This article will go over exactly what a secondary dominant is in music. However, this knowledge is dependent on us knowing what a dominant chord is in the first place so we’ll start there.

What is a Dominant Chord? 

A dominant chord is a specific type of seventh chord, and a seventh chord is simply a triad chord that adds the seventh note in the scale.

For example, if we are in C major, the scale would be C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C.

A triad takes the first, third, and fifth note and creates a chord from these, and a seventh chord adds the seventh note in the scale, so a CMaj7 (C major seventh) chord would be C-E-G-B: 

But, a dominant chord has one difference to a major seventh chord.

In a dominant chord, the seventh is one semitone (or half-step) lower than it is in the major seventh chord.

So a C dominant chord would be C – E – G – Bb. 

Another way you can think of a dominant chord is that it is the chord built from the fifth scale degree (V) of another scale.

For example, the V note in the scale above is G. 

So if we build a seventh chord starting on the G, but still using the same notes we see in the C scale.

That would give us the notes G – B – D – F, which are exactly the notes of a G dominant chord.

For dominant chords, we can shorten the chord symbol to just the letter of the chord and the number 7, so a G dominant seventh chord would be: G7. 

Dominant and Tonic 

This brings us to the idea of harmonic function in music, which is the concept that certain chords have specific functions in a chord progression or a piece of music.

A chord that is the same as the “key” the music is in is called the tonic.

The tonic is the chord built from the first note of the scale, like if a song was “in the key of D major”, it would choose its notes from a D major scale and the chord built from the D would be the tonic.

As we covered already, the chord built on the fifth note of the scale is called the dominant chord.

The first chord on the left is the C major 7 chord.

If that is the tonic, then the chord built on the fifth scale degree (G) would be the dominant chord. 

The notes would be G – B – D – F, because it takes notes from the “key of C” to create the G7 chord. 

Chords that are called dominant almost always resolve to a tonic chord – in other words, if you see a dominant chord, it is almost always followed by a tonic chord.

G7 ⇨ CMaj7, for example, or A7 ⇨ DMaj7. 

What are Secondary Dominant Chords?

Now that we know how dominant and tonic chords work, and how they relate to each other, we can understand the concept behind secondary dominants.

A secondary dominant is a dominant chord that does not resolve, but instead resolves to a chord built from a different tone. 

Let’s take that D major scale from above as an example: D – E – F# – G – A – B – C# – D.

The main tonic chord for this scale is the D Maj chord (D – F# – A), and the main dominant chord is the A7 chord (A – C# – E – G).

The A7 would then resolve to D Maj in a chord progression. 

However, what if we had an E7 chord, or an F#7 chord, in a chord progression built in the key of D major?

Because these are not an A7 chord, they wouldn’t resolve to a D Maj. 

But they do have to resolve to a chord, because dominant seventh chords are made to resolve.

And they resolve how regular dominant chords would – to their “tonic”.

If we had an E7 as a dominant chord, what would its “tonic” chord be?

Well, E is the fifth note (V) of the scale of A major or A minor, so it could resolve from E7 ⇨ A major or E7 ⇨ A minor. 

Starting with an F#7, the note F# is the fifth note of a B major or B minor scale, so that could resolve F#7 ⇨ B minor or F#7 ⇨ B major. 

How Secondary Dominants are Used in Music 

The main reason a secondary dominant is used in a song or a chord progression is to “tonicize” a chord that is different from the main tonic chord.

This is all part of the musical concept of “tension and release”, which is a foundation of harmonic function. 

A dominant chord has a lot of tension inherent within it, because it has a tritone in the chord.

A tritone is a very dissonant interval that causes much of the tension found in music, and the “release” is when the tritone then changes to another, more stable interval, like a major third.

In this picture, the Bb7 has a tritone in it, the interval Ab-D.

This interval then releases to the interval of G-Eb, which is part of an Eb major chord.

This tension and release occurs whenever a dominant chord is followed by a tonic chord.

What a secondary dominant does is that it creates another tonic chord after it, creating tension and release in a different place in the song than it normally would be.

