How to Borrow Chords From the Minor Key Step By Step
This is a really awesome topic for beginner songwriters to get into for spicing up chord progressions.
However, it is going to require that you understand Roman Numeral Analysis and Major and Minor scales.
Here’s a post on Roman Numeral Analysis Explained Simply if you need a refresher.
One of the very first songwriting tricks that are great for beginner songwriters to learn is borrowing chords for the Minor key (also referred to as the Aeolian mode) when they are writing a song in a Major key.
You just want to make sure you don’t borrow too many chords because then the song will start to sound like it is in the other key.
Just borrow one or two. It will add a little “spice” to your progression.
We’re gonna go over how you can easily do this too in a simple and easy to understand way.
To borrow a chord from the Natural Minor key (or Aeolian mode), you’ll have to find what the Minor key is, then take a chord that is different from your current key and add it to your chord progression. Common choices are to add or replace the Major IV and V chords in a Major key song for Minor iv and v chords from the Natural Minor key.
We’re going to go step by step and you’ll see it’s much easier than it looks.
Step 1: Create a Major Chord Progression
We start by creating a Major chord progression. We will use a very common one in C Major to keep things simple and easy.
C Major Chord Progression:
I – vi – IV – V
Cmaj, Amin, Fmaj, Gmaj
You can use this one or make up your own, just make sure the chords are all from a Major key and that you know what their Roman Numerals are for each chord.
Step 2: Find the Parallel Natural Minor Key
We’ll get into what Parallel means a bit later in this post but all we are saying here is to find the Natural Minor key in comparison to your existing Major key. So our existing key in our example is C Major and we are going to find the chords for C Minor.
Let’s look at the chords of C Major.
C Major Key
I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, viio
Cmaj, Dmin, Emin, Fmaj, Gmaj, Amin, Bdim
The Natural C Minor key has different chords.
Natural C Minor Key
i, iio, ♭III, iv, v, ♭VI, ♭VII
Cmin, Ddim, E♭maj, Fmin, Gmin, A♭maj, B♭maj
Step 3: Add a Chord from the Relative Minor Key to Your Song
The next step is to actually borrow a chord.
Let’s look at the Roman Numeral Formula of our C Major chord progression.
C Major Chord Progression:
I – vi – IV – V
Cmaj, Amin, Fmaj, Gmaj
Here are the chords from from the C Major key and the C Natural Minor key:
C Major Key Chords
I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, viio
Cmaj, Dmin, Emin, Fmaj, Gmaj, Amin, Bdim
C Natural Minor Key Chords
i, iio, ♭III, iv, v, ♭VI, ♭VII
Cmin, Ddim, E♭maj, Fmin, Gmin, A♭maj, B♭maj
You will notice the Roman numerals look different between the C Major key and the C Natural Minor key.
For example, in a C Major key, the IV chord is F Major, but in a C Natural Minor, the iv chord is F Minor.
So if you wanted to borrow a chord from the C Natural Minor key you could either add an F Minor chord to your progression, or replace the existing F Major chord with an F Minor chord like this:
C Major Chord Progression with a borrowed iv chord from C Minor:
I – vi – IV iv – V
Cmaj, Amin, Fmaj Fmin, Gmaj
And that’s it! Just add or replace one or two chords from your Major chord progression with a chord from the Natural Minor key. Replacing the Major IV and V chords for the Natural Minor key’s iv and v chords are a common choice that works great.
Bonus Hack: Use the Circle of Fifths to Easily Find the Natural Minor Key Chords in your Head on the Fly
I have a post on How to Use the Circle of Fifths for Songwriting if you want to check it out.
If you’ve never used the Circle of Fifths it’s actually a great visual tool for finding the chords of any of the modes including the Natural Minor (or Aeolian mode’s) chords.
As you can see there are 3 rings in the diagram below. The outer ring are all Major chords, the first inner ring are all Minor chords, and the last inner ring are all the Diminished chords.
Major
Minor
Diminished
If you look at the highlighted shape below you will see it holds all the chords of a Major key. I’ve labeled the Roman Numerals for every chord in the key of C Major.
Roman Numerals
Modes
Chords of C Major w/ Numerals
As you know, every note in a Major scale has a mode associated with it.
The 6th degree in a Major scale corresponds to the Aeolian mode, which is another name for the Natural Minor.
So if we use the Circle of Fifths and I move this highlighted shape so the vi box (representing Aeolian) lines up with the C note in the Circle, we get all the chords of the Aeolian (or Natural Minor) key.
Modes
C Minor Key Chords
C Minor Key Chords w/ Numerals
In our C Major chord progression example above we tried to replace the Major IV chord (F Major) for a Natural Minor iv chord (F Minor).
C Major Chord Progression with “Borrowed” F Minor Chord:
I – vi – IV iv – V
Cmaj, Amin, Fmaj Fmin, Gmaj
With the Circle of Fifths you can see that the iv chord in a C Minor key is Fmin. This can help you quickly find the chords of a Natural Minor key on the fly if you just visualize the Circle of Fifths in your head.
What is a Parallel (or Natural) Minor Key in Music?
