I’ve been composing for about eight months, basically since I joined Hooktheory. This site cracked open what had always been a closed box.
Last week my singer sent me a little iPhone-recorded melody, which I set about to harmonize in Hookpad. It was in Bb minor harmonic, which we doesn’t seem available, but I could use a chromatic for the A natural.
It turned out that my favored opening chord choice was a borrowed diminished A, which came in with the rainbow ‘borrowed’ stripes. But when I chose the first inversion in order to have a C in the bass, the stripes were replaced by the pink that indicates the second.
I’d like to know why this happens, but I haven’t a clue what terms to look up. Well, sure, the bass note is the second, but how does inverting the very same notes result in a lowering of complexity?
Also, what key am I actually in now, Bb minor harmonic? Or has my opening chord made this ambiguous? The progression in in the attached image.