As an example, let’s take the song “Yesterday” by The Beatles: 

The song is in the key of F major, but the chord progression goes F ⇨ Em7 ⇨ A7 ⇨ Dm.

This tonicizes the D minor chord for a beat, before returning to the tonic of F Maj:

If a tonicization created by a secondary dominant lasts for more than a few chords or a measure, then it is called a modulation. 

Examples

The most common use of a secondary dominant is to provide a “dominant of the dominant” of the original tonic key.

Therefore, in C Maj, because G7 is the dominant, then the most common secondary dominant in C Maj would be a D7 that leads ⇨ G.

The dominant of a dominant often happens at the end of a line or verse.

It is found in many hymns and old religious music. 

Here is an example, the song “Holy Holy Holy”.

Listen for the dominant to the dominant around 0:35, during the lyrics “Soul will rise to thee”:

Another more contemporary example is “Don’t think Twice, It’s Alright” by Bob Dylan.

Listen for the secondary dominant at 0:22. 

Here is a secondary dominant in Mozart’s “Fantasia No. 4 in C Minor”.

This one, however, tonicizes the II chord.

You can also have multiple secondary dominants in a row.

This is often called a ragtime progression, because it was used a lot in early ragtime music.

Listen to the guitar picking in “Alice’s Restaurant” by Arlo Guthrie for a good example of the ragtime progression: 

A progression of secondary dominants in a row follows the circle of fifths.

An example would be E7 ⇨ A7 ⇨ D7 ⇨ G7 ⇨ C Maj. 

Conclusion

We hope you were able to learn everything you needed to about secondary dominants.

Its function is in the name, because it is a secondary dominant that tonicizes a secondary tonic, or one different from the normal tonic of the key. 

This is why this post will help you learn all about the different chord symbols in music. There are a lot of different chords, and learning their symbols and markings will help you read them more efficiently and understand them better. First, however, let’s recap what a chord is. 

What is a Chord? 

A chord in music is basically just two or more notes played at the same time.

Most of the time, the combination of these notes will create what we call harmony, and we can put different chords back to back in order to create a song. 

Here are a few different chords: 

As you can see in the example, the way we label a chord is with two parts.

First there is a letter, and this followed by either a small abbreviated word, letter, shape, number or a combination of two of them.

Let’s dive in to see exactly what both of these parts means.

Letters in Chord Symbols

Every chord symbol or marking first starts with a letter.

This letter represents what we call the root note of the chord.

The root of a chord is the note that the chord is built upon and is how people refer to the chord as a whole. 

Here are the notes of a C Major chord, with the root of the chord in red, because that is the note of C:

If you’ve ever heard someone say “C chord” or “Play G followed by D and then A”, these are the roots of the chords they represent, and are used as shorthand so we don’t always have to name the whole chord every time. 

If we refer to a chord by only its root, then we’re mostly likely referring to type of chord called a Major triad.

These are the most common and most “normal” type of chord, which is why we can shorten it to just the root note.

So, the phrase “Play G followed by D and then A” can be heard as “Play a G Major triad followed by a D Major triad and then an A Major triad”, as shown here:

The Second Part of Chord Symbols: Quality

The root of the chord is only one half of how we think about and notate chords.

There is always a second part of chord symbols, which we use to define the quality of the chord. 

A chord’s quality is basically a fancy way of saying what “kind” of chord it is. 

There are six main chord qualities:

• Major
• Minor
• Augmented
• Diminished
• Half-diminished
• Dominant

For each of these six chord qualities we have a symbol or abbreviation (and sometimes multiple options) that indicates to play that chord quality.

This saves us from having to write out “C Half-Diminished” on sheet music, because we often don’t have the space to write it. 

Here’s a table of each type of chord quality along with the various shorthand symbols that can be used.

Seventh Chord Symbols

Most of the chord qualities listed above are used when referring to triads (chords with three notes).

Triads use the root, third, and fifth of a scale to create a chord. 

However, you can add another note, or multiple, to a triad.

Adding the seventh of a scale gives you a four-note chord called a seventh chord. 

Because triads are the most common type of chord, we don’t have to write anything to specify a triad, but if we want to specify that a chord we’re playing or writing is a seventh chord, we need to add another symbol.

