Let’s Play Music #19
Reharmonization Techniques
Taking the Road Less Traveled
Remixes, cover songs, and versions are ways to describe songs that have been written and then transformed into something similar. There are many popular songs out there with different versions or remixes such as “Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye and “Cold Heart” by Elton John and Dua Lipa.
When we think about remixing or a new version of a song, we are stepping into the realm of reharmonization. This process has been around for a long time and can be highlighted by the seemly endless list of versions of “Autumn Leaves”. Some great versions of this popular jazz standard include the original version titled “Les Feulles Mortes” or “The Dead Leaves” by Joseph Kosma and Jacques Prévert in 1946, “Autumn Leaves” by John Coltrane, and one of my favorites: “Autumn Leaves” by the Beegie Adair Trio.
Reharmonization can be thought of as, “finding a new path for a musical story”.
The path we take can be anything from “a quick step off the beaten path” to “going a completely different direction.” To make sense of the musical paths we will be working with the song, “House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals. This song debuted in 1964 and is one of those timeless pieces that is worth checking out.
There are plenty of “levels of reharmonization” guides out there that take you to the Nth degree with chords like “Bm7 #5 / E”. I feel that it’s important to see where you can go musically before just slapping on new chords. This way you can understand what tools are available for reharmonization rather than focusing on “levels”. We’ll be using concepts and techniques discussed in my “Let’s Play Music” series, so if you want to go back and review something please check out my archived articles.
Analyzing The Main Progression
We’ll be working with sixteen bars that we can play with the song to get a good idea of how the reharmonization works. At first glance you may think that this is a classic example of A Natural Minor. With the melody that is sung we can hear A Natural Minor, but the chords themselves are a bit deceiving. Let’s check them out along with the chords of A Natural Minor.
The chords Am, C, and F all fit perfectly. E7 is the Secondary Dominant of Am and is a normal chord to borrow in a minor context. The only chord left to figure out is D. A great place to start looking for a D major chord is to ask ourselves, “What mode are we using?” A Natural Minor is another name for A Aeolian which is found at the top of the Circle of Fifths.
Next to A Aeolian are A Dorian from the key of G and A Phrygian from the key of F. To turn the Dm chord into a D major chord we need to raise the third degree note. Dm is D-F-A and an F# note can be found in the key of G. So, the D chord is a modulation from A Aeolian to A Dorian. Or is it?
Thinking Outside The Box
What if the song is actually in A Dorian? Am, C, and D are all chords found in A Dorian. E7 is still the Secondary Dominant of Am and E comes along with E7. Now the F chord is the borrowed chord. We can play our sixteen bars as an A Dorian tune and use the note F# in every bar except for when we play F, E, or E7. When we play F, we modulate to notes in A Aeolian. When we play E and E7 we are going to E Phrygian Major (E, F, G#, A, B, C, D) because the Secondary Dominant of a minor chord can always be derived from Phrygian Major to resolve to a minor tonic.
Now to be honest, this is not how the song is played. The original version is A Aeolian with a modulation to D and borrowed chords of E and E7. But we are reharmonizing and finding new ways to play the same song, so why not play it as A Dorian? In fact, why not play it as A Phrygian as well? Am, C, and F are all in A Phrygian. E and E7 are still borrowed because we are in a minor mode. The D chord is the only thing to figure out. Instead of modulating why not use Dm? It’s part of A Phrygian, so let’s go big or go home and use it.
Check out the audio example below that will use A Aeolian, A Dorian, and then A Phrygian so you can get a feel for reharmonizing within three minor modes. Pay attention to the changes to A Aeolian shown in red, which will be used to highlight chords from Dorian and Phrygian. There will also be some green highlights for additional borrows from the key of Bb, which neighbors the key of F.
Exploring Possibilities
We’ve already reharmonized this song quite a bit by using neighboring keys and borrowed chords. The E7 chord that matches with Phrygian Major uses the Harmonic Minor Scale, so why not use more Harmonic Minor sounds to alter the song further? A Harmonic Minor adds in a leading tone of G#, which can be applied to chords like F to create Fm.
In the next audio example, everything will be in A Aeolian again but with some new reharmonizations. Blue chords are also from A Aeolian to help move this example melodically. In bar 3 Dm is used because A Aeolian’s fourth mode is D Dorian. Bar 3 is completed with D°, which matches with D Dorian #4 so only one note is changed in bar 3, which is G to G#.
Bar 12 uses the chord F6 because it uses the note D, which is A’s fourth degree note. Using the note D makes the F chord function as a Pre-Dominant chord as we ease back to the Tonic chord of Am in bar 13.
