Playing Borrowed Chords
This is one area where ChordWalk excels - the option to additionally select chords from Parallel Keys provides an alternative chord selection for each chord of the primary key selection.
This fresh palette of related chords greatly increases and expands the chord choices available to music creators and performers for their chord progression development. It offers the choice to seamlessly select closely related chords that are outside the primary key selection.
Parallel keys work effectively together as they both share the same tonic note, which means that they have the same tonal centre.
Traditionally, in classical and formal music, chords and notes of a composition were restricted to a single musical key or music mode.
Limiting note options to a single key or mode can greatly limit music creativity. Many modern composers have expanded the creative boundaries and introduced chords that include notes that are not contained within a single key.
These chords are called “borrowed chords” as they contain notes that are borrowed temporarily from another key.
ChordWalk allows you to select and display any primary key with its parallel key. The primary triads and seventh chords will be shown on the bottom and middle rows. The parallel key chords are displayed on the top row.
You are now offered an additional three major, three minor and one diminished chord option for your chord progression development.
Parallel key chords allow seamless movement between major/minor and minor/major chords. Alternating selection between the primary and parallel keys selection adds real variety, innovation, contrast, interest, tension and resolution to your chord progressions.
You can also borrow chords from any mode. The related mode chords are displayed on the top row above their primary key chords. Mode chords provide a very broad palette of additional chord choices to allow you to develop exciting and novel chord progressions.
As with the triad and seventh chords, ChordWalk displays, in blue, the individual notes of each selected borrowed chord on the Instrument view. You can play the individual note sounds of the seventh chords or any note display by selecting them on the Keyboard image.