'phdm' chord meaning

[tombeatz]

Hello everyone
I’m just studying the song ‘needy’ from Ariana Grande on the theory tab ( can be seen here : needy by Ariana Grande Chords, Melody, and Music Theory Analysis - Hooktheory ) .
the song has a really interesting chord progression. As you can see on the screen shot that i joined, the second chord seems to be what i call an altered chord but i don’t understand how it is caracterised here with the name ‘phdm’.
At first i thought it was for the phrygian dominant but the 4 of the phrygian dominant is not the same chord.

Same for the first chord, what ‘bor’ meaning ? ‘borrowed’ ?

Thank you in advance !

[chicknz]

it does means Phrygian Dominant.
Yes, “bor” means borrowed.

The chord is just a G/Ab but since there is no way to put that into hookpad they have to use a confusing notation or something idk

[dnuttle]

Yeah the only way I see a Phrygian dominant is based on G. This kind of bizarre notation is making me lean away from buying Hookpad. I’ve been studying the books, and although I don’t always agree with them, they’re useful. This is an example, to my mind, of very much not useful.

[tombeatz]

hello everyone !
Thanks for your answers !
@chicknz , for me, its not a G/Ab , when you see the note of the chord use it is g# b d g. for me its an alteration ( moving one or two of the tone chord from a semitone) of the 4 , it is verry common on rnb track is gives a that ’ sexy feeling ’ i think .
Even considered in phrygian dominant mode, it is a mistake because there is no ‘D’ in Eb phrygian dominant ( D#, E, G, G#, A#, B4, C#, D#).

@dnuttle , yes sometimes hookpad just don’t know how to threat certain chords… certainly because their creator don’t know either. It’s like A.I.
But i love hook pad to quickly analyse a chord progression or a melodie that’s fantastic.

[dnuttle]

Disclaimer: I am not a music theorist, and they won’t even let me play one on TV.

Phrygian dominant is the fifth mode of the harmonic minor scale. So G Phrygian dominant is the fifth mode of the C harmonic minor scale. C minor is the relative minor of Eb major. So at this point in the song, it appears to me to be in the fifth mode of the relative harmonic minor. (I don’t even know if “relative harmonic minor” is considered to be a thing.) This G7b9 (which is what I consider it) is the secondary dominant of C minor. So it leads very nicely to a C minor. The Bb of the underlying C minor (or Eb major) scale is raised to a B for this chord, to make it a G dominant chord, which resolves better than a minor 7. And hence, the reason that we’re in the fifth mode of the harmonic minor here. But it doesn’t resolve to a C minor, instead it goes back to Ebmaj7. However, that chord does share Eb, G and Bb with a Cmin7 chord, and the D in the Ebmaj7 chord is a 9 in Cmin7, so you might say they’re interchangeable.

It is not uncommon for a song to bump into the fifth mode of a harmonic minor scale only to allow what would be a min7 v chord resolve to a i chord. All it really does is raise the minor third of the v chord, making it a V chord.

If you’re interested in this, my suggestion is to make a habit of practicing all secondary dominants, from V7 chords to either I or i chords. It has helped me a lot. Even if they still ban me from my rightful role as a phony-baloney TV music theorist.

tl;dr: “Yada yada, and then a miracle occurs.”

[neurozero]

This progression is a modification of the common IV iv I cadence.

As @tombeatz says, the ivᵒ♯7 it is a modification of the iv chord. Flatting the fifth adds the leading tone of the scale, causing it to sound more dominant than iv. The ♯7 is a pedal tone that occurs throughout the composition.

♯ivᶱ7 is a IV with a raised root and a dominant seventh. The dominant seventh is just that pedal tone again, but the raised root I like to think of as a suspension, even though it is not the third. V7/IV makes us expect a IV, which is almost what we get - just with a suspended root, and even though the following chord still isn’t a IV, the root does resolve when it drops the semitone.

EDIT: I didn’t understand what @dnuttle meant at first, but I get it now and it is a good insight: If we ignore the ♭9 from ivᵒ♯7, what remains is just III, aka V/vi. Even though the next chord is I7 instead of vi, it still works because they are relatives and share most of their notes.

It is a creative progression, combining the IV iv I cadence with this suspended root thing, as it results in the perception of constantly falling notes but with lots of forward momentum.

More on the suspended root thing:

It is pretty common to raise the root and even other notes of a chord as sort of a suspended passing chord that then resolves. If there is a term for this, please let me know! I think of them as sort of extended suspensions. Here are some other examples:

It's a Jungle Out There by Randy Newman Chords, Melody, and Music Theory Analysis - Hooktheory :
V7/V iiᶱ43 V7 and V7 vᶱ43 V7/IV

Alone Again (Naturally) by Gilbert O'Sullivan Chords, Melody, and Music Theory Analysis - Hooktheory :
v7 iiiᶱ43 V7/ii

Dream A Little Dream Of Me by Doris Day Chords, Melody, and Music Theory Analysis - Hooktheory :
V7/ii iiiᶱ43 V7/ii

Even raising every note in a chord sort of sounds like a suspension; try I V7/V ♭VI7 V I.

As for the notation of the two borrowed chords:

The one just labeled (bor) is actually a lydian ivᶱ7 and could be labeled (lyd). Some half diminished chords (specifically ♭iiᶱ7 and ♭viᶱ7) are unreachable in Hookpad, but this isn’t one of them.

The chord from phrygian dominant is kind of an anomaly in that it may be one of the only two diminished chords with a ♯7 reachable in Hookpad. Only the harmonic minor and phrygian dominant scales have a minor major seventh that can be modified with a ♭5 to make a ᵒ♯7, so the fact this chord is even possible to enter into Hookpad is kind of a fluke. If I’m wrong and someone thinks of another way to write more of their transpositions, I’d love to see it.

EDIT: I originally wrote there was only one ᵒ♯7 chord available because I forgot the harmonic minor scale was an option in Hookpad.

[HertzDevil]

The E♭♭ would coexist with the E♭ in that chord-scale, so IMO it could have been an actual D and the chord would have been A♭mM7(♯11) instead. The Hookpad voicing stays the same since it would omit the perfect fifth here.