12.3 · Modal Interchange

The bright outsiders

These outsiders are stranger than the flat-side borrows: chords the key says should be minor, played major. The raised third works as a borrowed leading tone, so each one brightens the phrase and then pulls somewhere specific. The mechanism has a formal name, the secondary dominant, and a later lesson works it in full.

Major where minor belongs

Each card plays a chord the key says is minor as a major chord. The last card is the Creep loop.

C
E
Am
F

iii goes major and suddenly pulls hard toward vi (it's vi's own dominant, V of vi). The same chord often sidesteps to IV instead.

C
D
G
C

Gentle ii goes major: bright, optimistic, a little vintage. It's V's own dominant (V of V), so it usually hands the phrase straight to V.

C
E
F
Fm

III, then IV, then IV turned minor: A drops to A♭. Radiohead's Creep runs this loop the whole song.

Quiz

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A 'bright outsider' like III or II is…

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