Secondary Dominants- Write Better Chord Progressions! [MUSIC THEORY / SONGWRITING]

Secondary Dominant chords are a great addition to the 7 chords we normally see in major keys and their modes, they are outside of the key but will take us to chords in the key. This occurs a LOT in modern music, especially the V7/vi, and learning your secondary dominants will help you write better and more interesting chord progressions.

These chords introduce non-diatonic notes (notes outside the scale) so it is usually obvious to the ear that there is something unique and interesting about these chords when they appear.

In this video, we explore all the usable secondary dominants except the V7/iii. The only reason I excluded it is was because the video was getting long and I didn't have any good examples of it, also I don't find it to be very usable but I encourage you to play with it.

These chords work in ANY MODE but you will find it's fairly difficult to use them outside of major and minor due to the other modes not being as stable. The "mini modulations" within the key cause our tonality to get shifted around and maintaining a modal tonal center can prove tricky.

Like this video? Thank my Patreon subscribers for sponsoring these lessons! They're the reason you don't see ads or sponsorships in the middle of my videos. You can join them here:

A huge thank you the following Patreon supporters!
Linas Orentas
Marek Pawlowski
John Arnold
Christopher Swanson
Marc Bulandr
Alvaro Begue-Aguado

Free online guitar lessons for beginners, intermediate, and advanced players. Located in Crystal Lake, Jake Lizzio provides free jam tracks and video lessons for guitar players, as well as music theory videos and other music education content.

Table of Contents:
00:00 Intro
00:32 Dominant Chords
02:08 Secondary Dominant Chords
05:22 V7/IV
06:47 V7/V
07:49 V7/vi and Resolving Tricks
09:39 Wrapping Up

[strangehandle]

WHAT IS THIS?? No annoying intro, no clickbait title.. just a straightforward explanation with no tangents, including real world examples to back up the lesson, with well-edited video and no volume issues... you did everything right. Subscribed!

[johnmcjohnco.]

I took Music theory for a couple years in school and struggled for years afterwards trying to understand why anyone would want to use secondary dominants, and how to use them myself; you sir did that in 20 minutes, and it all clicked for me, a true music hero.

[JackChurchill]

So, dominants are used to pull the song in a direction - to make the change sound "right" to the listener...

You are the best teacher on youtube... Basically doing for music theory what Bob Ross did for painting.

[chrisjelley]

As Tom Petty used to say: "dont bore us, get to the chorus." Your vids are always spot on: a highly vauled respite in an ocean of bad intruction. Thanks for helping me navigate!

[calvinlee]

You are the most ideal person to be in a band with. You have so much to offer. I appreciate all of the hard work to do to offer us information to make us become successful at the art of music. You have helped me with so much at becoming closer and closer to a professional musician each time you create a video, and I’m sure that other people feel this way too. Thank you Jake Lizzio. We all do. 👍🏻

[theRevVA]

I've been a musician for 18 years, multiple instruments. You have taught me theory and helped me grow more than any other YouTube teacher. Thank you for everything you do.

[DesignCourse]

Liking and commenting before watching because I know he kicks ass. I'll be writing better chord progressions in 48 hours.

[normanbodnar]

This single, short video has exceeded any music theory taught to me growing up. I’ve been playing guitar my entire life, now in my 50s, and while I do these things naturally or by trial and error, this brings all of it together for me. Young players you live in a wonderful time where people like Jake put this out there so easy to understand. TAKE FULL ADVANTAGE OF IT!

[nicolasmoreno]

Jake, you're the absolute best music teacher on YouTube, I've seen a lot of your videos and learnt a lot... As always, thank you!

[HankCScorpio]

The most professional and accessible teacher on the tube. I almost feel guilty watching these without sending him money. Maybe I’ll buy the poster...

[kabasakalis]

Jake I am a drummer and I write my own orchestral-ish prog instrumentals, last month I watched 80% of your music theory tagged videos, I learned a lot! Not only you are a awesome teacher, you are an amazing guitar player. Thanks for this exceptional educational material! PS: Do a favor to yourself and make a demo for the voiceover industry!!

[BM-jycb]

I'm a programmer who always wanted to write music, but as you've said about yourself, I thought you had to be 'born with it.

Your videos show the rules of music are just as logical as programming. I never thought I could sit down and PLAN how I wanted a song to sound, yet with your fantastic knowledge and teaching style, I'm getting there after 40 years of thinking I just didn't have it in me.

Of course, this is not to diminish the genuine musical talent of great musicians - applying the rules is one thing, creating a fantastic and original song is quite another.

Having said that, now when I have a chord progression in my head, at least I can try and work it out rather than stabbing away at the keyboard until I find it or (much more often than not), forget what I was trying to achieve in the first place.

THANK YOU!

[educostanzo]

Seriously, how can you do this? I spend hopeless hours trying to understand some concepts then you make a 11 minute video and sudenly it's clear as water. Thanks again!

[drsteviejasengnsangma]

No boring intro but only real business with real song application..
Rare to find a teacher like you
Hats off to you brother.
Thanks a lot

[lovethetruth]

Beatles songs are peppered with secondary dominants.

[semanticsamuel]

What I love about these videos is that they aren't prescriptive and feel simple, but really just open up a whole new musical cave to explore. It equips you with the tools and knowledge, but they aren't going to get you writing songs like Hey Jude overnight. The magic really comes from when you combine ideas from multiple videos (and elsewhere from the realms of music theory) to create something new and interesting. I think it's like the video you did on God Chords. By themselves, they sound cheesy and cliché, but in context in a well-written song they can be epic. Here again secondary dominant chords can get old quickly, but there are still plenty of ways we can experiment with them with a well-composed melody.

[CaveMonJones]

You have some of the clearest, most concise videos on music theory that I've seen to date. I'm trying to digest everything that you have offered, and will definitely consider being a patreon member soon. You have my gratitude!

[themixmusicandmore]

Jake, im not kidding, bud- you have taught me more about music than any person or source combined times a hundred. Im not over exaggerating. I spent years refusing to play anything other than chromatic metal just because i didnt want to make noob music in another genre. You have given me the tools in a comprehensive fashion and i owe so much to you. I hope nothing but the best for you, my brother.

[jordanhaliday]

You are seriously the most underrated theory teacher on all of youtube, I always get excited whenever I see that you have a new upload. Thank you so much for making it fun interesting to learn about music!

[giligarden]

I´m a bass palyer since decades and never used secondary dominants because I did not understand what it is. You changed my view. Your teaching is straightforward, very well explained. Thanks.