Do you ever use mixture? It’s a priceless harmonic tool and one of my favorite ways to spice up existing songs. In my new reharmonization (scroll down) I’m using it a ton.
What is mixture?
Mixture is a technique where we borrow chords from the minor mode while in major, or vice versa. More common is the former, so that’s what I’ll focus on here. A popular example is the the iv-minor chord; so in the key of C major, a F minor chord. It ads a certain sense of sadness, a darker color in a major environment. Think of the D minor chord in In My Life by the Beatles (key of A):
| A | F#m A7 | D Dm | A |
This D minor doesn’t ‘belong’ to the key of A major, but to A minor, so it’s a borrowed chord.
What’s even cooler, we can borrow any chord from the minor mode. So in the key of C major, we can borrow the following chords from C minor:
All of these chords are part of the C natural minor, with the interesting exception of D♭. This chord comes from the Phrygian mode, which has a flat 2 (D♭).
In this week’s reharm, Frère Jacques (Brother John), the classic French children’s song, I used many instances of mixture. Have a listen and see if you can find them!
