Why does an Fmaj7 chord sound good in the context of a progression in D major?

Question

I was fooling around in D major earlier and discovered something odd. I was playing this progression:

Dmaj7 (I) -> Gmaj7 (IV) -> F#min7 (iii)

Something led me to then play an Fmaj7, and it sounded really good in the context of the chord progression (at least to me), especially when followed by an Emin7. So the total progression is:

Dmaj7 (I) -> Gmaj7 (IV) -> F#min7 (iii) -> Fmaj7 (?) -> Emin7 (ii).

What exactly did I stumble upon here and why does it sound good even though Fmaj7 is not in the D major key? Some kind of chromatic walk-down?

Answer 1

There are already some short answers, I'll try a longer one.

You'd like to understand what happened. If you can do the following:

• (1) deal with or operate in the situation adequately
• (2) locate or recreate the situation at will
• (3) identify similar situations in other contexts
• (4) maybe even communicate and describe the situation to others

... then you "understand" the situation. (My own definition from the top of my head.) From what I can tell, you're not far from "understanding" the Fmaj7 chord in a D major context. You're able to recreate it, place it in a context ("locate" it), and even describe it to others! A lot of musicians would be perfectly happy with such a good level of understanding, and ask no further questions. :) But not you - you want more?

I guess what you're missing is somehow dealing with it, operating when the Fmaj7 chord is playing. For example, play other notes, solo or create melodies over it, meaning that you want to find notes and scales that would naturally fit over the chord. Maybe you tried using notes from the D major scale and it didn't really work? Or maybe you want to find similar patterns, examples of a similar phenomenon on a more abstract level, and that's why modal interchange was suggested. I agree, you can look at it as modal interchange.

Let's list a few "strategies" for finding things to play over the Fmaj7 chord.

• Do not try to find any scales. At least the chord notes work! I guess this is what Laurence suggested. You don't have to find a scale for every chord. But since you came here and asked the question, I guess you're not happy with that solution.
• Find a scale by holding the Fmaj7 chord and singing. I tried it without thinking and sang a D Dorian scale over it. Many musicians would be perfectly happy having found a scale to play over the chord. But you want more? You ask where did that come from, and what other alternatives are there?
• Try to explicate a scale by adding extensions to the chord in question. You have Fmaj7. Add a 9th, an 11th, and a 13th ... when you have the 13th, you have a full scale. Which ones did you add? Myself (and this is subjective) starting from F, A, C, E, ... 9th:G, 11th:B, 13th:D. I tried to add a Bb as the 11th (which would be in an F11 chord), but it sounded wrong for this progression. When I added B natural as the 11th, it sounded right for this context. This is in agreement with the D Dorian scale I sang: D, E, F, G, A, B, C are all in the extended chord.
• Try to identify chord roles and possible roles, including possible new tonics (modulation targets) when the Fmaj7 is sounding. Forget the D major context for a second. Play Fmaj7 - Em7 - Ebmaj7 - Dm7 - Dbmaj7 - Cm7 - Bmaj7 - Bbm7 - Amaj7 - G#m7 - Gmaj7 - F#m7 - ... and start over. Endless descending loop stepping through keys. Could the F#m7 - Fmaj7 utilize the same phenomenon as whatever it is that's happening in that long chain? So in other words, does the in-between chord Fmaj7 open up possibilities for a modulation to somewhere? (That's actually the same or similar thing as what happens in modal interchange) Where to? How about F#m7 - Fmaj7 - Emaj7? That would make E major the tonic, wouldn't it. Is that a similar chord step as in your example?
• Find other songs that have the same kind of progression and see what other people do over it. This is unfortunately not easy, if you haven't played a lot of music. That's why you should play a lot of music! Play jazz, soul, bossa nova, anything you can find that has interesting harmony. Look at what's happening - you automatically absorb harmonic patterns, even though you couldn't completely analyze them.

Answer 2

...Some kind of chromatic walk-down?

I think so.

Depends on the voicings and what you're reacting to that sounds "good."

I played...

xx0222
320002
2x2220
1x2210
020000

...to get a lot of half step movement.

In some cases you might call Fmaj in the key of D major borrowed or even a chromatic mediant depending on how it is used. Alternating D major and Fmaj would be typical chromatic mediant move.

But in your progression you play the diatonic mediant F#m first then the Fmaj goes between it and the Em. Filling in the whole step between F# and E in that way you probably want to just call it a chromatic passing chord.

Regard the comment from @user1079505, I don't think borrowed harmony/modal interchange makes sense here. For that kind of thing the borrowed chord should function according to its function in the borrowed parallel key. In this case the chord is the mediant (iii or bIII). The mediant is already a tonally "weak" chord so it could be hard to say what it's function should be, but probably it would be moving to the submediant vi/bVI or acting as some type of tonic by some theory. Moving to ii (Em) doesn't really fulfill those types of functions. So, probably best not to invoke a borrowed/modal interchange analysis.

Answer 3

Seems to me the underlying scale under the Fmaj7 chord here is C major,

because this only changes 2 notes from the D major scale, C and F :

(C#) D E F# G A B C# (D)    (D major)
(C ) D E F  G A B C  (D)   (C major, D dorian)

This way you modulate from D major to D dorian

this gives your progression quite a good mood, coloring the major tone temporarily to a dorian mood.

Answer 4

Yes, it's a chromatic walkdown, and F major 7 is ♭III7, borrowed from the parallel minor. It's difficult to stick a functional label on that chord, but it's certainly valid to view the flattened third scale degree as leading to the second.

Answer 5

Yes, a chromatic walk-down. And that's a full and sufficient justification.

Always remember, the diatonic notes are a framework, not a restriction. And not every chord demands a scale.