Mainly this is the number “7”, but not always. 

As you can see in the table, the qualities of “half-diminished” and “dominant” can use the same symbols to refer to a triad or a seventh chord. 

This is because one of the necessary requirements for these two qualities is to have a seventh added into the chord.

So, if you see a half-dim or dominant symbol (C^ø or C7), you should always play a seventh chord.

Extended Chords

In addition to triads and seventh chords, you can write and play chords with more than four notes.

The most common of these extended chords are ninths, elevenths, and thirteenths. 

Just like seventh chords, you can notate these chords by adding a 9, 11, or 13 to the symbols above (in the place the 7 would go). 

For example, a C13 chord (C dominant 13th), Gm9 (G minor 9th), DΔ11 (D Major 11th), or F+13 (F augmented 13th): 

Other Chord Symbols

So far we have looked at how to read and write the chord symbols for regular triads, seventh chords, and extended chords.

While these are the most common types of chords you will see, there are a lot of other types of chords that you might come across. 

You should know how to recognize these chord symbols so you know what they mean.

Added Tone Chords

Another type of chord symbol you might see is added tone chords.

This is when you want to add an extra note. 

For example, say you had a C major chord (C – E – G) and wanted to “add” the 9th (C – E – G – D) onto the chord.

If you write a C9 chord, that adds both the 7th and the 9th (C – E – G – Bb – D), and you might not want the dominant chord sound.

Instead, you simply write “add9” at the end of the chord symbol – Cadd9, for example.

This says to the player “Play a C major chord, but also add the 9th”. 

You can do the same with any note, but you almost always see it as either “add9”, “add11”, or “add13”. 

Altered Chords

Another type of chord symbol you might see is for altered chords.

Chords with altered tones in them work the same way as added tones chords – you simply add the note and the alteration to the end of the chord symbol. 

If you have a C7 chord (C – E – G – Bb), and you want to lower the 5th (G) to an Gb, you would just write a “b5” at the end of the symbol – C7b5. 

Or, if you have a C7 chord (C – E – G – Bb), and you want to raise the 5th (G) to an G#, you would just write a “#5” at the end of the symbol – C7#5. 

Suspended Chords

All of the chords we have been talking about so far have had the same three notes – the root, the 3rd, and the 5th – as the three main notes of the chord.

However, Suspended Chords are different. 

We write Suspended chord symbols with the abbreviation “sus”.

There are two types of suspended chords – we label these as sus2 and sus4 chords: 

• Csus2: G – C – D
• Csus4: G – A – D

Because sus4 chords are the more common of the two, we can take off the 4 at the end and just write “sus”.

So, if you see Gsus, you can just read it as “Gsus4”.

We can add extended chord tones, added tones, or altered tones on top of sus chords as well. 

Slash Chords and Polychords

A Slash Chord is a chord in which the lowest note is not the root note.

These can be notes that are already within the chord (in which case they’re also called inverted chords), or outside of the chord. 

Take an DMaj 7 chord as an example, D – F# – A – C#.

The “D” is the root of the chord, but any of these notes can be the lowest note when played.

For example, if we wanted the 5th to be the lowest note we’d write it as DMaj7/A: 

The “slash” part simply means that we take a slash (/) and put it between the chord symbol and the note that is at the bottom.

So, if an C chord was played with a E at the bottom, the chord would be – C/E or a G chord was played with a B at the bottom it would be G/B: 

The note after the slash can also be a non-chord tone.

Like in the case of DMaj7, you can have DMaj7/E, or DMaj7/G for example. 

Summary

As you can see, there are many different types of chords and many different ways to write them.

The best practice you can do is to just read and play lots of music, and especially jazz music and standards because they have a lot of chord symbols throughout. 

We hope this was able to help you read and write music better!

Once you’ve learned the basics of harmonic function and chord progressions, you should try to expand your technique by bending or breaking some of the rules you first need to learn.

This post takes a look at one of those rule-bending or breaking situations — the tritone substitution. What is a tritone substitution, how do you use it, and what is its function? First, however, let’s go over what a tritone is.

