Modal interchange
Borrowing chords from the parallel key, especially the minor, to darken or colour a major progression.
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Content under musical review. It may contain inaccuracies.
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Borrowing chords from the parallel key, especially the minor, to darken or colour a major progression.
Advanced
Modal interchange (also called mixture or using borrowed chords) means taking chords from a key or mode with the same tonic and using them in the main key. The most common case: in C major, borrowing chords from C minor. The tonic doesn't change, but the colour darkens for a moment.
F is the IV of C major. Fm is the iv of C minor. Hear them one after the other before returning to the tonic:
Just one note changes, A to A♭, and the mood shifts from bright to wistful.
I – IV – iv – IThe chords from C natural minor (aeolian) most often used in C major:
| Borrowed degree | Chord | Note from minor | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| iv | Fm | A♭ | wistful predominant |
| bVI | A♭ | A♭ E♭ | epic predominant, deceptive moves |
| bVII | B♭ | B♭ | rock chord, bVII – I cadence |
| bIII | E♭ | E♭ B♭ | dark colour |
| iiø7 | Dm7♭5 | A♭ | predominant before V |
String 6, Fret 1: F2 · 4 · Scale tone
Hear some classic formulas with borrowed chords:
I – bVI – bVII – I I – bVII – IV – I I – vi – iiø7 – V7 – ICompare C ionian and C aeolian in the mode explorer to see which notes change:
Modes on CWhen improvising over a borrowed chord, change the affected note: over Fm in C major, play A♭ instead of A. Each borrowed chord asks for its own scale, usually that of the mode it comes from.
Interchange works the other way too. In A minor you can borrow the major IV from A major (D, with F♯, the dorian colour) or end on a major tonic, the Picardy third. In practice, many rock and folk tunes alternate Am and D, which is a dorian vamp.
i – IV in A minorKostka and Payne, and Aldwell and Schachter, study mixture mainly between parallel major and minor. Modern harmony extends borrowing to any mode with the same tonic: phrygian's bII (D♭ in C), lydian's major II (D in C, with F♯) or mixolydian's minor v (Gm).
It's worth separating borrowing from tonicization: B♭ in C major is a borrowed bVII if it moves to C or F; if it were preceded by its own dominant (F7) and confirmed by a cadence, it would be a tonicization. The Neapolitan sixth (D♭/F in C) can be heard as a phrygian borrowing, although classical theory treats it as a chromatic chord in its own right.