Chords -- which one to pick??

Question

I am writing out the piano accompaniment for "I Believe I can Fly" and have come to a question on which chord to choose. It is in the original key of C Major. In the chorus, there is a borrowed chord that appears twice with these notes: Ab in bass and in the right hand F, D, C, Ab (starting at top going down). Should this be labeled as Fm6 or Dm7(b5)/Ab? The notes in these two chords are the same and I don't know how to decide which would be correct?

Answer 1

It makes more sense to call it Fm6, or Fm6/Ab. It's a very common move in pop music to use a minor iv chord in a major key like this, especially in the chorus of the song. The chord of F minor is the iv of C minor, so you are borrowing from the "parallel key".

It also helps when you're notating or figuring out more complicated chords to listen for what sounds like a chord tone, and what might be an extension. It's hard for me to hear that chord as a ii with its own tritone as the bass note- it makes much more sense, sonically, for that to be a borrowed minor iv with its minor third as the bass.

Try to play the chords without the extensions and see which feels more "right"- to me, playing an f minor triad (F-Ab-C) preserves more of the feel of the song than a D minor (D-F-A) at that moment, so it makes more sense for it to be the former. Much less of a notating pain, as well! Hope that helps.