The Definition Of A Tritone 

A tritone is an interval of six semitones (half steps) or three whole tones (whole steps).

In fact, the name “tri”tone comes from the fact that it is an interval made by combining three whole tones.

If you look at the chromatic scale, which is a scale consisting of only semitones, you can start at any note and combine it with the note six notes away to create a tritone:

For example, starting on C, we can go up six notes (C, C#, D, D#, E, F) to get to F#, and the C-F# interval creates a tritone.

The same works for going down as well (for example, Bb ⇨ E is a tritone).

What Is A Tritone Substitution? 

A tritone substitution is when you substitute a dominant seventh chord (like G7 or D7) for another dominant seventh chord that is a tritone away from it.

For example, above we said that D – G# forms a tritone, and Bb – E as well.

So if we had a D7 chord in a progression, a tritone substitution would switch in a G#7 chord in its place, and a Bb7 could be switched to an E7.

The same is true the other way — a G#7 could be swapped for a D7 chord, and an E7 could be switched to a Bb7.

Here is a D7 chord next to a G#7 chord.

The reason a tritone substitution works harmonically, and the reason one can easily be swapped for another, is that dominant seventh chords that are a tritone apart share the same tritone notes within the chords themselves.

Let’s look at this D7 and G#7:

D7 notes — D, F#, A, C

G#7 notes — G#, B#, D#, F#

As you can see right away, they share the note F#.

They also share the note C, because B# is enharmonically equivalent to C (this means they are the same note, just written differently).

The notes C – F# form a tritone themselves, so the two chords share a pair of notes that form a tritone.

This is important because it is the tritone within the dominant seventh chord that creates such a strong tension and pulls toward the next chord in the progression.

Using a tritone substitution introduces a unique and non-diatonic chord to the chord progression, but keeps the same tritone intact, so it still creates the same tension and pulls just as strongly to the next chord. 

Tritone Substitutions In Chord Progressions

Chords in progressions are typically represented by a number, which is the scale degree that the chord is built upon in that specific key.

For example, let’s take a piece of music that’s in the key of C major: 

This is the Cmaj scale.

All the chords in a song that’s in the Cmaj key will have chords built on a note in this scale — Dmin, Amin, Fmaj, Gmaj, etc.

We can also number these scale degrees and then use those numbers in our chord progression:

Say we have a progression that goes Imaj7 (Cmaj7) ⇨ IVmaj7 (Fmaj7) ⇨ iimin7 (Dmin7) ⇨ V7 (G7) ⇨ I (Cmaj):

This is a very common chord progression, and the V7 ⇨ I is a common cadence (ending) to the progression.

However, with a tritone substitution, we can introduce a chord that is non-diatonic (not within the key of Cmaj) and therefore will sound interesting and colorful when paired with the other chords; but it also has the pull and resolution that a V7 ⇨ I cadence has. 

Hence, the note G is a tritone away from the note Db, and so we can use the Db7 chord as a tritone substitution.

As you can see above, there is no note Db in the Cmaj scale, but note D is the second scale degree and is written as ii (or II if major).

We can therefore write this tritone sub as a bII7 chord. 

Using this substitution gives us this progression: Imaj7 (Cmaj7) ⇨ IVmaj7 (Fmaj7) ⇨ iimin7 (Dmin7) ⇨ bII7 (Db7) ⇨ I (Cmaj):

The G7 chord contained the tritone B – F, which resolved to C – E in the Cmaj chord.

The bII7 (Db7) chord also contains that same tritone but is written as F – Cb, and it also resolves to the C – E in the Cmaj.

Also notice that the iimin7 ⇨ bII7 ⇨ I progression includes a descending sequence of semitones, going from D ⇨ Db ⇨ C. This also creates an additional pull to the tonic chord. 

That is the most common place you would see a tritone substitution — in the middle of a ii ⇨ V7 ⇨ I chord progression — because the descending semitones add a cool harmonic color. 

Another common usage is in a 12-bar blues progression.

A typical 12-bar blues progression looks like this: I7 ⇨ I7 ⇨ I7 ⇨ I7 ⇨ IV7 ⇨ IV7 ⇨ I7 ⇨ I7 ⇨ V7 ⇨ IV7 ⇨ I7 ⇨ I7.

