How to Combine Interesting "Out-Of-Key" Chords to Enrich Your Music

Chords that share the same function (have the same purpose) are grouped into 3 chord families. You can think of the chords in each chord family as close relatives, like the “home” chords (I, iii, vi), since they share a lot of the same notes. Just as there are close relatives, there are distant relatives too of the “home” chords. These chords, also known as chromatic mediants, are built off of the iii and vi chords. They work by connecting shared notes and notes with only a step between them, moving smoothly between two chords to create unexpected harmonies and interesting new colors in a chord progression.

In this video, I show how to easily build these distant chords. There are two ways to do this: First, we can take the iii and vi chords and turn them into major. In the key of C, the iii chord is E minor (E-G-B), we make it E major (E-G#-B) by only changing the middle note, G up a half step to G#. Both chords still share most notes. Same with the vi chord, that is A minor (A-C-E), we make it A major (A-C#-E) by changing the middle note, raising C to C#.

The second way is to flatten iii and vi by a half step, but keep the middle note the same. That means E minor (E-G-B) becomes Eb major (Eb-G-Bb), the outer two notes move down a half step. Same for A minor (A-C-E), it becomes Ab major (Ab-C-Eb).

Now, Eb major and Ab major can also be made minor. These minor chords are even more distant from iii and vi: Eb minor (Eb-Gb-Bb) and Ab minor (Ab-Cb-Eb) have zero shared notes with iii and vi. However, they hold two notes in common with Eb major and Ab major and that is one way they are linked, by their relationship to these two chords. This makes a total of six distant relative chords; three forms of iii and three forms of vi.

In the video, I show how to apply these chromatic mediants to music. It is also important to know where they resolve to. Distant chords are out-of-key chords, which makes them unstable, so they usually resolve to a more stable chord like the one chord (I), or you can prolong the instability and move to something like a dominant seventh (V7). The original verse melody for this example uses a basic I-vi-V-vi progression. I really spice things up by applying chord substitution, adding some seventh chords, using a distant chord and a secondary dominant: iii-vi7-ii7-I-bVI-I-V/V-V. Chord symbols provided as well.

The chord progression starts on (iii), which acts as a substitute for (I), followed by two “minor seventh” chords, then a distant, unstable chord (bVI) that resolves to a stable chord (I), moving to a secondary dominant (V/V), another tension chord that resolves to its one chord (V). I’m also playing broken chords on the piano-keyboard instead of the usual blocked chords in order to change the feeling of the music. This is a lot of information. Feel free to share your thoughts. #musicproduction #songwriting #musictheory