I’ve been listening to a couple of songs I really like that use the same harmonic idea, though in different ways – a Vminor chord when your ear expects a Vmajor chord.

Two points about these recordings. They’re both from ‘neo-soul’ artists. And also… they’re both English. To my ears. the use of the Vminor here is a combination of the writing styles of certain ’60s American R&B songs and ’60s Beatles/Merseybeat English songwriting. Both of these streams, though musically quite different, explored the use of minor chords where you expected majors, and vice versa.

Both of these songs use tried and true soul grooves to great effect.

The first song is Duffy’s ‘Mercy’ (Duffy/Booker). What’s going on here is pretty straightforward. Basically it’s a 3 chord blues in ‘G’ major, with variations – some extended and repeated sections.

The sly thing is that when the song goes to the V chord it’s unexpectedly a minor chord – not what the ear expects in what sounds like a major blues. This always seems to tickle my ear in ‘Mercy’. They could’ve easily used a Dmajor chord with the same melody, but that would’ve been much more commonplace. The simple idea of using a Dminor chord instead really makes the song stand out.

“You Know I’m No Good’, written and performed by Amy Winehouse, is a more complex situation. Here are the Verse chords:

||: Dminor | Gminor | A | Dminor :||

I, IV, V chords in the key of Dminor, with only the V chord being major. Nice, but not unusual.

The Pre-Chorus:

|| Gminor | Gminor | E | E | F | F | E | A ||

Here it starts to get interesting. After establishing a minor key in the Verse, she now uses a II chord that’s major (E), and then jumps up to an Fmajor chord; kind of unexpected in this bluesy progression.

But this is something Winehouse was really good at – bringing in surprising chords while staying within the confines of a bluesy melody (she does something similar in ‘Rehab’ when she uses a #5 chord in the Verse). She ends this Pre-Chorus on a conventional Vmajor chord.

The Chorus:

||: Dminor | Aminor | E | Aminor :||

This is where she throws the curveball that this post is all about. Instead of using the Amajor chord she’s used in the rest of the song, she switches it to Aminor for the Chorus – very effective.

I’ve said it before in this blog… Amy Winehouse was an exceptionally good, and underrated, songwriter!

In ‘Mercy’, the Vminor is unexpected because the song sounds like a blues in a major key, so the ear expects a Vmajor. In Winehouse’s song, as discussed above, it’s a surprise because she firmly establishes the Vmajor and then switches up on us.

I suggest listening to and playing through both these songs. They’re good, fun, songs anyway, and their use of the Vminor when the ear expects a major chord is a beautiful thing.

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