The Andalusian cadence.

The Andalusian cadence is four chords walking down the minor scale: i – VII – VI – V, in A minor Am – G – F – E. It is named for the flamenco of southern Spain, where it is the sound of the guitar, but it is also in 60s pop, surf rock, film scores and dance music. Once you can name it you will find it hiding in songs that sound nothing like each other.

Why it works

The bass falls by step, A, G, F, E, the first four notes of the scale backwards, and the ear follows a stepwise line more easily than any other. Three of the chords are major, so a minor-key progression sounds bright on the way down. The last chord, V, is where the pull is: in natural A minor the chord on E would be E minor, but the cadence uses E major, borrowing the G♯ from harmonic minor, and that G♯ sits a half step under the home note. The progression stops on the chord that most wants to go home, so the loop restarts with a snap. Played as Am – G – F – E7, with the seventh, the pull is stronger still.

Variants

• With the Phrygian ending (Am – G – F – E as E, F, G, Am heard from the E): flamenco players treat E as home and the cadence as a way to reach it, which is why the same chords sound Spanish.
• Chromatic walk-down (Am – Am/G – Am/F♯ – F): the bass descends by half steps under a held tonic, a cousin in slow ballads.
• In major: there is no exact major version; the descending-bass equivalent is I – V/VII – vi – V, which the generator's Dreamy mood uses.

Songs built on it

• Walk, Don't Run, the Ventures (1960)
• Runaway, Del Shannon (1961)
• Hit the Road Jack, Ray Charles (1961)
• Good Vibrations, the Beach Boys (1966), verse
• Happy Together, the Turtles (1967), verse
• Sultans of Swing, Dire Straits (1978), verse
• Stray Cat Strut, Stray Cats (1981)

Related progressions

• Sad chord progressions
• Minor chord progressions
• The ii–V–I progression

Piano sounds by the Salamander Grand Piano (Alexander Holm), CC BY 3.0.