G major · Secondary dominants
Secondary dominants in G major
All five secondary dominants in G major
- E7V7/iiAmii
- Notes
- Outside the key
- Leading tone
E7 is the dominant of A minor. It pulls there by a falling fifth. 1 voice holds, 3 move, 8 semitones of motion in all.
- V7/iiiBmiii
- Notes
- Outside the key
- Leading tone
F♯7 is the dominant of B minor. It pulls there by a falling fifth. 1 voice holds, 3 move, 8 semitones of motion in all.
- G7V7/IVCIV
- Notes
- G B D F
- Outside the key
- F
- Leading tone
- B
G7 is the dominant of C major. It pulls there by a falling fifth. 1 voice holds, 3 move, 7 semitones of motion in all.
- A7V7/VDV
- Notes
- Outside the key
- Leading tone
A7 is the dominant of D major. It pulls there by a falling fifth. 1 voice holds, 3 move, 7 semitones of motion in all.
- B7V7/viEmvi
- Notes
- Outside the key
- Leading tone
B7 is the dominant of E minor. It pulls there by a falling fifth. 1 voice holds, 3 move, 8 semitones of motion in all.
The one that is not secondary
D7 is V7 of G major itself: the primary dominant, resolving to the tonic, G. Every chord above borrows that relationship and points it at a different chord of the key. Its leading tone, F♯, is already in the key, which is why it needs no accidental and the others do.
How to hear one
A secondary dominant sounds like the music is about to change key and then does not. Listen for the note outside the key: it is a semitone under the chord it is heading for, or a semitone above the third it falls to, and the ear hears it as pulling. Play each one above, then play the target on its own, and the pull is obvious in reverse.
In the app, section 2 trains this as three skills: naming the V of any chord, hearing the tonicisation, and resolving a secondary dominant to the right chord.