How to Resolve a Dominant 7th Chord - Music Composition
video description
Date: 2022-03-28
Related videos
Comments and reviews: 10
Paul
What about the very common progression that uses a tritone substitute for the dominant? In C major this would be Dm7, Db7 (a dominate 7th that substitutes for G7 but is a tritone away) followed by CM7? There is a Phrygian cadential aspect to this chord progression. There is also the fact that the notes B natural and F natural appear in both the G7 chord and the Db7 chord but their functions are reversed with the B natural becoming the 7th of the chord and the F becoming the third of the Db chord. This is a very rich progression with a lot of relevance to music today rather than being a mere harmony exercise supposedly in a style of classical music that really no one is doing today in real life. Is the fact that this interesting cadential pattern is so common to Jazz the problem here and it the reason why it gets no mention at all??? I feel that there is much more of interest for composers today to be found in Jazz Theory than what we see here, part of the reason being that, post Debussy, many of the ideas of -correct- voice leading talked about here are now almost but not entirely meaningless, parallelisms being a perfect example, especially when those effects were also present to some extent in the music of the past too. John Adams has certainly spent a lot of time studying Jazz Theory. I use a very obvious variant of tritone substitute where I lower the Ab of the Db chord to the note G, thereby creating a major #11 chord that also uses G as a common tone with the C chord that it resolves to. There are two tritones in this chord and a lot of implications of the whole tone scale. What-s not to like? Just because Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven did not do this is meaningless if your intention is to show interesting dominant function cadences to your audience. It really brings into question what your ultimate goal is here. By teaching a largely irrelevant form of music theory are you put forwarding an ideological concept of the -Great Composers- and their methods of composition being the most important thing that ever happened or ever will happen in music (an impossible concept to seriously defend when thinking of the future of our species), or are you actually just trying to teach interesting uses of the Dominant 7th chord. If the latter is the case, then you seriously missed some stuff out. If the former is the case, then it is quite evident why you missed out on some -common practice- features of Jazz theory. I will say that I did very much appreciate your mention of throwing in the diminished 7th chord between chords as an expressive harmonic amplification of the progression but felt the false relations stuff was something you could have contextualized a bit differently. However, I repeat what I said which is not mentioning other cadential methods common in other styles of music seems like a very studied form of deafness to me. The world really changed after Debussy and many people were listening. Cheers, Paul
reply
What about the very common progression that uses a tritone substitute for the dominant? In C major this would be Dm7, Db7 (a dominate 7th that substitutes for G7 but is a tritone away) followed by CM7? There is a Phrygian cadential aspect to this chord progression. There is also the fact that the notes B natural and F natural appear in both the G7 chord and the Db7 chord but their functions are reversed with the B natural becoming the 7th of the chord and the F becoming the third of the Db chord. This is a very rich progression with a lot of relevance to music today rather than being a mere harmony exercise supposedly in a style of classical music that really no one is doing today in real life. Is the fact that this interesting cadential pattern is so common to Jazz the problem here and it the reason why it gets no mention at all??? I feel that there is much more of interest for composers today to be found in Jazz Theory than what we see here, part of the reason being that, post Debussy, many of the ideas of -correct- voice leading talked about here are now almost but not entirely meaningless, parallelisms being a perfect example, especially when those effects were also present to some extent in the music of the past too. John Adams has certainly spent a lot of time studying Jazz Theory. I use a very obvious variant of tritone substitute where I lower the Ab of the Db chord to the note G, thereby creating a major #11 chord that also uses G as a common tone with the C chord that it resolves to. There are two tritones in this chord and a lot of implications of the whole tone scale. What-s not to like? Just because Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven did not do this is meaningless if your intention is to show interesting dominant function cadences to your audience. It really brings into question what your ultimate goal is here. By teaching a largely irrelevant form of music theory are you put forwarding an ideological concept of the -Great Composers- and their methods of composition being the most important thing that ever happened or ever will happen in music (an impossible concept to seriously defend when thinking of the future of our species), or are you actually just trying to teach interesting uses of the Dominant 7th chord. If the latter is the case, then you seriously missed some stuff out. If the former is the case, then it is quite evident why you missed out on some -common practice- features of Jazz theory. I will say that I did very much appreciate your mention of throwing in the diminished 7th chord between chords as an expressive harmonic amplification of the progression but felt the false relations stuff was something you could have contextualized a bit differently. However, I repeat what I said which is not mentioning other cadential methods common in other styles of music seems like a very studied form of deafness to me. The world really changed after Debussy and many people were listening. Cheers, Paul
reply
wayne
The V7 to vi its a Deceptive Cadence that is why most theory books says to avoid V7 to vi unless you want to Cadence. If you write V7 to vi its going to sounds like you did a Deceptive Cadence. I'm not sure why the V7 chord often creates a triple root chord. My teachers told me to avoid triple root chords because of instability issues because it sounds bare and to only use triple root tonic chord at the end of a cadence only. I'm not sure if you have done a video about triple root chords but you should find how classical composers used triple root chords and also how to AVOID triple root chords because certain 7th chords often want to resolve to triple root chords to you have to use passing tones or embellishment or cadential 6/4 passing chords to avoid resolve to triple root chords.
reply
The V7 to vi its a Deceptive Cadence that is why most theory books says to avoid V7 to vi unless you want to Cadence. If you write V7 to vi its going to sounds like you did a Deceptive Cadence. I'm not sure why the V7 chord often creates a triple root chord. My teachers told me to avoid triple root chords because of instability issues because it sounds bare and to only use triple root tonic chord at the end of a cadence only. I'm not sure if you have done a video about triple root chords but you should find how classical composers used triple root chords and also how to AVOID triple root chords because certain 7th chords often want to resolve to triple root chords to you have to use passing tones or embellishment or cadential 6/4 passing chords to avoid resolve to triple root chords.
