Substitutions


(entry for 1/24/2025)


We’ve talked in the last couple of posts about some of the principles that need to be followed in using the Circle of 5ths and the associated Wedge. As we’ve said before, there are actually no ‘rules’ for harmony, but our ears do expect certain guidelines to be followed. One of these guidelines is that ‘leaping out of the wedge’ sounds OK if that is done cloackwise, say, from G major to B major. Our ear expects us then to ‘walk back’ one step at a time, that is, by having each chord that follows the leap have a root a fifth lower than the leap chord, and then each following chord to have a root a fifth lower than that. To use the example we just invented, G to B, we would then expect that the root of each chord be a fifth lower than the one before: in other words, B, then E, then A, then D, and finally back to G. (If you look at your completed circle from the post on that subject, you’ll see that this is indeed ‘walking back,' one ‘notch at a time.’)

However, in actual practice, there are short-cuts that can be made, which our ear will accept, and which therefore are ‘within the rules,’ as people say. These shortcuts involve something we call Substitutions, and for which the more complete name is ‘Enharmonic Substitutions.’

Egad! What a mouthful! But the meaning is quite simple. An enharmonic substitution is one where a minor chord of the same name is used instead of a major chord. Or vice versa. To make it simple, it’s ‘legal’ to use an e-minor chord when the ‘rules’ specify an E-major one, even though the key signatures of the two chords don't match.

To make the notion make better sense, think of the example we invented above. After leaping from a G major chord to a B major chord, the ‘rule’ says the next chord should be an E major chord, ‘walking back.’ But it’s perfectly OK to use an e-minor chord there, instead.

This creates a ‘short-cut,’ because now we’re suddenly ‘back in the wedge’ without walking all the way back, because the e-minor chord is the vi chord in the wedge for G major. And the vi chord is part of the wedge. There’s a catch, though. When we do this, we need to continue the root movement downward by a fifth in each succeeding chord, till we arrive back in the wedge by walking. If we don’t, we’ve ‘cheated,’ and our ears don’t like it.

So, to continue with our same example, after that e-minor chord, substituting for the E-major we expected, the next chord needs to have a root of A. It could be A major, or we could substitute an a-minor. (If we do the latter, we’re still in the wedge, because A minor is the ii chord in G, and that’s part of the wedge.)

The next chord after the A chord needs to be a D chord of some ilk, and most likely a D major chord, because d-minor is not part of the G major wedge.

Now we’ve come ‘home,’ and can continue with whatever else we were going to do.

So: quiz time: what are those three chords doing at the top of this post? The key signature is three sharps, which is either A major or f-sharp minor. Yet these chords all have some note that the key signature says should be sharp as a natural instead. So, what’s going on?

Answer: these three chords are all substitutes. 

If we’re in the key of A major, then that first chord is an a-minor chord, substituting for the A major. The second chord is a D minor, substituting for the D major which is part of the A major wedge (the IV chord). And the e-minor chord, the third chord in the graphic, is substituting for the E major chord in the wedge (the V chord). All of these substitutions are perfectly ‘legal,’ though we probably wouldn’t use all three in a row like that, as our ears would start wondering what in the heck was going on!

In fact there’s a ‘rule’ for this, too: when we substitute, we shouldn’t do so for two chords in a row. We should have an ‘un-substituted’ chord in between any two substitute chords. This way our ears can keep track of what is actually going on, and our harmony-sense alarm bells won’t be going off.

Let’s go back to last post and think about the song ‘Red Roses for a Blue Lady’ for a second. If we’re playing it in the key of C major, no sharps, no flats, then, as we said last week,’ the chord we hit on the word ‘Blue’ is a B-major chord. We have ‘leaped’ out of the wedge, and gone all the way to five o’clock.’

Since the ‘rules’ require that we now ‘walk back,’ the next chord needs to be some kind of E chord, and in fact, when you play the piece you’ll find that it needs to be E major, to fit the melody. That in turn is followed by an A major chord, as we would expect. However, now something strange happens.

The next chord needs to be D-something. However, it can’t be D major, because there’s an f-natural in the melody, and there’s no f-natural in D major. However, there is an f-natural in d-minor, so that’s what we do. We substitute a d minor chord for the D major that ‘coming back step by step’ would require. And because that’s an Enharmonic Substitution, it’s perfectly legal. (It also brings us back into the C major wedge.)

The song goes ahead and does some other unexpected and interesting things, including doing a V of V sequence at one point, but the point has been made: this isn’t your average song, by any means. Remember that the average easy song is a three-chord song. (I, IV, and V.) ‘Red Roses’ has eight different chords in it! (I believe that to be the most of any popular song, though I could be wrong, and would like to hear about it if I am.) Congratulations to Roy Bennet, who collaborated with lyricist Sid Tepper on the melody and wrote all of the harmony.

All of this brings up an inevitable question: why can’t a D major chord in a C major song be a substitute for a d-minor chord, rather than the V of V (as we described in an earlier post)?

There are two answers:

1. Most substitutions are of minor chords for expected major ones, rather than the other way around, and using a D major chord as a substitute for d minor therefore doesn’t fit the norm. (The one huge exception is when a song is in a minor key. We’ll cover that important topic in the next post.)

2. When we put a D major chord into a C major song, it’s always followed by a G major chord. I mean always. I can’t think of a single exception in any song I know. (And of course I’m extending that to the V of V chord in any key, not just C major.) If the D major chord were merely substituting for a d minor, which is a wedge chord in C major, there’d very likely be at least a few exceptions, and there simply aren’t any. So, what that means is that when we hit a D major chord in a C major song, we’ve left the wedge, and that’s why the next chord has a root that is a fifth lower (the following G chord), as we ‘walk’ back.


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