A four-chord descent that walks the bass down by step and lands on a major dominant — the sound of flamenco.
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Drop Andalusian cadence straight into the interactive looper, hit play, and hear the full sequence cycle.
Play Andalusian cadence in the Studio →Because it is borrowed from A harmonic minor, which raises the seventh degree from G to G♯. That single altered note turns the v chord (Em) into E major, giving it a leading tone that pulls a semitone up into A. Natural minor has no such pull, which is why the borrowed chord is used instead.
It takes its name from Andalusia in southern Spain and is the harmonic signature of flamenco, though the same descent appears far beyond it — in Baroque music, in surf rock, and in a great many minor-key pop songs that want a sense of descent without gloom.
Yes — the numerals are what define it, not the letters. Here it is Am, G, F and E in A minor; move all four by the same interval and the character is identical, because the stepwise bass descent and the borrowed major dominant survive transposition.