Improvising over secondary dominants

This week in aural skills we are improvising sung countermelodies over various chord progressions. The goal is to help the students feel the voice leading, the chromatic alterations and so on. This is especially important for playing over secondary dominants or “applied chords” as classical theory folks call them. I won’t explain these chords in any depth here; I’ll just refer you to this chart I made showing all the chord roots on the circle of fifths in grey and their associated dominant chords in purple.

In any major key, there are seven chords that are diatonic to the key (meaning, built entirely from that major scale). You can precede each of these chords with a dominant seventh chord whose root is a fifth higher, to create a nice tension-release sequence. For the tonic chord, you use the regular old V7 chord. The other chords get secondary dominants. This post lists examples of the most commonly used ones.

V7/V

This secondary dominant chord is built on scale degree two. In C, that’s D7, which you expect to resolve to G. (And that would, in turn, conventionally resolve back to C.) Listen for the F-sharp and C in the D7 chord resolving to the G and B in the G chord. This is exactly what happens in the B section of “Your Cheatin’ Heart” by Hank Williams.

For a bluesier and funkier version of this tune, try the James Brown version.

The V7/V chord does not have to resolve “correctly.” Rock songwriters love to follow it with the IV chord to make the “Lydian cadence”, as in “Eight Days A Week” by the Beatles. The tune is in D, and the verses go D, E, G, D. The E is the V/V chord, followed by G, the IV chord. In this case, the G-sharp in the E chord is resolving down to G.

V7/IV

This secondary dominant chord is built on scale degree one. In C, that’s C7, resolving to F. Listen for the E an B-flat in the C7 chord resolving to the F and A in the F chord. This is what happens in the Beatles’ “Something”. In the first verse, listen to the lines “Something in the way she moves attracts me like no other lover.” The words “Something in the way she” are on C. The word “moves” is on Cmaj7. The words “attracts me like no other lov-” are on C7, the V7/IV chord. Finally, the second syllable of “lover” is on F, the IV chord. Notice the chromatic descending line that this creates from C to B to B-flat to A.

Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” uses V7/IV in its verses. The tune is in E. Listen to the first verse at 0:26, on the line “When the rooster crows at the break of dawn.” The words “rooster crows at the” are on E. The words “break of dawn” are on E7, the V7/IV. Then the next line, “look out your window” is on A, the IV chord. (This is followed by a V7/V chord that doesn’t resolve.)

The V7/V chord resembles the I7 chord from the blues. You could interpret the chord in bar four of a standard twelve bar blues as V7/IV.

V7/ii

This secondary dominant chord is built on scale degree six. In C, that’s A7, which you expect to resolve to Dm. Listen for the C-sharp and G in the A7 chord resolving to the D and F in the Dm chord. This is especially common in the standard jazz turnaround. Rather than the boring I-vi-ii-V (C-Am-Dm-G) progression, you could use the more colorful I-V7/ii-ii-V progression (C-A7-Dm-G).

Here’s “Slim’s Jam” featuring Slim Gaillard, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. It’s in Ab, and is mostly a loop of Ab6, F7, Bbm7 and Eb7.

The V7/ii chord can also resolve to V7/V for further circle-of-fifths cycling. You can hear this extended chain of secondary dominants in “Sweet Georgia Brown”. The famous recording by Brother Bones is in Ab. The main melody cycles through F7 (V7/ii) to Bb7 (V7/V) to Eb7 (V7) to Ab (I).

V7/vi

This secondary dominant chord is built on scale degree three. In C, that’s E7, which you expect to resolve to Am. Listen for the G-sharp and D in the E7 chord resolving to the A and C in the Am chord. This is what happens in Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”. Listen to the first verse of Jeff Buckley’s recording at 1:42, on the line “the baffled king composing hallelujah”. The second two syllables of the word “composing” and the first two syllables of “hallelujah” are on E7, resolving to Am on “jah”.

(By the way, I know film and TV music supervisors have run this recording into the ground, but for good reason, it’s a beauty.)

The V7/vi chord could also resolve to V7/ii for a longer circle-of-fifths chain. This is what happens in the bridge of Rhythm changes. Listen to Ella Fitzgerald’s recording of “I Got Rhythm”, specifically the bridge at 1:26. Her recording is in C. The line “Old man trouble” is on E7, the V7/vi chord. The line “I don’t mind him” is on A7, the V7/ii chord. The line “you won’t find him” is on D7, the V7/V chord. Finally, the line “round my door” is on G7, the V7 chord, resolving back to C on the next line.

The V7/vi chord frequently “resolves” deceptively to IV (E7 to F in the key of C). You can hear this progression in “Freight Train” by Elizabeth Cotten. Listen to the line “Please don’t tell what train I’m on.” The words “Please don’t tell what” are on E7, and the words “train I’m on” are on F.

I have barely scratched the surface of secondary dominant chords; there is a whole universe of jazz theory that you can explore from here. That’s for another post.

I am having the class sing improvised melodies over looped sections of as many of these songs as we have time for. Why do that, aside from the fact that the course outline is telling me to? There are lots of ways to do aural skills training, but I love in-class improvisation as a method, for several reasons. First, improvisation is a worthwhile skill in and of itself, and it needs to be taught and learned. Second, improvising melodies and countermelodies is a real-world musical skill. Most of my life as a musician has consisted of just that! I have been the “lead guitarist” in many bands, which just means that someone else is strumming chords and I am playing… other things. Sometimes that means solos, but usually it means countermelodies in the background. Sometimes those are worked out, but more often they are improvised. Even when I am working out parts in advance, though, improvisation is the usual method for doing that; I have very rarely done it on the page. Also, improvising over a looped groove is a fabulously effective songwriting technique. It’s probably the most widely used method in the Anglo-American pop mainstream, and for a good reason: it works. Also, once you get past the initial anxiety, it’s a lot of fun.