmonic devices.
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🕘 Timestamps
0:00 - Introduction to which chords can you borrow?
0:21 - What do we mean by borrowing a chord?
1:43 - Tierce de picardie chord example
4:01 - Chromatically altered chord example
7:06 - Borrowed chord II example
9:29 - Borrowed chord IV example
11:02 - Augmented V chord example
11:52 - Conclusion
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[@MusicMattersGB]

Learn Music Online - Check out our courses here! www.mmcourses.co.uk/courses

[@jayducharme]

I love that borrowed IV! I’ve never used that. I’ve used the augmented V without knowing what it was. The picardie is the only one with which I had a lot of familiarity.

[@MusicMattersGB]

They’re all ways of adding colour

[@knd1986]

I use the minor iv chord alot, and I am also using secondary dominant chords frequently. I will try next to experiement with using the Picardy, the iio (ii diminished chord or ii half-diminished seventh chord) and the augmented 5th chord. As part of the secondary chords, you can use, for example, a VI in major form, such as A in key Cmajor, as the V/ii.

[@MusicMattersGB]

That’s great. It gives you plenty of opportunity for colour

[@LemonRage75]

Many different examples and a passionate teacher ... very nice video! Thank you very much! 🙏

[@MusicMattersGB]

A pleasure. Much more at www.mmcourses.co.uk

[@pauldavis6857]

Thank you again, Gareth, for a vivid illustration, this time of borrowed chords..really brought to life by your beautiful voice! Lovely..

[@MusicMattersGB]

You’re very kind.

[@markchapman6800]

IV maj-IV min-I was very popular in the 19th century. VI from the parallel minor (Ab major in C) works nicely in first inversion especially as a precursor to V - if the Ab is above the Eb then they can both just slide down a semitone into the next chord.

[@MusicMattersGB]

Absolutely

[@chrisgavin3330]

Great stuff! (Translated to British: Brilliant!!)

[@MusicMattersGB]

That’s most kind. Much more at www.mmcourses.co.uk

[@oneirdaathnaram1376]

I so much love your excellent explanations and very watchable videos. I always get the treat of a thorough insight into the trick-box of the art. You are a very talented teacher. Thank you so very much for sharing. A. from Switzerland.

[@MusicMattersGB]

That’s most kind. Much more at www.mmcourses.co.uk

[@austinmchale7232]

Hi Gareth, musical devices like these remind me that music is an art of the emotions. Lennon and McCartney's ,"World without love ", sung by Peter and Gordon, was affecting enough to make me think the music made some kind of sense in relation to the words. But I was a schoolboy back in 1963!Slán, Austin.

[@MusicMattersGB]

Absolutely

[@unknownentrappment_ed3522]

Thanks

[@MusicMattersGB]

Your support is much appreciated

[@jeremiahlyleseditor437]

Thanks again

[@MusicMattersGB]

A pleasure

[@annelouisemaclellan485]

I also like the borrowed bIII and bVII and even the borrowed minor v.

[@MusicMattersGB]

😀

[@johncenter4858]

Very good video, thank you. At the end of Xanadu by Olivia Newton Jones, there is what a would called a colored cadence. Transposed in C major, the 3 last chords are Aflat Bflat C all in major. I was wondering where they are borrowed from. Have a nice day.

[@MusicMattersGB]

Yes that’s effective. The Ab and Bb major chords are borrowed from the parallel natural minor.

[@johncenter4858]

@@MusicMattersGB Thank you very much!

[@MusicMattersGB]

😀

[@yoavshati]

It also appears at the end of one of the Mario themes, which gave this cadence the name "Mario cadence"

[@MusicMattersGB]

😀

[@jarodvmusic]

Good stuff! There is something I have always thought about using as a writing device but still have never actually done it. Polymodal Chromaticism, where you use all 12 notes as justifications of borrowed notes from each of the Parallel Modes.

