Subdominant Minor Chords: Borrowing Chords from Minor Keys

Review of Major and Minor Harmony

We’ve covered how chords are constructed within a major key. We’ve also used the same process to learn about how chords are constructed in a minor key, including some alterations to the notes that are sometimes used to create new harmonies ( harmonic minor). We also labeled the chords based on their function; or which degree of the scale they were built on and what kind of chord quality they have. Now that we’ve done this, we can begin to see how chords are borrowed from one situation and placed in another.

Starting Chord Progression

Consider the following example:

Let's label the chords with their function from major harmony.

Let's make one small but dramatic change by turning F^maj7 into F^-7:

Now, let's label the chords again.

All of the labels remain the same except for one. We have no label for F^-7 in the key of C. Unless we borrow the label from the parallel minor key, C minor. Our example is inside of the universe of C major. For a brief moment, a portal to a parallel C minor universe opens, and from that emerges the F^-7 chord. The chord can be classified as being from this new universe because the two new notes needed to create it are A♭ and E♭, both found in C minor.

Key Tasks

1. List the chords that can be borrowed from C natural minor for use in C major.
2. List the chords that can be borrowed from C harmonic minor.
3. List the chords that can be borrowed from C melodic minor.
4. List the chords that can be borrowed from C major and used in C minor.