Dansm's Guitar Chord Theory
Out-of-Key Chords
When Chord Theory Breaks Down
During my background information on keys and in subsequent discussions of minor keys and complete chord theory for keys, I explained what chords go into each key. This chord theory for keys holds in most situations. However, as for all rules, these guidelines are sometimes broken. In fact, an out-of-key chord thrown into an otherwise normal progression can give fire and life to a song which wouldn't have it otherwise. Therefore, I encourage you to read this page and try to understand the types of out-of-key chords most often used, and perhaps you'll be able to either understand that song you've been trying to figure out for months or put that finishing touch on a song you've been writing. Remember, rules are made to be broken, and never was that statement more fitting than in music. The purpose of this page is to explain how some of these things work, not to put more rules on theory. Some of the concepts I use come from chord leading theory so make sure you read that page as well.
First we will look at examples of chord progressions from popular music where out-of-key chords appear, and then I'll try to explain how they work in a music theory sense. We'll start with the chorus to the Indigo Girls' Galileo. The chords and lyrics go like this:
    E            B            A
How long till my soul gets it right
    B         E          B                  A       B
Can any human being ever reach that kind of light
              C#m      G#m    F#
I call on the resting soul of Galileo
        A           B        E
King of Night Vision King of Insight
As you can see, the first two lines are clearly in the key of E, so we can guess that the chorus is in the key of E and translate the chorus into relative chord notation like this:
    I            V            IV
How long till my soul gets it right
    V         I          V                  IV      V
Can any human being ever reach that kind of light
              vi       iii    II???
I call on the resting soul of Galileo
        IV          V        I
King of Night Vision King of Insight
Every chord in the chorus translated well into the key of E, except the F#. Where in my pages on keys did I ever say that there could be a II chord. The second chord in the key can be minor (ii) in a major key or diminished (iiș) in a minor key, but never major (II) like it seems to be here. And if you listen to the song you can clearly hear how that chord sounds a little different: it has a very driving sound that sends chills up my spine. Obviously it fits very well into the musical sound, but how do we explain that good fit using chord theory?
In order to explain this out-of-key chord, we have to introduce a concept called secondary dominance. You will recall from my chord leading page that the dominant (V) leads strongly to the tonic (I). You can imagine that a secondary dominant (indicated V/V and pronounced five-of-five) would lead strongly to the dominant. If you calculate it, this secondary dominant would appear to be a II chord; which is exactly how the F# chord in the above example appears. So if we re-translate the above example including the V/V we get the following:
    I            V            IV
How long till my soul gets it right
    V         I          V                  IV      V
Can any human being ever reach that kind of light
              vi       iii    V/V
I call on the resting soul of Galileo
        IV          V        I
King of Night Vision King of Insight
You may now say: but you said the V/V should lead to the V. In the above example, the V/V goes to IV. I respond with an argument from two paths. First, the V/V leads to IV which then leads to V, so tension that was introduced with the V/V is continued with the IV and then resolved when we reach the V. Second, as I said above, rules are made to be broken, and this is a perfect example.
Now that we have covered a relatively simple example, we will tackle one more difficult: the pre-chorus from Jim Croce's I Got a Name. It goes as follows:
F#m               G               D
   And I carry it with me like my daddy did
F#                    Bm   E             A
   But I'm living the dream that he kept hid
If you examine the rest of the song, it becomes apparent that the tune is in the key of D. So we can guess that the pre-chorus is in the key of D and translate it into relative chord notation like this:
iii                IV              I
   And I carry it with me like my daddy did
III???                vi   II???         V
   But I'm living the dream that he kept hid
All right, you can now guess where the II comes from, but what is this III that appears? The answer is actually rather complex, so please bear with me, but the bottom line is this: the F# leads to the Bm, which leads to the E, which leads to the A. Now, we'll get into the dirty theory stuff, but never forget that last sentence: it is a cascade of chord leading which guides us to the A.
Let's start to work with the E. In this case the II (E) acts as a secondary dominant to the A; it is a V/V. We also know that B is the fifth of E, so the Bm chord may be functioning as a secondary dominant for E; it is a v/V/V. And, by extension, we know that F# is the fifth of B, so the F# may be functioning as a secondary dominant of Bm; it is a V/v/V/V. Yes, that sounds stupid, and it is, but remember the basic point: each chord leads to the next, setting up tension which is eventually resolved when we get to the A chord. If you play it, you can hear it clearly, and it gives the tune an awesome sound. So the complete chord breakdown of this pre-chorus, in all its technicality, is as follows:
iii                IV              I
   And I carry it with me like my daddy did
V/v/V/V               v/V/V  V/V           V
   But I'm living the dream   that he kept hid

That's it for my lesson on out-of-key chords. I have two final points to make. First, don't necessarily try to explain everything, but try to understand it from the simple sense of what chord leads to what. This will give you a tremendous understanding of what is going on in these songs. Second, please don't feel obligated to follow the music theory rules discussed in these pages on keys. Yes, they are useful, but as we've seen from the above examples, incredible stuff comes out when you systematically break them. Good luck figuring out songs and writing tunes!
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© 1998 Daniel E. Smith.