What to call chords whose quality is altered but retain same root note

music theory
1

I’m confused with with what to call a chord whose quality is altered but still has the normal root note. I’ve seen this pop up several times in popular music.

Example: “Hooked on a Feeling” by Blue Swede is in the key of A-Flat Major and uses the following chord progression: Ab - Eb - Ab - Ab7 - Db - dbm - Ab - Eb

In roman numerals this would look like I - V - I - Ib7 - IV - iv - I - V.

What I’m confused about is the D-Flat minor chord. This chord I borrowed from the minor mode because I needed an F-flat to produce the minor quality. The problem is I don’t know what to call this in terms of roman numerals. I can’t say D-Flat minor is the “four” chord because D-Flat Major is the “four”. Should I say “minor four chord”, or “four chord with minor third”?

This problem arises again with major chords borrowed from other modes. “I Found A Way” (Drake and Josh Theme) is in the key of E-Flat Major and the chord progression of the chorus goes like this: Eb - F - Ab - abm. Roman numerals looks like this: I - II - IV - iv. Again, the “minor four” iv chord pops up, but as well we have an F-major chord. The person analyzing the tab could of put V/V and it still be the same chord but instead put II. The “two” chord in the major mode is usually minor, so what do we call a chord in a case like this? Should I say the “major two” chord, or the “two chord with major third”? This problem mostly happens with the III chord (also written as V/vi depending on context).

I’ll make a chart to show what happens when I try to borrow a chord from the minor mode.
Chord in C Major Borrowed from C Minor What I Say
C - I cm - i ?
dm - ii ddim - iidim ?
em - iii Eb - bIII “Flat Three”
F - IV fm - iv ?
G - V gm - v ?
am - vi Ab - bVI “Flat Six”
bdim - viidim Bb - bVII “Flat Seven”

Please help and comment. Thank you.

2

i is the “minor tonic” in a key with a major third.
ii is the “supertonic”, II is the “major supertonic”, iio is the “diminished supertonic”.
iv is the “minor submediant”.
v is the “minor five”.

In a major key, ♭III is the “chromatic mediant”, ♭VI is the “chromatic submediant”, ♭VII is the “subtonic”.
In a minor key, ♯iii is the “raised mediant”, ♯vi is the “raised submediant”.

V/vi is called “applied dominant of six”, “dominant of six”, or even just “five of fix”. The first two namings remain the same for other types of applied chords, for example “applied leading-tone of five” or “subdominant of four”.
III is called “major mediant”. Basically, the chord quality can be added before the chord’s name where borrowing occurs. There is no “major mediant” in a minor key; “minor mediant” then refers to iii, e.g. Cm in A Minor.

Except v and the applied chords, plain Roman numerals are seldom called by their numeral scale degrees.

V/V cannot be used to replace the II chord in the example above because V/V must be dominant relative to the target chord but there is no V after the chord that supports this notation. However, V7/IV - IV may replace I♭7 - IV. (V/V - IV/5 works as V/V - V11no3no5, but that’s another story)

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