The flamenco staircase: the bass walks down a full tetrachord and every ear in the room knows where it ends. The 3⁷ at the bottom is the relative minor's dominant, so the descent tonicizes 6- more convincingly than any single chord could — gravity by accumulation.
hear it in “Hit the Road Jack” changes · flamenco por medio
Lead-in — how players set it upFrom 1, so the descent reads as leaving daylight.Or enter at 5 — half the staircase still lands the same.Or loop it as a vamp — flamenco treats it as a home.Follow — where it usually goes3⁷ pays off into 6- — visit complete, or stay and move in.Or overshoot: 3⁷ deceives to 4 and daylight returns.Stay minor and it's the Relative Swap in slow motion.
Descend WITH the bass: 6, 5, 4, ♯5 — the last note flips from the fall to the harmonic-minor lean.Target tones (in C)Am — lean on C (b3)G — lean on B (3)F — lean on A (3)E7 — lean on G# (3) · D (b7)Half-step wiresC ↘ B · B → C · F ↘ E · A ↘ G#