61. Secondary Dominants (4): Practice 1

Up to the last lesson, we analyzed songs that use secondary dominants and checked how they are used.
This time, let's arrange chord progressions we've seen before by bringing secondary dominants into them.

First, let's arrange the Canon progression from lessons 22 and 23 by adding secondary dominants.
The original is in D major, but in this explanation we'll work in Key = C major.

After analyzing the Canon progression and assigning Roman numerals, we got the result shown in the image above.
Let's build it up by putting scale notes into these Roman numeral positions.

We'll fill them in according to this table.

In Key = C major, it's
C→G→Am→Em→F→C→F→G
That's right.

I've prepared the MIDI.

Of course you can put them in other places too, but this time let's bring secondary dominants into the sections circled in orange.

Let's look back at what we've covered so far.

V7/VI

If we treat Am as Im, its V7 (V) is E7 (E).

E7→Am7

E→Am

E7→Am

V7/IV

If we treat F as I, its V7 (V) is C7 (C).

C7→Fmaj7

C→F

C7→F

V7/V

If we treat G as I, its V7 (V) is D7 (D).

D7→G7

D→G

D7→G

Now let's bring these in.

This is the result.
✳︎ The voicings have been changed.

Let's analyze it using what we've learned so far.

The chord progression above will come up later as a comparison when we learn other techniques, so we recommend keeping the MIDI you programmed.
Of course, you can also put them in other places.

The feel of the Canon progression remains, but there's a strong impression of wanting to hear the next chord sooner, a continuous chain from tension to stability.
If you listen consciously or play back what you programmed at a slow speed, you should be able to sense the tritone and, with triads, the movement from the leading tone.

Next time we'll again bring them into progressions we've seen before, but let's be aware that there are new possibilities not only for the chords but for the melody as well.