- Hi, I'm Gareth Green,
and in this video, we're going to be thinking
about some possibilities for the best chords
to follow chord II in a minor key.
And just to be clear, I'm talking about
the harmonic minor scale, at the moment.
Now, it's perfectly possible to do this in relation
to the melodic minor scale,
it's perfectly possible to sort of take a natural minor
or a modal approach to this, but for the time being,
I'm working in the harmonic minor.
Fundamentally, because most harmony,
in the last few hundred years, since 1600 anyway,
has been based on the harmonic minor scale.
The clue's in the title, isn't it, harmony, harmonic minor.
So, you can adjust this if you want to work in
one of the other minor scales,
but just so we're clear what we're doing here.
The second thing I just want to clarify before we get going,
is inversion labelling.
Because when I'm talking about inversion chords,
you can see I'm using "b" quite a bit on the board here.
So, lots of people will be familiar
with the "a", "b", "c" system,
"a" is root position, "b" is first inversion,
"c" is second inversion,
and if it's blank, you assume it's "a".
But you may well have learnt the other system,
which is "5-3", coming after one of these
Roman numerals, telling you that it's a root position,
and if there's nothing there you assume "5-3",
but you might have learnt "6".
So you, instead of calling this IIb, you might prefer
to call it II6, because "6" is the abbreviation
for "6-3", that's saying first inversion,
or "6-4", which is a second inversion chord.
So, if you're used to the other system,
read all these "b" as "6" and you'll be absolutely fine.
Okay, now, before I go into these seven options,
the first question you might be thinking is,
why am I starting with chord II in first inversion?
Okay, let's mop this one up.
Chord II in a minor system, in the harmonic minor scale
is a diminished chord.
So, if I'm in the key of C minor, for example,
D, F, A-flat, a diminished chord.
Okay, now, you have to be a little bit careful
with diminished chords when you're dealing with harmony.
If you put it in root position,
sounds all right.
And in certain styles, that might be absolutely
the sound that you want,
but it tends to accentuate the tritone,
D at the bottom, A-flat at the top,
in the key of C minor.
So there's that tritone there,
that diminished fifth.
Now, if you put it in first inversion, it slightly hides
that tritone happening between the top and the bottom.
The tritone's still there,
but it's sort of using a note from the outside of the chord
with one inside the chord.
And it kind of,
in many respects makes that a slightly cleaner,
slightly less ugly sound.
So you might want something stark when you're going to use
that II in root position,
but, much of the time you might well want to use it
in that first inversion.
So, for example, in the first possibility,
I've come up with that very frequently happens in music.
You get these formulas, sometimes going into a cadence,
IIb-V-I.
Well, in C minor, I could go II-V-I,
but you might think that IIb sounds better.
Slightly cleaner sound, isn't it?
But there we are.
There's the first possibility.
So, it also gives you a nice kind of bassline, doesn't it?
Because in C minor, F, G, C.
So, that's quite a smooth bassline
on the approach to a cadence.
So, there's the first possibility, a very obvious one.
The next one is a slightly less obvious one.
So, the other thing about this is trying to suggest
the commonly used kind of formula, if you like.
But also exploring some others that you may not
have thought about because people are always saying to me,
oh, I always end up writing the same progressions,
and I really want to venture forth and do something
a bit different, but I'm not quite sure what else to do.
Well, look at the second option.
IIb, to VI, to V.
So, IIb, to VI, to V.
That's actually slightly less usual, isn't it?
But can be quite nice.
You have to be a bit careful with it.
If you go VI to V,
you can get a lot of parallel movement,
you end up with fifths and octaves and things,
which you may be happy with.
But if you get some contrary motion between the top
and the bottom, you can avoid it.
So IIb, VI, V,
in a formation like that
gets rid of any parallels or consecutives.
Option three.
Well, here I'm going IIb to VI to I.
Okay, now, that's not a cadence formula.
There isn't a cadence that goes VI-I.
So it's probably not going to happen at the end
of the phrase, but it could happen mid-phrase,
to go from that IIb, to VI, to I.
And lots of people wouldn't naturally think
about doing this IIb to VI thing.
Why does it work, even though it's slightly
less usual than some other moves?
Well, I think the main reason
it works is you get an A-flat in the IIb,
in the key of C minor again, of course.
You also get an A-flat in chord VI,
so you've got a common note, a common tone,
that just helps that to smooth the progression a bit.
So, it's quite an interesting one to think about,
even though it's slightly outside the usual box.
Option four, is going IIb-I-V.
So that works quite well.
And again, you see, there's an advantage
in this first inversion chord.
If you used II,
apart from that sound, which you may, may not like.
If you go down to I you've got octaves going,
but II in first inversion going to C up to G,
kind of avoids that problem that you've got
with consecutives.
Okay, here's a very slight variation on it.
If you're not entirely happy about option four,
with the leaping bass, F, C, G,
well, how about we put that middle chord
in first inversion.
So you get, F, E-Flat, G.
So, IIb, Ib, V,
is quite a smooth alternative.
Option six, well I'm running with the Ib thing again,
thinking about we could go IIb to Ib, and then to VI.
That's another thing that people don't always think about,
but actually, that's quite useful, isn't it?
Because between that Ib and the VI,
you've also got a common note, a common tone.
So that helps smooth the progression.
So that could be quite nice mid-phrase as well.
And then, the last one you might be looking at and thinking,
crikey, this looks a bit controversial.
We've got three first inversion chords in a row,
IIb, Ib, VIIb.
Now then, VIIb.
That's another funny one, isn't it?
Lots of textbooks say, avoid chord VII like the plague.
But, well, they don't say it quite like that
but that's what they mean.
It's another diminished chord.
So again, if you use it in the first inversion,
it's usually kind of more successful than using it
in root position.
So, I've got two diminished chords here
with the II and the VII, and I've put them both
in first inversion.
Now, if you slip Ib in between,
you get a nice kind of step-wise movement in the bass.
F, E-flat, D.
Now, that doesn't sound like anything in its own,
but it could progress quite nicely, couldn't it?
F, E-Flat, D, then C with chord I.
So you get a bassline going down the scale.
Or it might go onto chord I and finish on V.
Actually gives you a really good progression.
So, lots of people worry about using chord II in a minor key
because it's diminished.
And, if they're brave enough to use it,
or they've got hold of this notion of using it
in first inversion,
then they're often struggling to know what to do with it.
And most people use it with option one.
IIb-V-I, or even II7b-V-I.
It's a lovely progression, I have to say.
But they often realise that they don't do anything
other than option one.
So, seven possibilities, not exhaustive,
you'll come up with other things as well.
And you might want to play around with the melodic minor
or the natural minor a bit as well.
But, there's seven possibilities for progressions
from IIb that might just open up other avenues for you
when you're working in a minor key,
trying to negotiate your way around a diminished chord.
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