A tritone substitution would occur in bar 4, when the I7 chord is about to transition to the IV7 chord, changing that I7 chord to a bV7 chord.

This would again give the downward semitone motion between bars 4-5. 

In Cmaj, instead of bars 1-5 looking like this: C7 ⇨ C7 ⇨ C7 ⇨ C7 ⇨ F7, it would instead look like C7 ⇨ C7 ⇨ C7 ⇨ Gb7 ⇨ F7. 

You can also use the tritone sub for other chords in a progression.

Given the progression I ⇨ VI7 ⇨ II7 ⇨ V7 ⇨ I, each of the chords VI7, II7, and V7 can be thought of as the “V” dominant chord of the next chord in the progression.

Thus, the VI7 chord is “V7 of II,” II7 is “V7 of V,” etc. 

Therefore, the same rules can apply for each chord, and the VI7 can be tritone subbed for bIII7, or the II7 can be tritone subbed for the bVI7.

Any chord in a progression that goes around the circle of fifths can be substituted for its tritone equivalent, adding cool harmonies and color wherever you want to in the music.

Examples Of Tritone Substitutions

There are examples of tritone substitutions in classical music.

They are usually labeled as a type of augmented Neapolitan sixth chord, in which a major chord built on the bII scale degree adds an augmented sixth note on top (the enharmonic equivalent of a b7), which creates the tritone.

One of the most widely known examples of this is the ending of Schubert’s String Quintet in C Major.

Listen for the final held chord at the fff markings (timestamp: 48:42), which is a Db7 chord rather than a G7 chord:

However, while there are tritone substitutions found in classical music, they are much more commonly associated with jazz music.

This is because jazz is more fluid and relaxed in terms of function rules, and more about color and feeling than classical music.

For example, in the jazz standard “In the Mood,” you see an Ab6 ⇨ Bdim7 ⇨ Bbm7 ⇨ Eb7 progression (listen at 0:48), with the B chord acting as a tritone sub for the “V of Bb,” F7.

Another spot is at 0:58, with the progression Eb6 ⇨ E7 ⇨ Eb7, as E7 is the tritone sub for Bb7:  

In the track “Dizzy Atmosphere” by Dizzy Gillespie, bars 17-25 contain the chord progression D7 ⇨ Db7 ⇨ C7 ⇨ B7 ⇨ Bb7 ⇨ A7 ⇨ Ab7.

Every other chord in that progression (Db7, B7, and A7) acts as a tritone substitution between the other chords because the whole progression can be thought of as repeating ii ⇨ V7 ⇨ I cadences, and the V7 middle chords are substituted for their tritone counterparts:

Summing Up

In summary, tritone substitutions are an interesting and harmonically functional way to add a unique, colorful chord into a chord progression.

They can be added anywhere there’s a dominant seventh motion, like in a ii ⇨ V7 ⇨ I progression. If you see a long progression of descending semitones (like in the “Dizzy Atmosphere” example), then that is most likely using tritone subs.

In this post, we will be defining what a tetrachord is, how it’s used in music, and how to create one. To help us do this, we first need to define what a chord is. 

What is a Chord? 

Whenever you play or sing more than one note simultaneously, you are producing a chord.

A chord can have any number of simultaneous notes (as long as it’s more than one), and chords with different numbers of notes are called different names.

A chord with two notes is called an interval or a dyad, and a chord with three notes is called a triad. 

Triads are the most common chord you find in music, and whenever you see a chord written with just a note – for example, C chord or F# chord – it signifies a major triad chord.

There are chords with more than three notes, like Sixth chords, Seventh chords, added tone chords, and extended chords. 

Chords are generally built from scales, which are groups of notes sorted by pitch in either ascending or descending order.

For example, you most likely have seen this picture, which is a C Major scale: 

Now, from this scale you can make a C Major triad by taking the first (called the root), third, and fifth notes – C, E, and G. 

What is a Tetrachord? 

A tetrachord is unique among musical terms with the word “chord” in them, because it actually is technically not a chord as defined above.

In fact, it is closer to a scale, because it is a series of notes played one at a time.

In Greek, the word “tetra” means four, so therefore a tetrachord is a series of four notes, with the extra specification that the four notes are taken from a span of five semitones, or half steps. 

A semitone/half step is the smallest interval in Western music.

There are 12 semitones in an octave interval, as shown in the chromatic scale.

A whole tone is simply an interval of two semitones:

A span of 5 semitones is the same as a Perfect 4th interval.

C ⇨ F or G ⇨ C are examples of Perfect 4ths.

Therefore, an example of a tetrachord could be four notes spanning C ⇨ F or G ⇨ C.

All tetrachords have three intervals (in between the four notes) and these intervals are almost always either a semitone or a whole tone:

History and Uses of Tetrachords

The first people to use tetrachords and develop music theory from them were the Ancient Greeks.

They developed three types of tetrachords – diatonic, chromatic, and enharmonic.

Diatonic Tetrachords

In a diatonic tetrachord, the three intervals used are two whole tones and one semitone.

An example would be a Major or minor tetrachord (e.g. C – D – E – F or A – B – C – D).

Chromatic Tetrachords

In a chromatic tetrachord, there is one interval that is a minor third, and two semitone intervals.

This is a rare example of a tetrachord with an interval greater than a whole tone.

An example would be D – E#(F) – F# – G. 

Enharmonic Tertrachords

An enharmonic tetrachord is one you’re likely to never see used.

It has one interval of a major third (four semitones) and then two intervals of half a semitone.

Because this involves microtonal notes (e.g. B half-sharp), it is hard to notate and even harder to play.

Use of Tetrachords by The Greeks

The Greeks had specific names for the four notes of a tetrachord.

In ascending order they were:

• hypate
• parhypate
• lichanos
• mese

While these terms aren’t widely used today, you still might see them sometimes when identifying notes in a tetrachord:

Use in Classical Music 

In the Classical and Romantic Era, tetrachords were based upon equal temperament, and were used to explain many types of scales, like major and minor: 

The Major tetrachord uses the interval pattern tone – tone – semitone (e.g. C – D – E – F). 

The minor tetrachord uses the interval pattern tone – semitone – tone (e.g. C – D – Eb – F). 

The harmonic tetrachord uses the interval pattern semitone – minor third – semitone (e.g. C – Db – E – F). 

The upper minor tetrachord uses the interval pattern semitone – tone – tone (e.g. C – Db – Eb – F).

To make the average scale that we use in modern music, all you have to do is stack these tetrachords on top of each other, putting the second (top) one a whole tone above the end of the first one – for example, a Major C – D – E – F plus another Major tetrachord G – A – B – C makes up a C Major scale.

The second tetrachord starts on G, which is a whole tone above the F at the end of the first tetrachord. 

Summing Up – Tetrachords

Tetrachords are a unique brand of chord because they aren’t multiple notes being played at once.

In fact, they act more like scales, and can be combined to make many different types of scales.

Overall, tetrachords are rare and aren’t often mentioned by name in music theory, but they have a strong influence on melody and harmony writing, so it’s helpful to be aware of them.

In this post, we’ll look at exactly what the root of a chord is and what it means. First, however, let’s recap what a chord is. 

What is a Chord? 

In music, a chord is when you play, sing, or hear multiple notes at the same time.

Any group of more than one note can be considered a chord, but chords with a certain number of notes have specific names.

For example, a chord with only two notes is called an interval or a dyad. 

A chord with three notes is called a triad, and chords with more than three notes are Seventh chords, added tone chords, or extended chords, among others.

In almost all music you would hear on the radio or in a film, chords are the main source of harmony and harmonic function in a song.

In this example, only the final beat of the bar has a chord on it.

Even though it has the same notes that were played in the first three beats, it has all of the notes played at the same time:

To read more about chords and the different types check out our guide here.

What is the Root of a Chord? 

With chords of three or more notes, you can represent and name that chord with a single note.

This note is called the root, and that is how people would refer to the chord as a whole.

