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But then what happens is quite excellent.
He wends his way towards the I via a slow ii-V-I.
The ii is c#m.
the V is F#
the I is B.
The interesting bit is how he gets to the ii. To do it, the tonic temporarily shifts up a tone and he plays a bVI-V-i IN C# MINOR. It’s like a teeny mini-modulation. The bVI-V-i is like a 251 but for a minor key. In a minor 251 it’s normally ii(dim)-V-i. The ii is diminished because minor keys have a flattened 6th. And here, instead of using ii(dim) he’s actually playing a bVI chord itself. So the bVI is an A; the V is a G# and the i is c# minor. (See the first 3 chords in Rachmaninov’s prelude in c#m, or in Toto’s Africa for that matter, though in Africa the v is a minor v).
Edit - having actually listened to it properly, he doesn’t end on the c#m, not yet anyway, he lands on the relative major, so it’s a bVI-V-III, which is A-G#-E.
THEN, at the beginning of the next line he plays the c#m. At this point, the tonic has moved back down to the original B, and he’s doing a proper ii-V-I to land on the B, which is c#m-F#-B.
The initial move from F# to A is so smooth because as well as the A6 being part of the bVI-V-i (or bVI-V-III in this case), A6 is also the 1st inversion of F# minor, so it gives the illusion of the F# major just slipping into F# minor with the bass accentuating the important minor 3rd, until you realise it’s actually part of a VI-V-i. If you want to consider it as an F#minor (1st inversion) that’s also fine - then it would be a iv-V-i (or iv-V-III in this case).
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
I have got a question. When you treat the V chord as a I (the F# in this case), do you just ignore the dominant quality (the b7) of the V and treat is as a regular major, or does the dominant quality dictate the tonality of the other chords during that time?
Band Stuff: https://navigationofficial.bandcamp.com/album/silhouette-ep
The V chord is never treated as a tonic; it’s the ii that becomes a tonic (fleetingly). The F# doesn’t come into play again until the tonic is reestablished in B and the F# can perform its normal V (dominant) role.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Play these chords and sing the melody.
ii V i ii V
|D#m7b5 / G#7#5 / |C#m7 / / / |C#m7 / / / |F#7sus / / / |
Still works right? I think that was probably what was originally written. So how did he create the changes in the tune?
The melody note over D#m7b5 is it's b3 (F#) which is the 13th of.... you guessed it... Amaj13! A really cool re-harm technique is to take a melody note and change the underlying chord for a different one that shares that note, although that could take a while to get a chord that fits. So I reckon the likely answer is this, how far away are D# to A? It's a nice tritone sub...
As for the C#m7, a very common re-harm is to replace it with its relative major (and vice versa). The relative major to C#m7 is E. They are interchangeable because E is 3/4 of a C#m7 chord. This E then gives more of a sense of movement when it does change to C#m (acting as the ii) for the final two bars.
It’s subtle but effective.
When I posted this thread I had a fair idea that @Viz would know the answer!
(It’s not a proper tritone sub btw, it’s just an inversion really, the iidim and the VI add 13)
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Good thought. It's hard to say, I'm guessing the session musicians would have a bit of a say over inversions and the like? I was reading through the album personnel for HIStory on Wikipedia and it seems all the top session players and producers in the music industry at that time were involved in making the album!
https://youtu.be/7KtAgAMzaeg
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
I'm a little unsure as to what you mean here. Is it that A6 is just an inversion of D#dim?
D#m7b5: D# F# A C#
A6: A C# F#
They are basically the same chord as one’s an inversion of the other and are therefore interchangeable in that context, which is why I agree with you; the iidim-V-i is virtually identical to the VI6-V-i.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
The F#sus4 is the dominant chord, so would otherwise have a major 3rd; the sus is just an embellishment. So let’s say it’s just F# for the time being:
F# A# C# F#
Now imagine if instead of A6, the next chord had been f# minor, all that would have happened would be that the A# would have slipped down a semitone:
F# A C# F#
Instead he plays A6 as part of the VI-V-i in c# minor. But the A6 happens to be the 1st inversion of f# minor:
A C# F# A
That’s why the move is so cool and smooth; it gives the illusion that you could be slipping from F# major to f# minor, until you suddenly find yourself in the middle of a progression in c#m.
Though of course once you hear the c#m itself, you’re in the middle of a 251 in the original key of B.
This is how music joins up smoothly in harmony - sharing notes between chords to create links between the progressions and using the melody to accentuate certain notes, like a thread woven through the chords.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Sorry, I'm a bit slow this morning, but where are you getting the A6 from?
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Ah yes, of course.
I thought the chord in that MJ tune was Amaj13 - is it an actual A13?