The Minor key is a “music mode” of the Major scale. It is referred to as the Aeolian mode of the Major scale. The chords in a Relative Minor key are the same as the Major key but starting from the 6th chord of the Major key. In contrast, the chords of a Parallel (or Natural) Minor key are different from a Major key.
See this reflected in the comparison below:
C Major Key Chords
I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, viio
Cmaj, Dmin, Emin, Fmaj, Gmaj, Amin, Bdim
Relative Minor Key of C
i, iio, ♭III, iv, v, ♭VI, ♭VII
Amin, Bdim, Cmaj, Dmin, Emin, Fmaj, Gmaj
C Natural Minor Key Chords
i, iio, ♭III, iv, v, ♭VI, ♭VII
Cmin, Ddim, E♭maj, Fmin, Gmin, A♭maj, B♭maj
You can clearly see that the chords are the exact same between the Major scale and the Relative Minor scale, but for the Natural Minor (or Parallel Minor) key the chords are different.
You could say that the Relative Minor key is the Minor key carried within the Major key. In contrast the Natural Minor (or Parallel minor) key is the Minor key seeing the first note as the Root and tonal center.
How Do You Find a Parallel (or Natural) Minor key?
To find the Parallel (or Natural) Minor key, you can use the Natural Minor interval formula (which is 1, 2, ♭3, 4, 5, ♭6, ♭7) and look at the Roman Numeral that correspond to each chord (i, iio, ♭III, iv, v, ♭VI, ♭VII) and plug in the notes of the desired key.
C Major Key Chords
I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, viio
Cmaj, Dmin, Emin, Fmaj, Gmaj, Amin, Bdim
Natural C Minor Key Chords
i, iio, ♭III, iv, v, ♭VI, ♭VII
Cmin, Ddim, E♭maj, Fmin, Gmin, A♭maj, B♭maj
What Does Borrowing a Chord Mean?
Borrowing a chord refers to taking a chord from a different musical key and adding it to an existing chord progression that does not contain that chord. For example, taking a Minor v chord and adding it to a Major chord progression. The Major key uses a Major V chord, so a Minor v chord is not a part of that key and would be “borrowed” or taken from a different key.
C Major Key Chords
I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, viio
Cmaj, Dmin, Emin, Fmaj, Gmaj, Amin, Bdim
Natural C Minor Key Chords
i, iio, ♭III, iv, v, ♭VI, ♭VII
Cmin, Ddim, E♭maj, Fmin, Gmin, A♭maj, B♭maj
C Major Chord Progression with “Borrowed” Minor iv Chord:
I – vi – IV iv – V
Cmaj, Amin, Fmaj Fmin, Gmaj
What Other Minor Scales Can You Borrow Chords From?
It is common to see chords borrowed from a Natural Minor key (also referred to as the Aeolian Mode), but chords can also be borrowed from other minor modes such as Dorian, Phrygian, and Locrian. In addition, chords can be borrowed from any other minor scales and their modes such as Harmonic Phrygian, a mode of the Harmonic Minor scale.
The process shown on the step by step process above will work with the other minor modes and minor keys as well.
If working with Minor modes for your songs interests you, you might want to read these articles
What is the Difference Between Parallel Minor and Relative Minor?
This is an important distinction to make on this topic because it may confuse you. It definitely confused me at first.
There’s a difference between the Relative Minor and the Parallel Minor of a key.
For example, A Minor (the Relative Minor of C Major) vs C Minor (Parallel Minor of C Major).
“A Minor” would be the Minor scale pattern that exists within the C Major scale, while “C Minor” is the Minor scale pattern but starting it on the C note. If you play C Major and C Minor, the notes and chords will be different but C Major and A Minor have the same notes and chords.
Essentially the Relative Minor is the Minor scale interval pattern found within the Major scale, and the Parallel Minor is the Minor scale interval pattern but played starting on the same root note compared side to side (hence “parallel” to the Major scale).
See this example below to clarify.
C Major Key
Major Interval Formula
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Chords
I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, viio
Cmaj, Dmin, Emin, Fmaj, Gmaj, Amin, Bdim
Relative Minor of C Major Key (i.e. A Minor)
Minor Interval Formula
1, 2, ♭3, 4, 5, ♭6, ♭7
Chords
i, iio, ♭III, iv, v, ♭VI, ♭VII
Amin, Bdim, Cmaj, Dmin, Emin, Fmaj, Gmaj
Parallel C Minor Key
Minor Interval Formula
1, 2, ♭3, 4, 5, ♭6, ♭7
Chords
i, iio, ♭III, iv, v, ♭VI, ♭VII
Cmin, Ddim, E♭maj, Fmin, Gmin, A♭maj, B♭maj
Notice how the Relative Minor (A Minor scale) has the same chords as the C Major key. They are the same except the Relative Minor starts on the A instead of the C.
Notice how the Parallel Minor plays the Minor scale interval pattern but starting it on the C note as the Root. As a consequence, the chords are different from C Major.
If you are interested in reading more about this check out this article dedicated entirely to explaining the difference between Relative and Parallel Modes: Defining Parallel VS. Relative Modes
Wrapping it up
Remember, you want to borrow only a chord or two though because if you borrow too many chords then it’s going to start sounding like the song is in the key you’re borrowing from instead of the original key you wanted your song to be in.
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