Principles of Music: Secondary Dominants

Link to book composition lessons:

In this video I discuss the principle of secondary dominants.

Bach's Cello Suite Prelude performed by Colin Carr.

[FliegendeVs]

Wow! Thank you for such a succinct and enjoyable mini class. I'm at the Theory 201 level at Berklee Online and taking some Neo Classical lessons on the side. This has helped tremendously!!

[julianrmunds]

Blows my mind! I don't know why this was never explained to me before! Thank you.

[maxjohn]

The more of your videos that I watch, the more delighted I am to have discovered your channel as a new resource :) I really appreciate your work, thank you!

[alejandrotaverareyes]

I have to just say thank you, this is some of the most important information I have ever gotten from a video!

[HarpsichordHymnsTimRemington]

Fascinating information! Thanks for teaching this material in a concise, yet interesting and informative manner. I majored in Music Theory & Composition many years ago, so this video is a great "refresher" to me.

[pliniovellas]

Years ago, I've read something about secondary dominants from a Schoenberg book, but your video makes me finally understand this subject. Thank you!

[gitarisanbu]

this is crystal clear, thank you for making this great video 🍻🔥

[caterscarrots]

I have seen plenty of people argue that vii dim7 is not it’s own chord, but rather a V7b9 without the root. I see where they are coming from(sharing 4 notes, same function), but I disagree. Especially in minor, it doesn’t just sound like a rootless V7b9, but rather an independent chord. And I’m always like this when I see a harmony that could be V7b9 or vii dim7:

If it sounds like a diminished seventh chord and it looks like a diminished seventh chord and it’s in minor and the dominant note only shows up on the weak beats(looking at you Revolutionary Etude by Chopin, interleaving Bdim7 and C minor arpeggios into a descending figure, with the only strong beat G’s being where the bass alternates between C and G notes), or it’s by a composer like Beethoven that I know uses vii dim7 a lot, then it’s *probably* vii dim7.

First inversion V7b9(which I have heard plenty of people argue that that’s what the first chord in Chopin’s Revolutionary Etude is) sounds a lot like root position vii dim7. So much so, that it feels like the "root" is so overpowered by the interlocking tritones that it feels like a non-chord tone rather than a chord tone, which further weakens my likelihood of analyzing a chord like that as V7b9.

[danielmads]

I loved this video also! Keep up the amazing work!

[Alex_Gid]

Thank you! Very informative video, pleasant to listen to you

[alexanderbayramov]

That C natural in bass at 8:38 has always freaked me out a bit, it probably would sound much more intuitive as pedal point on organ, considering that there is c# -> d movement later in treble

[lumberpilot]

I remember getting a D on my Harmony exam because I didn't know what secondary dominance was. I got so confused, I reverted back to good old 12-bar blues.

[jade]

I'm puzzled by the designations for the iii6 chord and the vi 6-4 chord at time 2:13 in the video. For the iii6 the notes shown are e-g-b which are actually the notes of the vi chord in G Maj. And similarly, the notes shown for the vi 6-4 chord are b-d-f sharp, which are the notes of the iii chord. Perhaps they got reversed?

[christopherravelbell]

Really, Really, Great video. One suggestion: You use the words "additional variant" to describe a family of Dominate like chords, including diminished, half diminished etc. Perhaps "sister dominants" would work. 
Beautiful table of Related Sister Dominates.

[spiritualpolitics]

I loved this video -- particularly the wonderful chart you have composed that I have never seen, which makes these relationships so clarion across the various chord types.

Do you have a companion video on Secondary Dominants in minor keys? And can you point me to your source for this chart?

I am often amazed how rarely musical theory gives a decent bird's eye view of the lay of the land like this. I am very familiar with large swaths of jazz theory, but find the presentation in many texts is strangely piecemeal and not coherent enough. While the subject is very complex, I feel there could be more vantages of simplification or acuity of perception....

[ajames]

Goog video, but I would have like some examples of unrelated secondary dominants. I heard these in baroque music too. Now it makes sense to me but it's confusing since most teaching examples secondary dominants are preparations to be "tonicized" or are related secondary dominants, which gives the impression from other sources that these are these only secondary dominants and that unrelated secondary dominants are just borrowed chords or modal interchange (but not saying that about your video since you did mention unrelated secondary dominants)

[cesarsalazar]

I always thought that a ii degree its more tense than a iii on its harmonic implications. And de subdominant being the strongest point of gravity in a tonality. ( for example in c major the subdominant almost swalllows the tonic as if it would be its dominant) So when i play a chord progression there is for me more tension in the ii than a vi or iii. Now im a bit confused.

[eltonwild]

Where can I find a chart as seen at 5:02?

[mishmishm]

The explanation runs too quickly ... really quickly.
Also why not play the notes and chords to make your point 👀❓
I went in because I was interested, but really disappointed with the "soundtrack" albeit beautiful. Doesn't demonstrate the lecture.
Thank you for taking my comment seriously.
Mm