Page 37
sophisticated sound. Rock bands have never been keen on this change, judging it too "soft". Radiohead, however,
have incorporated this chord change into their brand of 1990s rock with great effectiveness in songs such as 'Airbag',
'Subterranean Homesick Alien', 'No Surprises' and 'Creep'. Here are some more unusual possibilities not on the table.
V as a Minor
If chord V is turned into a minor it undermines the sense of key. Nevertheless, this can be heard in 'Trash' (ch: C Gm
F Ab), 'Lightning Seeds', 'Sense' (ch: Dm C G, where the key is G), 'She's Waiting' (v: I IV Vm IV: G C Dm C),
'Sugar Mountain' (Dm in key of G), 'Heroes' (Am in the key of D on the ch) and 'Behind Blue Eyes' (br: I Vm IV I: E
Bm A E).
The chorus of Blur's 'Park Life' features the even rarer bV chord (E Bb B). This is sometimes used as a chromatic
approach to chord V - but usually coming from chord IV not chord I.
VI as a Major
The major version of chord VI creates the expectation of a key change up a tone. It is much used for quick key
changes, as in the verse of 'Good Day Sunshine' and 'Charmless Man'. You'll also find it in the verse of 'It Won't Be
Long' (E-C) and on the intro to John Barry's 'Goldfinger' (E-C). The John Barry/Bond association was exploited by
Sneaker Pimps' 'Underground', which adds a Bond sample to the change.
Using the Table for Minor Keys
If the song you are writing is in a minor key, you can still use this table on p. 33. Simply locate the minor key in
column 6. Your main chords in that minor key will be found in columns 1-7 plus 11. All that would change would be
the numbers relative to the chords. Let's say you want to write a song in A minor. If you look down column 6, you
find that Am occurs there in the key of C major:
12 3456789101112
CDmEm F GAmBbEbAb D E FmSo for A minor, we take chords 1-7 and renumber them:
1234567
Am Bb C Dm Em F GWhether you use the major or minor form of chords IV and V in a minor key depends on the harmony you want and
the melody of the song. If you're writing a tune in A natural minor (Aeolian mode: A B C D E F G), you will want
chords 1, 3-7. If you're writing a tune in A Dorian (A B C D E F# G), you will want chords 1, 3-7 with 4 as D major
rather than D minor. [3A] Tunes using the harmonic (A B C D E F G#) or melodic minor scales (A B C D E F# G#)
will use the major version of the V chord. [3B] It is perfectly allowable to combine these different minor harmonies
in a single song as long as the chord and the melody note are consistent. You can have D and Dm in a song in A
minor, but if so an F in the melody must be used over Dm (D F A); a D major chord (D F# A) requires F# in the
melody.
A good example of this is The Zombies' classic 'She's Not There'. Both the verse and the chorus repeatedly change
from Am to D and then Am to F in adjacent bars. Chord V appears in the chorus both as Em and E.