hey, welcome to 12tone building blocks, our monthly series about the fundamentals of music
theory!
we've been talking a lot about functional harmony, the idea that different chords in
a key have different jobs to do, but so far we've only been talking about the major scale
(bang) and a lot of you have been asking the same question: how does this work in minor?
(bang) does it even apply?
it's a good question, and the short answer is… kinda?
ok, that's not super helpful, so let's look at it a bit more in-depth.
the three main kinds of chords are tonic function, which feel at rest, dominant function, which
point you back home, and subdominant function, which is like a bridge between the two.
in major, we tend to divide the chords based on the behaviors of a couple specific notes.
the third degree of the scale is peaceful and consonant, so it helps drive tonic function.
the fourth degree sits just over the third and introduces some instability, which gives
us subdominant function.
and the seventh degree sits right below the root of the key, giving us the strong pull
upwards that defines dominant function.
but in minor, those don't work so well.
the third degree is lowered, making it less consonant and less capable of providing rest.
this also pulls it further away from the fourth, so we don't get the same instability that
we'd expect that note. and in minor, the seventh degree is flat, so we don't have that leading
tone quality we need in order to get dominant function.
so… chord functions don't work, right?
well, no, but they're still a useful framework if we're willing to loosen our definitions
a bit.
at their heart, chord functions aren't really about the notes they contain, they're about
the feelings they create, and even if our notes aren't as well-behaved in minor, we
can still group them based on what they sound like.
let's start with tonic function.
in major, the tonic chords are I major (bang), VI minor (bang), and III minor.
(bang) in minor, the corresponding chords would be I minor (bang), bVI major (bang),
and bIII major (bang), so a simple approach would be to just declare that those three
are tonic function as well, and that mostly works: the I chord still clearly sounds at
rest, and the bVI does too.
the bIII chord, though, is a bit less stable: it lacks the root, and combined with the dissonance
built into the minor scale already, it can be hard to get a sense of rest out of it.
whether or not it's really tonic depends more on context than on any strict set of rules.
but if that seems bad, wait 'til you hear what happens to dominant function.
or, rather, what doesn't happen, because dominant function just kinda doesn't exist in minor.
it needs a leading tone in order to function, so if you take that away, it just disappears.
here, check this out: (bang) doesn't sound like a resolution, does it?
you can kinda wring one out of the bVII chord: (bang) but really, if you want dominant, you
need to bring back the leading tone. that's why musicians often use what's called harmonic
minor (bang) which is just like minor except that we've raised the seventh back up.
this gives us the pull we need to make dominant resolutions work (bang) but this gap here
is a bit weird, so we also invented something called melodic minor (bang) which raises this
note too in order to make the scale sound a bit smoother.
but if tonic function is harder to define and dominant function needs special changes
in order to even exist, then the big winner is subdominant function.
it's the bridge between the other two groups, and in minor, they're way further apart.
of course, we still have our "real" subdominant chords, IV minor (bang) and II diminished
(bang) but if subdominant chords are anything not stable enough to be tonic but not directional
enough to be dominant, then that describes most of the chords in minor.
when the bIII isn't tonic, it's usually subdominant.
when we're in natural minor, the V minor chord (bang) is probably subdominant.
the bVII chord can be dominant, but it can be subdominant too.
heck, I've heard people call the bVI a subdominant chord, and there's some pretty good reasons
why that might make sense.
basically, outside of major, subdominant kinda becomes a catch-all category that includes
anything that doesn't fit in the other two.
or at least that's how I like to think about it: this isn't something all theorists agree
on.
and that, I think, is the biggest point here: we have this beautiful, clear structure that
most people use, but it's really tailor-made for one specific scale.
outside that scale, a lot of its principles are still helpful, but it becomes much more
ambiguous, and the correct answer depends a lot more on context and personal preference
than the rules that some person on the internet told you, even if that person draws very cute
elephants.
anyway, thanks for watching!
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