Secondary Dominants

Are you tired of playing your typical diatonic chords?

Feel like adding some colour to your chord progression?

Start with the concept of secondary dominants.

Read to know more about this widely popular harmonic concept used by thousands of musicians across genres.

Primary & Secondary Dominants

Primary dominants refer to dominant chords that exist within a major scale. So, it's essentially a diatonic chord within your chosen key.

This chord is a related chord for the 5th degree of a major scale. For instance, in the key of C major, G7 is our primary dominant chord.

Secondary dominants on the other hand, are non-diatonic chords used for resolving to diatonic or non-diatonic chords.

Let's look at the following harmonic progression:

The CMaj7, D-7, E-7, & G7 are diatonic to the key of C.

Whereas, the A7 & B7 are non-diatonic chords being used to resolve to D-7 & E-7 respectively.

These chords are analysed as V/{whichever chord we resolve to}.

For example, we labeled the A7 as V/II because it resolves to the D-7 chord, which happens to be the II-7 in the key of C.

Similarly, we labeled the B7 as V/III because it resolves to the E-7 chord, which happens to be the III-7 in the key of C.

If you wish to learn the art of music and express yourself your way, email me: contact@subharaj.com for pricing and details!

*Open to students from all over the world and all age groups.

Here are some of the things I talk about in class: