AP Music theory Secondary Dominance and leading tone chords help?

Question

I getting frustrated trying to learn how to do these and understand them with full knowledge. How do you determine Secondary Dominance and Secondary Leading tone chords in music? How do you know if a specific Roman numeral is in the Key or not? How do you understand these? Please help clarify on how to do and understand these.

Answer 1

Someone yesterday asked a question about secondary dominants.

Maybe this will help you:



https://answersrip.com/question/index?qid=20110421095217AAUVhxm

Answer 2

It took me a little while to get the hang of these.





Secondary dominants are always chromatic - meaning there is always at least one pitch that is not in the key. They tonicize the new key area - which is the dominant key. They function as predominant chords. But basically, the secondary dominants usually precede the chord that it is a V chord of... For instance, a V/V chord is usually seen before a V chord, a V/ii chord precedes a ii chord, and a V/vi chord before a vi chord.



This is what I have written in my notes:



V/V chords = a major ii chord; raised 4th. (Key of C - a V/V would be D F# A, leading to a G chord)

V/ ii chords = a major vi chord; raised root. (Key of C - V/ii = A C# E)

V/iii = a major vii chord; raised second

V/vi = a major iii chord; raised fifth. (Key of C - V/vi = E G# B)

*In minor keys there is V/III, which creates a flat VII chord.





A V\V chord tonicizes to the dominant key. Like if you are in the key of C, the V\V chord will contain an F# in it, so that it can tonicize to the key of G.





Hearing them is alot harder for me. I practiced alot of secondary dominant chord progressions i created and that we did in my ear training class until I could kinda recognize what was going on. These chords are pretty fun to use in progressions!!





Here's a couple of sites that have some stuff on these chords:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_dominant



http://www.tpub.com/harmony/37.htm



http://www.tonalityguide.com/xxsecdom.php



http://www.musictheoryresources.com/members/FA_sec_dom.htm





Hope this helps!! :)

Answer 3

First you have to know which chords are IN the key.

For example in C major you can only make white note triads.

These are called diatonic chords.

The only diatonic triads possible in any (major) key are;



I - ii - iii - IV - V - vi - viio



Which in C would be;



Cmajor - Dminor - Eminor - Fmajor - Gmajor - Aminor - Bdiminished



ANY OTHER CHORDS YOU FIND ARE USUALLY SECONDARY DOMINANTS



Here are 3 rules that I use;



1. Dominant 7th chords always get labeled as V7. They might be V7 of some other key than the one you're in, but the roman numeral will always be V7 or V7/x.



2. If you find a major triad where it shouldn't be (like D major or A major in the key of C) it gets labeled as V of something else.



3. If you find a fully diminished 7th always label it as viio7. It might be viio7 of some other key, but the roman numeral will always be viio7 or viio7/x.



Keep at it!

Answer 4

it makes it a lot easier if you think diatonically.

"diatonic" means notes that are naturally occurring in a scale or key.



you can just memorize the diatonic chord qualities to know what to expect.



chant this 20 times:

"major minor minor major major minor diminished"

thats the qualities of all major key triads in order. so it gives you this:

I ii iii IV V vi viio



you should also memorize diatonic 7th chords.

"major minor minor major dominant minor half-diminished"

IM7 ii7 iii7 IVM7 V7 vi7 vii%7

(symbol after vii should be a circle with a line through it but i dont know how to make it here)



note,

the only place you saw a diminished triad was on viio

the only place you saw a dominant 7th was on V7

the only place you saw a half-diminished 7th was on vii%7



those are chords that contain leading tones. they also contain the unstable tritone between the 4th and 7th scale degrees that wants to resolve into scale degrees 3 and 1 (tonic triad!). its the location of these special tense chords that makes you feel like you are in a key because its what pushes you back to tonic.



so, if you find a diminished, half-diminished, or dominant chord somewhere other than where you would expect it. it is probably a secondary function! its trying to push you to a different "tonic", but only temporarily. like if you found a dominant chord built on scale degree 2, that would be trying to make you hear 5 as tonic (because 2 is the 5th note of the scale that would start on 5)



so you dont call that II7, you call it V7/V



but context is important, if it doesnt go to V after this (or deceptively to iii) then it might be something else.



V is actually a leading tone chord too because it contains scale degree 7, it's just not as insistent because theres no tritone



this means even if its just a major chord somewhere you dont expect it, it could still be a secondary function. like II going to V is still acting like V going to I, so you could call it V/V



diatonics to memorize for minor keys

i iio III iv V VI viio

i7 ii%7 IIIM7 iv7 V7 VIM7 viio7



note V, V7, viio, and viio7 have to have the leading tone raised with an accidental in order to be the proper functional chords that take you back to i



also... yeah... theres a diminished chord on iio now, just ... ignore it, it's left over from the relative major.



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umm ... if you need more info for why those chords are diatonic, heres this:



the pattern of whole steps (W) and half steps (H) that makes a major scale is: WWHWWWH



chords are built on intervals called 3rds. thats what you get if you skip one note of the scale like AC or BD.



a 3rd made up of two whole steps is major, a 3rd that has a whole step and a half step is minor.



because the whole/half pattern of a scale is always the same, it means the pattern of 3rds is also the same: MmmMMmm



triads are 3 note chords made of two stacked 3rds

(the first listed interval is the bottom one.)

M3 m3 = major triad

m3 M3 = minor triad

m3 m3 = diminished triad



(theres also M3 M3 = augmented triad. but those arent diatonic really, cause theres nowhere in the pattern that 4 whole steps show up in a row)



so again, because the whole/half pattern of a scale is always the same, it meant the pattern of 3rds was also the same, which means that the pattern of chord qualities is always the same. (concept extends for 7th chords which just have one more stacked 3rd)



same concept for minor, except you have to know about those 4 special leading tone chords. they are still considered diatonic because the raised 7 is from the harmonic minor scale, even though the key signature uses the natural minor scale.



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is that full enough for ya?