You’ve most likely heard someone say “G chord” or “Bb Major chord”, and in those two cases the named note would be the root (G and Bb).

In the example above, the chord on the final beat is a C Maj chord, so therefore C is the root: 

There can be many chords with the same root.

Every chord that is built upon the note Ab, for example, has the Ab as its root – Ab Maj, Ab min, Ab augmented, Ab diminished, Ab7, Abm7^b5, Abmaj7^#11, etc. all have an Ab root note.

When you just refer to a chord by its root note, however, it is assumed you are saying that it’s a major chord.

So when you hear “Go from C to G” that means start on a C Maj chord and change to a G Maj chord.

With all other chord qualities – minor, augmented, diminished, Seventh chords, etc. – you need to specify what the chord is.

Here is an example with 4 different C chords: 

When the lowest note of a chord is the root note, we’d say the chord is ‘in root position.’

This leads us to question what happens if the lowest note is not the root?

Chord Inversions

Chord inversions are when some note other than the root is played as the lowest note in the chord.

For example, a G7 chord (G – B – D – F) has four notes, and any one of them can be the lowest note.

So therefore there’s four different positions a G7 can be played in – root position (with the G lowest), 1st inversion (B lowest), 2nd inversion (D lowest), and 3rd inversion (F lowest).

For more on inversions see our entire post about them here.

Here are the four positions of a G7 chord, with the root (G) highlighted in each one to show you where it can be played:

How to Identify the Root of a Chord

In a triad, the three notes are called the root, 3rd, and 5th.

If you have a seventh chord, you add the 7th, and extended chords above that could add the 9th, 11th, and 13th.

So, with up to 7 notes in a chord, how do you know which one is the root when you see it written out?

For instance, what are the roots and names of these four chords:

Most chords are created by stacking intervals of a 3rd on top of each other (notable exceptions are 6th chords, added tone chords, and quartal chords).

One of the most sure ways to figure out the root of a chord is by rearranging it into a stack of 3rds.

When chords are written as such, the lowest note will be the root. 

For example, the first chord on the left has an interval of a 3rd between the Bb ⇨ D, but between the D ⇨ G is a 4th.

To rewrite this in only 3rds, you move the G down an octave, so it then reads G ⇨ Bb ⇨ D.

This is all in 3rds, so therefore the lowest note (G) we now know is the root.

Then, we have to figure out the chord quality, and the Bb and D♮ tells us this is a minor chord, so therefore the first chord is G minor.

The other way to figure out the root of a chord is with this shortcut: if the chord is a triad (only three notes), then the root is the note directly above the interval of a 4th, and if the chord is a Seventh chord, the root is directly above the interval of a 2nd.

In the middle two examples, which are both Seventh chords, there is one interval of a 2nd in each chord. 

The first chord (second from the left), with notes B – D – E – G#, has the 2nd from D ⇨ E.

Therefore, the root of the chord is E, and with the G# and D♮, we can figure out that it’s an E7 chord.

The chord second from the right has the notes Ab – C – D – F. The 2nd is between C ⇨ D, so the root is D.

With the F♮, C♮, and Ab, it is a D half-diminished chord (also written as Dm7b5).

With the final chord (notes C – G – B – E – F#), it is a bit more complicated, because there are 5 notes in the chord, and  both the E ⇨ F# interval and the F# ⇨ G (if the F# was brought down an octave) are 2nds.

If we arrange the notes in close position, we get C – E – F# – G – B, and we have to use our knowledge of music theory to figure it out.

C – E – G – B is a CMaj7 chord, and the F# is #11 in CMaj, so the chord is a CMaj7#11: 

The chords written above, and the inversions they are in.

Sixth Chords

With 6th chords, more than one chord analysis is possible, so it’s hard to determine what exactly the root of the chord is.

For example, here are two chords that could either be seen as 6th chords in root position, or 7th chords in 1st inversion: 

Because they share the exact same notes, you have to rely on other factors to figure out the root, such as the chords around it, the key signature, any written notes in the music, etc.

For example, take the first chord above, which is either a CMaj6 or Amin7.

With different chords leading up to it, we can tell which type of chord it is: 

Summing Up 

The root of a chord is just another name for the note that the chord is defined with.