The green chords are both from A Aeolian, which is where the song’s D chord comes from. Bar 11 uses two modes of A Aeolian (D Mixolydian and F# Locrian) to bring in some tension with the note F#. F# is walked down a half-step to F to become the root note of the F6 chord in bar 12.
The red chords are all from A Harmonic Minor and are used to drastically change the mood of the song. In bars 6, 7, and 8 we see that C (C-E-G) becomes C+ (C-E-G#), which is then inverted into E+ (E-G#-C), before settling into E7 (E-G#-B-D). Going from E+ to E7 let’s the C note in E+ move down to B and up to D at the same time. Think of it like having two voices singing the exact same C note, but one moves down to B while the other moves up to D.
Modulating by a Minor Third
Every key has a Major and Minor tonal center. At the top of the Circle of Fifths we have C Major and A Minor. These tonal centers can also be thought of as C Ionian and A Aeolian, which are a pair or relative modes. We can also go to parallel modes to borrow chords that do not belong to the key we are in. This means that when we use C Ionian we can borrow chords from C Aeolian. Conversely, we can play chords from A Aeolian and borrow from A Ionian.
But these borrows come from the opposite mode: Ionian or Aeolian. If we think about keys as having two tonal centers of major and minor at the same time, then we can draw out major and minor context.
The way we do this is to start with a mode, like C Ionian. We then (1) go the parallel paired mode and (2) move to the relative paired mode. So, C Ionian first becomes C Aeolian because it is our paired parallel mode. Next, we go from C Aeolian to Eb Ionian because they are paired relative modes.
We can do the same with A Aeolian by moving to A Ionian as these are the two paired parallel modes. Then we go from A Ionian to F# Aeolian as they are paired relative modes. Let’s look at this on the Circle of Fifths.
The reason for why we take these two steps isn’t obvious until we use it in a practical sense. So let’s look at the end result and what it does for us.
With the above chart we can play C Ionian chords and use a progression like F, Dm, G7, C, F, Dm, G7, C. This can be thought of as IV, ii, V7, I twice by using roman numeral analysis. Now let’s move to our tonic chord of C and use Eb Ionian’s functionality. Playing a progression like F, Dm, G7, C, Ab, Fm, Bb7, C uses C Ionian’s IV, ii, V7, and I chords. Then it uses Eb Ionian’s IV, ii, and V7 chords before returning to the original tonic of C Ionian.
This is the technical way of doing this, so to make it as simple as possible you can think of taking any chord in a major key up / ascending by a minor third: C becomes Eb, D becomes F, and so on. In a minor key we descend by a minor third. This takes A down to F#, B down to G#, C down to A, etc.
In this way we can also have a minor chord progression like Am, G, F, Em, Am and think of it as i, bVII, bVI, v, i. We’ll leave the tonic chord of Am alone since that is our true tonal center. Then we can look to F# Aeolian and use its bVII, bVI, and v chords to turn the progression into Am, E, D, C#m, Am.
Borrowing chords in this way will use a completely different tonality while retaining the roman numeral chord function. Next time you play a ii7, V7, I as Dm, G7, C be sure to try it as Fm7, Bb7, C and listen to the ii7 and V7 from another key moving to your original tonic of C.
Practicing the Premise of Reharmonization
The whole idea of reharmonization is “finding a new path for a musical story.” Each time we’ve retold the story of the “House of the Rising Sun” there have been similar yet very different paths taken. We’ve touched neighboring keys, borrowed chords for function, used chords to alter the function, and even used multiple scales with their own modes.
To practice this concept, you should take a song or progression that you enjoy. This can be a few chords, a form like the 12-bar blues, or a whole song. You may want to try all three of these out. Just keep the final tonic chord intact so that you are always moving to the same “end” of “the story”.
As you do this, make sure to write it out and leave some space for modifications. You might also want to use multiple colored pencils or pens. This way you can write out the original piece in black, modify it with red, and then use another color like green to change things further. As you come back to your work, you’ll be able to see your though process in color and then decide what you like or don’t like.
Focus on what you like and look at things like the scale/mode used, chord voicings like F6 instead of plain old F, the 4th and 7th degrees for functional harmony, V7/I and V7/i relationships, leading tones, and options for voice leading. You don’t have to do all these things, but being aware of your options can help you to find the reharmonizations you want.
I’ve included some ideas to help you out. Each of the examples below will have the chords, roman numeral analysis, function, key(s), and modes listed. I’ll then tell you what other key(s) or modes to try, but it is up to you to decide what works. If something sounds great, then take note. This will be a new tool for you to use from now on. If something does not work, then look for the note or notes that are causing the conflict that you hear and try to use them in other ways. You could use them as passing tones for voice leading or as part of some tension in a melodic line.
Please leave any questions you have in the comments. I’ll be happy to help you out. Thanks for reading and have fun reharmonizing.
