gen-define-secondary-dominants-and-give-one-short-worked-example-7a8a

Define secondary dominants and give one short worked example.

# Secondary Dominants **Definition:** A secondary dominant is a chord that temporarily tonicizes (acts as the dominant of) a chord other than the tonic. It's a dominant 7th chord built on a scale degree that wouldn't normally have one in the key, creating brief harmonic motion to a diatonic chord as if that chord were temporarily the tonic. The most common notation is **V7/x** (read as "five-seven of x"), where x is the chord being tonicized. ## Short Example **In C major:** | Chord progression | C | **A7** | Dm | G7 | C | |-------------------|---|--------|-----|-----|---| | Roman numerals | I | **V7/ii** | ii | V7 | I | - **A7** (A-C#-E-G) is the secondary dominant - It's **V7/ii** because A7 is the dominant 7th of D minor (the ii chord) - The C# is a chromatic alteration (not in C major) that creates a leading tone to D - A7 temporarily makes Dm feel like a "mini-tonic" before returning to the actual key via G7→C This adds harmonic color and forward motion beyond what purely diatonic chords provide.