easy guide to songwriting
#12 Chromatic mediants
Sprinkle a little magic, wonder and even soul into your chord progressions with this neat music theory device…
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Download the accompanying video and the MIDI/audio files at filesilo.co.uk/computermusic
> The term ‘chromatic mediants’ probably isn’t something you’ll have come across very often in your songwriting pursuits, but working these mysterious creatures into progressions can be a useful way to expand your palette of chords beyond the realms of your regular, day-to-day diatonic triads.
So what is a chromatic mediant anyway? In music theory, diatonic means ‘in the key’, while chromatic means ‘not in the key’. So if you have the scale of C major, which contains the notes C, D, E, F, G, A and B, those notes are all diatonic to the key of C major. Something like a G# note, however, is not in the key of C major, so in this context G# is described as chromatic. The same thing goes for chords – when in the key of C major, F major, for example, is a diatonic chord as it belongs to the key, but Ab major, say, is a chromatic chord because it does not belong to the key of C major.