More modes, but sometimes secondary dominants instead

[jaytee32]

The analysis I did (with some of your help) of the Nashville song (see https://www.tdpri.com/threads/song-seems-to-be-in-multiple-keys-at-the-same-time.1123880/) seems to have cracked open the musical heavens for me.

I’m working on a Jim Lauderdale song, “Blue Moon Junction”, to perform at a festival next month. The song is in G, but there’s this funny F chord in it. Looking more closely, the verse is just back and forth between I and ii (G and Am), and then the verse goes I - IV - bVII - I. Looking at my table of Diatonic Modal Chords, all these work with the Mixolydian mode.

There’s a bridge part in that song though, that starts off with the iii (Bm) chord, like

iiii - ii - IV - V7 - iii - ii - IV - V7

These are all straight E major (Ionian) chords. My conclusion: for me it works that this is a E-Mixolydian “character” song that switches to E-Ionian character for the bridge. The table I have shows that in the order “brightest to darkest” modes, Ionian and Mixolydian are right next to each other so it’s not a jarring jump.

Later, I had Deana Carter’s “Southern Way of Life” on and the song “I Barely Knew” came on. I picked up a guitar to play along, and I thought the same Mixolydian thing was going on, because that bVII chord (Eb in this case) was in this one too. Looking more closely, I don’t think so, because it’s not like there are sections that are “all Mixolydian” or “all Ionian” or whatever - it’s all F major (Ionian) except for two chords : the vm chord shows up in one place, and that bVII chord shows up in a few places.

Reading up on various stuff, I stumbled upon something I didn’t know yet about secondary dominants. Secondary dominants are most commonly based on the resolution V -> I, so like the F# -> B in an E blues. This is called a “full cadence”. There is also a “plagal cadence” that resolves IV -> I (like the “amen” in church). You can also make secondary dominants on this, so

IV/IV -> IV -> I

which is what that Eb -> Bb -> F is doing in “I Barely Knew”. And every time that Eb shows up, the next chord is always the Bb. After seeing that, I noticed that there is a whole lot of the IV -> I motion in that song. The other weird chord that shows up, in the chorus, is the Cm (vm) chord, which precedes the Bb (IV) chord. This could also be explained by being a secondary dominant, the iim of the Bb is Cm. So

F -> Cm -> Bb -> F

can be written as

I -> iim/IV -> IV -> I

Conclusion, for me, the song is in “normal” F major, with a lot of IV -> I motion, and in a couple of places this motion is preceded by a secondary dominant, i.e.

IV/IV -> IV -> I

and

iim/IV -> IV -> I

So modes are great and show up all over the place, but not every nondiatonic chord means a change of mode. My theory book even says “Any nondiatonic dominant seventh or major chord should be suspected as guilty of being a secondary dominant until proven innocent”.

 

[swarfrat]

I've been learning about secondary dominants lately too. Right now I've got a new hammer. But they show up in a ton of places.

 

[ndcaster]

So modes are great and show up all over the place, but not every nondiatonic chord means a change of mode. My theory book even says “Any nondiatonic dominant seventh or major chord should be suspected as guilty of being a secondary dominant until proven innocent”.

the fu grows stronger

these terms can be helpful, but it goes without saying that it's their emotional effects, and perhaps their relationships to lyrical drifts/directions, that are even more important

sooner or later, at least in Diatonic World, things either "prolong tonic harmony" or are part of "pre-dominant or dominant harmony," some way, some how

apart from modulation, of course

 

[Lynxtrap]

I’m working on a Jim Lauderdale song, “Blue Moon Junction”, to perform at a festival next month. The song is in G, but there’s this funny F chord in it. Looking more closely, the verse is just back and forth between I and ii (G and Am), and then the verse goes I - IV - bVII - I. Looking at my table of Diatonic Modal Chords, all these work with the Mixolydian mode.

There’s a bridge part in that song though, that starts off with the iii (Bm) chord, like

iiii - ii - IV - V7 - iii - ii - IV - V7

These are all straight E major (Ionian) chords. My conclusion: for me it works that this is a E-Mixolydian “character” song that switches to E-Ionian character for the bridge. The table I have shows that in the order “brightest to darkest” modes, Ionian and Mixolydian are right next to each other so it’s not a jarring jump.

I guess you mean G, not E?
The vocal melody avoids the 7th (F or F#) in the verses, so there is no real clue from that to determine if it is Ioninan or Mixolydian.

In a case like that you might actually need to use your ears(!) to determine the tonality/mode.

You could try to play along to the verse using both Gmaj7 and G7 as the I chord. The one that sounds better gives you the answer.
You could also try to improvise over the verse using both G Mixolydian and Ionian to see which one seems to suit the song better.
Or simply sing/sustain an F note and then an F# over the verse. One will probably seem more out of place than the other.

 

[jaytee32]

I guess you mean G, not E?

Yes! Capo three, I forgot to factor that in

Thanks for the suggestions!