The Logic of Six-Based Minor for Harmonic Analyses of Popular Music

Harmonic analyses of popular music typically take the minor tonic to be Roman numeral “one.” By nature, this “one-based” approach requires a new numbering scheme when songs shift between relative key centers. Recent scholarship has argued, however, that often involves ambiguity tonalities, as exemplified in “Axis” progression, if not sometimes tonal fusion two keys. I thus argue for utility “six-based” tonic, where is taken scale-degree 6. This six-based approach, common among practitioners seen Nashville number system, avoids forced choice single and it offers consistent way track chord function behavior across shifts After considering these diatonic context on levels both phrase song form, posit three possible together which form “triple-tonic complex” akin Stephenson’s harmonic palettes: major parallel-minor relative-minor system. conclude by how chromatic chords key, such II ".fn_flat('')."VII, correspond their counterparts minor, IV ".fn_flat('')."II, thereby collapsing landscape modes into modal complexes. Overall, paper serves reveal logic minor—why useful, what issues resolves, insights can afford us about syntax music.