How to Borrow Chords from Different Keys
Why Borrow Chords? 🎹
There are many ways that we can make a piece of music sound more interesting to listen to. One nice way to make music sound more interesting is by using borrowed chords. A borrowed chord is a chord that doesn’t belong to the key or the scale that the piece of music is using. Let’s say we have a piece of music in the key of G major, if we take a chord that doesn’t belong to the key of G major then we can consider this a borrowed chord taken from a different scale or key. Unlike a key change or a modulation, borrowed chords are typically for just a single chord and don’t change the general key of the piece of music.
The reason you might want to use borrowed chords can vary. You might want to create shock or surprise in the music by adding a chord that isn’t expected. You might want to change the tonality of a chord (e.g. major to minor) to change the feeling of the music. In any case, borrowing chords adds uniqueness to the music and is likely going to grab a listeners attention.
The interesting thing about using a particualr scale and key in a piece of music is that it very quickly becomes loaded with expectations for a listener. Once we hear a few chords and melody notes, listeners subconsciously know the notes and chords that they are expecting to hear. Using borrowed chords defies these expectations and means that those listening to the music have to tune in a bit more to work out whats going to happen next!
2. Familiarity vs Novelty 😱
So how do you actually borrow chords?
Well, that depends on the effect you are trying to create. If you are creating music for a horror movie…then you can get away with a bit more “randomness” then if you are trying to make a piece of music sound coherant. So I’m going to focus on the more coherant type of borrowing chords.
One of the best ways to borrow chords is to balance familiarity with novelty. This means that you don’t want to change the entire chord so that it doesnt relate to anything that has come before. This is why we use pivot notes. A pivot note is a note that stays the same between two chords. Let’s say we are in the key of C major and have a C major chord (C E G). I could move to an E major chord (E G# B) because a listener is going to be able to follow the note E that is shared between the chords as we move from one chord to the next. The more notes that are shared between the two chords the less jarring it is going to sound.
This is something that is often done in superhero movie music. “Tertian harmony” is used to create a feeling of lifting or sinking. This is where a new chord is borrowed from a third (3 notes) away. A C major chord (C E G) might move down to and borrow Ab major (Ab C Eb) or a C major chord (C E G) might also move up to Eb major (Eb G Bb) to give a feeling of a superhero arriving. In both of these situations we are borrowing a chord from 3 notes away and both chords share a note with the chord of C major (C E G)!
Another way in which we can borrow chords from another scale is by moving in stepwise motion or chormatically. Similar to using pivot notes, moving by step or chromatically means that a listener can follow the progression from chord to chord. Let’s say once again we are in the key of C major and have a C major chord (C E G). I could move to C# diminished (C# E G) because this only has one note moving by step (C - C#). I could also move the entire chord by step to C# major (C# E# G#). Moving the chord up by stepwise motion will create a feeling of the music lifting and a listener will be able to follow this movement even though the chord doesn’t belong to the key of C major!
3. Returning Home 🏠
Moving to a new chord that doesnt belong to the scale is great for creating interest in the music. However, this interest is only appreciated in heinsight. What I mean by this is; once you play a chord that doesn’t belong to your scale…a listener is waiting to hear how you get yourself out of the mess you have gotten yourself into - how are you going to get back to something recognisable and contextualise the chord!
One way of doing this is by simply going back to the chord you have just come from! This way you know how you got there. For those that like a challenge though, you can also once again work out if there is a way of moving by step or finding a chord that shares notes with your borrowed chord enabling you to return to your home key and scale.
The important thing that disinguishes borrowed chords from modulations in a piece of music is; borrowed chords do not change the key whereas modulations are a temporary shift of key. So in order for you to keep a feeling of the music using the same key…you need to be able to return back to your key straight away so as not to destabalise the music. However, this is exactly why borrowed chords are so interesting to listen to, we never know whats going to happen next!
Matthew Cawood
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