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I've heard this progression many times and in many ways over the course of my life, but I can't seem to assign a name to it or find out any further information about it or its history. It goes as follows:

ii (3 times) - ii6 - ii - ii6 - I

I use it with Am, Am6 and G major and it seems to have a triumphal and/or conclusive nature to it.

Any help would be appreciated.

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    What is the question? By the way, note that ii6 is V9 without a root.
    – user1079505
    Nov 1 at 4:37
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    This feels like kind of a relative of the "Hollywood cadence".
    – Andy Bonner
    Nov 1 at 12:14
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    ii6, meaning a triad ii6/3, is not the same as Am6, a minor triad with added M6. Makes a difference, because the later has a tritone, but, the former does not.
    – Michael Curtis
    Nov 2 at 20:29

1 Answer 1

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Minor chords with inner movement within the harmony are very common in different styles of music. They may have a specific name or history, I can’t recall offhand. When a chord progression works it tends to get used by many different artists, possibly with variations, and sounds familiar to us.

The reason Am to Am6 to G has the triumphant and conclusive nature you described is very simple. Those 3 chords basically function in a very similar way to a ii-V7-I, a subdominant-dominant-tonic resolution. After the Am you have an Am6, which is basically a D7 with an E instead of a D in the chord (or a rootless D9/A). It also is the first inversion of F#m7b5, which is a viio chord, another dominant chord in G major. That chord has most of the defining elements you need for a V7-I resolution, which is the F#-C tritone resolving inward to the G-B root and third of the I chord. The only thing it lacks is the descending 5th movement from D-G in the bass.

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    Bonus points if you respell Am6 as F#m7b5/A (F# half-diminished 7th).
    – Dekkadeci
    Nov 1 at 5:55
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    @Dekkadeci Although enharmonically equivalent, they're not functionally equivalent, and Am6 better expressing the chord's function as "minor with inner movement".
    – Aaron
    Nov 1 at 6:16
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    @Dekkadeci I did not respell it but it does merit mentioning, which I did in paragraph 2.
    – John Belzaguy
    Nov 1 at 6:23
  • @John Belzaguy Thanks for your response. The information on the theory behind the progression is interesting. I'm recently retired and have taken up learning the guitar and theory as a hobby, so I know (at this early point) about the major 6th substitution for the relative minor 7th. I was not aware it also worked for the minor 6th too. The phrase I'm thinking of is so common and used so often that I'm almost certain it has a name. It is very similar (but not exact) to the theme played by the organ in the first three seconds of this song: youtube.com/watch?v=zp8yKwPrzwM
    – Edward Kirby
    Nov 1 at 15:45
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    @EdwardKirby My pleasure. The example in the link very different though, it is a I to a iv6 back to I, in this case, Db-Gbm6-Db. Often progressions don’t actually have names but are sometimes named for the song they are identified with, “I Got Rhythm” changes, “Lollipop” turnaround for I-vi-V-V, etc.
    – John Belzaguy
    Nov 1 at 17:32

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