Harmony
Secondary Dominants and How Tonicization Works
A secondary dominant makes any chord a temporary tonic. How to spell one, where it turns up, and what cancels the effect.
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Type a chord symbol or a scale name and go straight to it, or search tools, glossary terms and every article. Results are ranked by where the words appear.
Glossary
- DominantThe fifth degree of the scale, a perfect fifth above the tonic, which pulls strongly back toward the tonic.
- Dominant seventh chordA major triad with a minor seventh above the root, such as G B D F. Its tritone pulls strongly toward the…
- Secondary dominantA dominant chord that tonicises a diatonic chord other than the tonic, written with a slash such as V7/V…
- SubdominantThe fourth degree of the scale, a fifth below the tonic, which often leads to the dominant or tonic.
- Authentic cadenceA close from the dominant to the tonic, V to I or V7 to I, which ends a phrase. Its perfect and imperfect…
- Plagal cadenceA close from IV to I, known as the Amen cadence. It confirms the tonic and is weaker than the authentic…
Articles
Harmony
Functional Harmony: Tonic, Predominant, Dominant
Tonic, predominant and dominant describe what a chord does to a phrase rather than what it is. This is how the three harmonic jobs divide the work.
Harmony
Tritone Substitution: The subV7 Chord That Still Resolves
Replace any dominant with the dominant a tritone away: why subV7 works, how it smooths bass lines, and where jazz standards hide it.
Harmony
Seventh Chords and How They Resolve in Tonal Harmony
The chordal seventh falls, the leading tone rises, and the tritone at the centre of V7 resolves by step. What each diatonic seventh chord is for.
Jazz & Popular Harmony
Chord Extensions Explained: Ninths, Elevenths and Thirteenths
Ninths, elevenths and thirteenths are chord tones stacked above the seventh. Which of them fit a chord depends on its quality, and some clash with the third.
Jazz & Popular Harmony
Chord-Scale Theory Explained: Which Scale Fits Which Chord
Chord-scale theory pairs each chord quality with a scale whose notes fit it. This article gives the pairings, the spellings in C, and the notes to avoid.
Harmony
Chord Symbols Explained: Major, Minor, Seventh and Slash Chords
A chord symbol names the root, the quality, the extra notes and the bass. Here is how to read Cmaj7, C7, Cm7, C/E and C7b9, and the notes each one contains.
Harmony
Diatonic Chords in Major and Minor Keys Explained
Diatonic chords are the triads built on each scale degree from the key's own notes. Here are their qualities in major and minor, worked out in C and A.
Harmony
Roman Numeral Analysis: How to Label a Chord Progression
Roman numerals label each chord by the scale degree of its root and its quality. Here is a step-by-step method, with I vi IV V worked in C and G.
Fundamentals
Scale Degrees Explained: Numbers, Names and Solfège
Scale degrees number each note of a scale from its tonic, and solfège names the same positions do, re, mi. Degree names, movable and fixed do, and why degrees travel between keys.
Form
The Twelve-Bar Blues: Form, Chord Plan and Variations
Twelve bars of 4/4 in three four-bar phrases, moving through I, IV and V. The standard plan in C and F, the quick change, the turnaround and the minor blues.
Harmony
Augmented Sixth Chords: Italian, French and German Types
Italian, French and German sixth chords: how each type is built, how they resolve to V, and their use in enharmonic modulation.
Form
Binary and Ternary Form: Dance Patterns to Art Music
Simple and rounded binary, ABA and da capo: the cadence plans that define each section and how dances grew into art forms.
Fundamentals
Church Modes From Dorian to Locrian: A Practical Guide
Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian explained by pattern and color, with hearing tips and modern uses.
Harmony
The ii V I Progression in Major, Minor and Jazz Styles
Why ii V I is the backbone of tonal music: voice leading, turnarounds, minor-key forms, and the jazz reharm toolkit.
Fundamentals
Natural, Harmonic and Melodic Minor Scales Compared
Three minor scales, three different jobs. What each form changes, why composers switch between them, and how to hear the difference.