[@MusicMattersGB]

Glad it’s useful. Much more at www.mmcourses.co.uk

[@lawrencetaylor4101]

Merci beaucoup. I'm thinking of the Maestros, and as soon as I'm more clear about my climate lawsuit against the Swiss government, I'll be ready to make a decision, I've heard about tritone substitutions, and thought you'd be talking about that. I know there are other videos from your channel that discuss that so I'll look for it.

[@MusicMattersGB]

You’ll be very welcome at Maestros

[@lawrencetaylor4101]

@@MusicMattersGB I know I will be, and you don't know how that will be a healing process for the psychological trauma I've endured because of my singing voice.

[@MusicMattersGB]

Excellent

[@2eanimation]

10:48 Pink Floyd - Nobody Home, first thing that came to mind :) C7 F Fm C G Am D G Thank you for another great lesson!

[@MusicMattersGB]

Good example

[@alandenton2973]

Really interesting. These are all familiar but now I know what the composer has done. Thanks

[@MusicMattersGB]

Glad it’s helpful

[@superfuzzymomma]

Hi Gareth, wonderful lesson as always, thank you. I would like to know if you are fond of the extreme dissonances of Thelonious Monk? Before I was accustomed to dissonance it was quite jarring, but now I crave harmonic complexity....no matter how extreme.

[@MusicMattersGB]

Yes. An acquired taste but I’m into it.

[@BruceEEvans1]

I played banjo in a Dixieland band for a while. I found there were three very common ways to get from the IV chord back to the tonic. One is, just do it. IV to I. Another is IV to #IVdim7 to I. But also, following your example of iv minor, IV to iv to I. I would listen to the note the tuba played on the downbeat to tell me which chord to use. But I had to be quick. 😃

[@MusicMattersGB]

Excellent

[@ruramikael]

I first noticed the 2nd example when I played Grieg's opus 12, the last piece. It was in the mid-80s.

[@MusicMattersGB]

Absolutely

[@Stashi1808]

Great video! I'm composing my first piano sonata. I've never composed one before. I really want it to have a feel of a middle Beethoven sonata. I was wondering, if there are any sonatas by him that you would recommend having a deeper look into? Thanks as always Professor.

[@MusicMattersGB]

That’s a great project you’re on. Best middle period Beethoven Sonatas to look at are numbers 21 and 23, better known by their publishing names Waldstein and Appassionata.

[@ramonacosta2647]

Since IV in 2nd inversion resolves naturally to I then you can get a nice sound by borrowing a secondary subdominant in 2nd inversion and resolving it to the tonicized chord. A related idea is modal borrowing where you borrow a chord from a parallel mode. Probably the most famous example is the Neapolitan Sixth, which is just the 1st inversion of the bII, which is borrowed from the parallel Phrygian.

[@MusicMattersGB]

Good points

[@joaquimmotteditfalisse6003]

hello ! Thank you for your great video. It’s interesting, in france i’ve never heard « tierce de Picardie » but only « tierce picarde ».

[@MusicMattersGB]

Local variation!

[@francoisbruel9163]

About "tierce picarde" : picarde was originally an old french word meaning "bright", then the meaning got lost and mistaken for "from Picardie" (a region of France). Well, at least that is what I was told, I wasn't there around the 16th century to check that story. It makes sense that ending a minor piece on a major tonic chord makes for a "brighter", more affirmative conclusion.

[@MusicMattersGB]

Absolutely

[@oneirdaathnaram1376]

Thank you for that explanation. It makes much sense. 🙃

[@MusicMattersGB]

@oneirdaathnaram1376 A pleasure

[@southpark4151]

10:55 - that's the key --- 'context'.

[@MusicMattersGB]

Absolutely

[@jeffreyanderson1249]

Do you have to give the chord back when you are done with it?

[@MusicMattersGB]

😀😀

[@fdre3wsd]

Hello brother can you spare a chord?

[@MusicMattersGB]

😀