# borrowing major bVII in harmonic minor?



## johnfkingmatrix

Hi, perhaps im notating title incorrectly.. but, im working on a progression that sounds very baroque.. E, Am, Dm.. ive established that i believe im in the key of A harmonic minor.. however, i found that throwing in a Gmajor has a really nice sound to it, esp when i switch from Dm to G to E, after kind of setting the palate with the naturally occurring harmonic minor chords.. that progression sounds really beautiful to me. when i go from Dm to Gmaj and finally hit the Emaj, it sounds like medieval peasant pushing a cart full of straw.. What is happening here, technically, with the Gmaj? and what kind of rabbit holes does this open up/ where could i go from here, did i switch keys, or something? ? 

thanks !!


----------



## Bwv 1080

VII is used in minor keys, its not a borrowed chord which would be a chord like IV, taken from a major tonality. The minor tonality includes both the natural VII and the raised vii dim chords


----------



## johnfkingmatrix

so i can basically think of it as being in A minor and interchange between all of the chords in A minor / A harmonic minor freely?


----------



## Vasks

If you want a true Medieval sound have the G maj (bVII) move to i (A minor) when coming to a point of stopping (IOW when you cadence)


----------



## Bwv 1080

johnfkingmatrix said:


> so i can basically think of it as being in A minor and interchange between all of the chords in A minor / A harmonic minor freely?


Yes, that is standard common practice


----------



## EdwardBast

johnfkingmatrix said:


> so i can basically think of it as being in A minor and interchange between all of the chords in A minor / A harmonic minor freely?


Yes. Or, stated another way, all of the chords of C major are available.


----------



## millionrainbows

What do you mean, "in" harmonic minor? Somebody else here told me that scales don't determine tonality, and so don't you forget it!


----------

