IV Minor (Plagal Minor)

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The cadence of IV - I (also known as the Plagal Cadence) is a very common way of resolving to I.

F C

& c www ww
w

?c w w

Chord IV naturally wants to resolve to chord I, but we can strengthen the need to resolve even further
by giving chord IV a minor 3rd.

In this case, the Ab (3rd of Fm) has a much greater need to resolve to G (5th of CMaj)
F F m6 C

& ˙˙˙ b ˙˙
˙
ww
w

?˙ ˙ w

At this stage, I always like to point out that the concept of IV minor in the Major key does not have
anything to do with chord iv in Minor Harmony.

From around the 1950s onwards, many jazz musicians began to substitute the IV minor chord with
a bVII lydian dominant chord (the parent scale of which is melodic minor, based on the minor IV
chord - in this case, F melodic minor).

You can see that the Fm6 and Bb9(#11) chords share three of the same notes and basically sound the
same in the context of the progression. The upper structure essentially stays the same and the interest is
created by the change in root movement.
( )
B b 9 #11
w ww
F C Maj7

& www b ww
w ww

bw w
?w w

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 IV Minor (Plagal Minor)
2

As you can see below, the melodic minor option also serves us well when playing over the backdoor
progression

B b7
w œ œ œ œ
C Maj7 F m6 C Maj9

& ww œ œ bœ bœ www
F melodic minor

?w ˙ b˙ w
w

The Melodic Minor option also gives us these options in the major key.
In this example we see the F melodic minor scale being 'layered' over C Major with the following results.

ii III7alt iv V7sus(b9) VII7

F Melodic Minor Dm7(b5) E7alt Fm G7sus(b9) Bb7(#11)

C Ionian CMaj7 Dm7 Em7 FMaj7 G7 Am7 Bm7(b5)

Here are some examples of iv minor chords popping up in Major key progressions (iv minor chords in bold)
All examples are in the key of C Major

CMaj7 - E7alt - Am7 - Dm7 - G7

C - Fm(Maj7) - Bb13(#11) - CMaj7

G7sus(b9) - G7 - CMaj7

FMaj7 - Fm6 - Bb7(#11) CMaj7

Dm7(b5) - G7sus(b9) - G7 - CMaj7