Music Theory: What is a Secondary

Dominant Chord?
askaudiomag.com by Lynda Arnold October 12, 2014

Using secondary dominant chords in your chord progressions can be a quick and
easy way to add some spice to your tracks. And, it's easy to do as Lynda Arnold
demonstrates.
In this article, Ill show you how to quickly spice up your chord progressions by
adding secondary dominant chords. Sounds complicated, doesnt it? It may be at
first. But, with a little harmonic theory under your belt, you will find adding one
or two secondary dominants an accessible way to add more color, tension and
movement to your chord progressions. Secondary dominant chords are not in
the tonic key, but work very well as borrowed chords. You will see they have a
very familiar sound that you have heard before in classical music or in many
Beatles songs (just one of many pop examples) throughout the years.
A secondary dominant chord is the dominant 7th of another chord in a
harmonized scale. All chords apply except for the I chord and the diminished vii
chord. The I chord already has the dominant 7th chord implied in the scale. If C
major is the tonic chord, than the dominant is G7. The other chords and their
secondary dominants are outlined below. I am using the tonic key of C Major as
an example.

The secondary dominant chord can resolve to its tonic chord to create a key
change in a song. Or, it can be used as a passing chord to create more tension in
a chord progression and resolve to its tonic chord or not, depending on the
composers wishes. The tri-tone interval between the 3rd and 7th of the chord
provides the extra tension in the secondary dominant chord. This feeling of
harmonic tension naturally leads back to the temporary tonic chord because of
the two half step resolutions. You can use a V chord triad instead of the 7th, but
the dominant 7th will provide a stronger resolution. Lets look at a few
examples.
The most common use of the secondary dominant is in a IV-V-I cadence with the
V7/V used before the V chord:

Figure 1: Example 1 - I IV - V7/V - V7 I

MP3 Example 1:
The V7/vi is also nice because it takes you into the relative minor key of the
major key where you can stay for a moment before resolving back to major:

Figure 2 :
Example 2 - I - ii - V7/vi - vi - IV - V I
MP3 Example 2:
Heres an example of the secondary dominant chord not resolving to its tonic but
still creating wonderful harmonic color:

Figure 3: Example 3 - I - ii V7/iii I

MP3 Example 3:
I encourage you to play around a bit with these on your own and try some in
your compositions. Its easier to start in C major for keyboardists so you can
return to all white keys if you get confused. Create charts for yourself like the one
above if you want to have a harmonic map of secondary dominants for
experimentation. Have fun!