Harmony
The Neapolitan Sixth Chord: Sound, Spelling, Resolution
The flat-II chord that darkens minor keys: how the Neapolitan sixth is built, voiced, resolved, and used from Bach to Schubert.
Form
Rondo Form: How Refrains and Episodes Structure a Movement
Rondo form alternates a returning refrain with contrasting episodes. Learn classical key plans, sonata-rondo hybrids, and why refrains return altered.
Harmony
Harmonic Sequences and Circle Progressions That Modulate
Descending fifths, ascending 5-6 patterns, Pachelbel loops: how sequences work, when they modulate, and how to write them.
Harmony
Borrowed Chords: Modal Mixture in Practice
Mixture borrows chords from the parallel mode. What the common borrowed chords do to a phrase, how they resolve, and where labelling fails.
Harmony
Cadences: How Phrases End in Tonal Music
Authentic, half, plagal and deceptive cadences, and the real reason a close sounds strong: what happens in the bass, the top voice and the metre.
Counterpoint
Fugue Subjects and Answers
A fugue's opening notes commit the piece to more than a tune. The subject's shape and the answer's adjustment decide what can happen next.
Harmony
Modulation: How a Key Change Is Confirmed
A modulation is not a chromatic chord; it is a new key confirmed by cadence. The routes into one, and how to read them off the page.
Music History
Romantic Chromaticism and the Expanding Tonic
Chromatic harmony widened a key without leaving it: the resources that do the work, the Tristan chord, and how to analyse it without over-labelling.
Form
Sonata Form: The Tonal Plot
Sonata form is a tonal argument, not a set of labelled boxes. What matters is which key you are in, and how the music gets home again.
Counterpoint
Imitation and Invertible Counterpoint
Imitation makes one idea serve two lines. Invertible counterpoint makes those lines interchangeable, and the arithmetic behind it is small enough to check.
Fundamentals
Key Signatures and the Order of Sharps and Flats
Sharps arrive in the order F C G D A E B and flats in reverse. The order is the circle of fifths written out, one signature at a time.
Harmony
Voice Leading: Why the Rules Exist in Four-Part Writing
Parallel fifths, tendency tones, spacing and doubling, read as solutions to one problem: keeping four lines heard as four lines.
Songwriting & Composition
Common Chord Progressions: Loops, Numerals and Why They Work
The chord loops that songwriters reuse most, in Roman numerals and in the keys of C and G, with the reasons they work and how to vary them.
Harmony
Suspended Chords: Sus2 and Sus4 Explained
A sus chord swaps the third of a triad for the second or fourth. Here is what Csus2 and Csus4 contain, why neither is major or minor, and how they resolve.
Chords
- Dominant ninth chordThe dominant ninth chord: a dominant seventh with the ninth added. It is a bright, colourful dominant used in jazz, blues, soul and funk.
- Dominant seventh chordThe dominant seventh chord: a major triad with a minor seventh added. It sounds unsettled and pulls strongly toward a tonic a fourth above its root.
- Dominant seventh flat nine chordThe dominant seventh flat nine chord: a dominant seventh with the ninth lowered a semitone. It is tense and altered, and common in jazz.
- Dominant seventh sharp nine chordThe dominant seventh sharp nine chord: a dominant seventh with the ninth raised a semitone. Bright and biting, it is often called the Hendrix chord.
- Dominant seventh suspended fourth chordThe dominant seventh suspended fourth: a fourth in place of the third, with a minor seventh. It sounds open and waits for the third before resolving.
- Dominant thirteenth chordThe dominant thirteenth chord: a dominant seventh with the ninth and thirteenth added. It is rich, and jazz uses it often.
Scales
- Bebop dominant scaleBebop dominant: Mixolydian with an added major seventh passing tone, so chord tones fall on strong beats in eighth-note lines.
- Lydian dominant scaleLydian dominant: the fourth mode of melodic minor, a dominant scale with a raised fourth for a bright, altered sound over dominant chords.
- Phrygian dominant scalePhrygian dominant: the fifth mode of harmonic minor, with a flat second and a major third, a dominant sound used in minor keys.
- Diminished (half–whole) scaleHalf-whole diminished: eight notes alternating half and whole steps, built from two diminished sevenths and used over dominant sevenths.