reply
Stephen
Hi, in the video you talked about 7th chords built on each / any scale degree and you cited II7 as seventh built on second degree. Those sevenths will be major sevenths ( such as I7, major 3rd, major seventh) or minor sevenths (e.g. II7, minor 3rd, minor 7th), the dominant 7th is major third, minor seventh. Classical standard roman numeral chord notation does not make the intervals as obvious as sometimes desired. In jazz notation it is more common to use for example Cmaj7 Dmin7 to indicate major or minor sevenths and G7 to indicate dominant 7 (major 3rd minor 7 - or b7 in jazz parlance). The odd one is (for example Cmin maj7 (minor 3rd, major 7th ) as a 7th chord within a melodic minor scale.
reply
Hi, in the video you talked about 7th chords built on each / any scale degree and you cited II7 as seventh built on second degree. Those sevenths will be major sevenths ( such as I7, major 3rd, major seventh) or minor sevenths (e.g. II7, minor 3rd, minor 7th), the dominant 7th is major third, minor seventh. Classical standard roman numeral chord notation does not make the intervals as obvious as sometimes desired. In jazz notation it is more common to use for example Cmaj7 Dmin7 to indicate major or minor sevenths and G7 to indicate dominant 7 (major 3rd minor 7 - or b7 in jazz parlance). The odd one is (for example Cmin maj7 (minor 3rd, major 7th ) as a 7th chord within a melodic minor scale.
reply
Mark
Re: example 6, some theorists would say that taking the 3rd of the dominant down to the 5th of the tonic should only be done when it's in an inner part, not in the top voice (and of course, it can't be in the bass for a root-position cadence).
Incidentally, it doesn't take that much consideration of all the possible voice movements, to see that it's impossible to move from a complete root-position V7 chord to a complete root-position I chord, with the 3rd of the dominant going up to the root of the tonic, and the 7th of the dominant going down to the 3rd of the tonic, without the 5th of chord V also moving to the 5th of chord I, i.e. moving in parallel 5ths with the bass.
reply
Re: example 6, some theorists would say that taking the 3rd of the dominant down to the 5th of the tonic should only be done when it's in an inner part, not in the top voice (and of course, it can't be in the bass for a root-position cadence).
Incidentally, it doesn't take that much consideration of all the possible voice movements, to see that it's impossible to move from a complete root-position V7 chord to a complete root-position I chord, with the 3rd of the dominant going up to the root of the tonic, and the 7th of the dominant going down to the 3rd of the tonic, without the 5th of chord V also moving to the 5th of chord I, i.e. moving in parallel 5ths with the bass.
reply
Martin
Thank you for your lucid explanation; how chords progress is fascinating. However perhaps because I am using a small notebook, I find your musical examples do not appear so clearly. A bit larger might have been better.
In terms of chords that can follow a 7th, it seems to me that 7th chords can be followed by other 7th chords (is that what you are dong at the end?). So, for example, there could be G7 E7 a min or G7 C7 F or even G7 C#7 F# !(some of those chords might need inversions).
reply
Thank you for your lucid explanation; how chords progress is fascinating. However perhaps because I am using a small notebook, I find your musical examples do not appear so clearly. A bit larger might have been better.
In terms of chords that can follow a 7th, it seems to me that 7th chords can be followed by other 7th chords (is that what you are dong at the end?). So, for example, there could be G7 E7 a min or G7 C7 F or even G7 C#7 F# !(some of those chords might need inversions).
reply
Nicholas
Good trick I found for situations like example 9.3 - don't just leap up to the seventh of the V, but also hold it over as a suspension into the VI chord. It avoids actually having fifths on consecutive beats, and also keeps the rhythm of the first half of the bar going.
reply
Good trick I found for situations like example 9.3 - don't just leap up to the seventh of the V, but also hold it over as a suspension into the VI chord. It avoids actually having fifths on consecutive beats, and also keeps the rhythm of the first half of the bar going.
reply
Stefano
When I studied harmony a thousand years ago I was told to beware V7 as the 7th could not be reached upwards i.e. from a lower note, either by step or by leap (which was even worse). You Gareth are doing so in several examples. Was I taught something really severe/strict?
reply
When I studied harmony a thousand years ago I was told to beware V7 as the 7th could not be reached upwards i.e. from a lower note, either by step or by leap (which was even worse). You Gareth are doing so in several examples. Was I taught something really severe/strict?
reply
Tintchetia
Gareth we all love your generous sharing of knowledge that you must have worked at for a long time and with great diligence. Your enthusiasm, patience and content bring such a joy to my heart. Thank you from the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia, Canada!!
reply
Gareth we all love your generous sharing of knowledge that you must have worked at for a long time and with great diligence. Your enthusiasm, patience and content bring such a joy to my heart. Thank you from the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia, Canada!!
reply
Alfonso
Another fantastic lesson, as always. I love all your videos!! - just one thing doesn't seem right to me: I might be wrong but what about the consecutive octaves (bass and alto) at bar 3 of the 9th example?
reply
Another fantastic lesson, as always. I love all your videos!! - just one thing doesn't seem right to me: I might be wrong but what about the consecutive octaves (bass and alto) at bar 3 of the 9th example?
reply
Alan
Very interesting. I'm not quite sure I understood what a diminished 7th is in this context but I liked the sound of it. Thanks for the great videos.
reply
Very interesting. I'm not quite sure I understood what a diminished 7th is in this context but I liked the sound of it. Thanks for the great videos.
reply
Add a review, comment
Other channel videos