If you see chord progressions written out with notes (e.g. A – F# min – D – E) as you would when looking up chords to a song, then those notes are the root of each chord, and if there’s no other information with it, then it’s a Major chord. 

Figuring out the root of a chord written down in sheet music is a bit trickier, but there are some tips you can use, and the more you do it the easier it is to spot the root and the chord quality.

In this guide, we’ll take a look at slash chords, what they are, how to read them, and when to use them. To learn all this, we’ll first need to know what a chord is. 

What is a Chord? 

In music, whenever you hear two or more notes being played at the same time, you are hearing a chord.

If the chord has only two notes, it’s known as an interval or a dyad, a three-note chord is a triad, and there are many types of chords with four or more notes, like extended chords and Seventh chords. 

Chords are built on what is called a root note, which is the main letter that defines the chord.

For example, a D Maj chord and a D min chord are both built on the root note “D”, even though they are different chords.

The other notes in a triad are called the third and the fifth, because they are an interval of a third and a fifth above the root note, respectively. 

Therefore, if a D Maj chord is made of the notes D – F# – A, then the “F#” is the third and the “A” is the fifth.

Seventh chords are called that because they add the note that is a seventh above the root.

In the case of D Maj7, this would be “C#”, so the whole chord would be D-F#-A-C#.

What is a Slash Chord? 

In simple terms, a Slash Chord is a chord where the bass note – the lowest note heard in a chord – is different from the root note.

In the D Maj and D Maj7 examples above, the lowest note of the chord would be the note D: 

The same is true for playing chords in general – the root note of the chord is the lowest note played, and from there you build up the third, the fifth, the seventh etc.

However, with Slash Chords, there is a different note at the bottom, which is depicted by a slash after the main chord.

The way you write a slash chord is: main chord / bass note.

This is read and spoken as “main chord slash bass note” or, more commonly, “main chord over bass note”.

So, for example, if you wrote the D Maj7 chord above (D-F#-A-C#) as DMaj7/A, it would look like this: 

The chord on the right would be read as “D Maj7 over A” or “D Maj7 slash A”. 

Slash chords can have any note after the slash, but typically it is a note found within the chord.

Therefore, slash chords are sometimes thought of as a simpler, more modern way to write chord inversions than the more complicated figured bass style. 

With a C7 chord (C – E – G – Bb) there are four notes, and if any one of them besides the main note “C” are written as the bass note, you can use a slash chord to notate that.

C7 means C is the bass note, and C7/E, C7/G, and C7/Bb mean that E, G, and Bb are the bass note, respectively. 

However, you don’t need to have a note within the chord be the bass note in a slash chord; it can be any note.

For example, with Bmin (B – D – F#) you can make it into Bmin/G#, or Bmin/A#, which would just be a B min chord with an additional note below it: 

Because the note after the slash is called the bass note, it is often played separately from the chord before the slash.

For example, in a rock band with a guitarist and batssist, the guitar player would play the main chord (Bmin) and the bass player would play the note after the slash (G# or A#):

Common Examples of Slash Chords

Most modern pop songs will have some Slash Chords in them.

This is mainly because the chords most played in pop music progressions are the I, IV, and V chord (see our article on chord progressions if you need more information).

In C, this would be C Maj, F Maj, and G Maj.

The roots of these chords are about as far away as you can get from each other – the interval from C – G is 7 semitones, and from G – C is 5 semitones.

With slash chords, the bass note doesn’t have to travel as far and the chord progression sounds smoother.

Take the song “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac as an example:

The guitar chord progression goes from C Maj – G Maj/B – A min7 – G Maj/B.

The G Maj/B slash chord allows the bass note to descend stepwise from C ⇨ B ⇨ A ⇨ B before repeating, and that creates a smoother transition from one chord to the next, instead of jumping 7 semitones from C to G:

Another song that does a similar progression (in G this time) is “Lego House” by Ed Sheeran: 

The song “God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys uses a lot of slash chords in which the bass note is the fifth of the chord (e.g. C/G, D/A).

This creates a more floaty feeling, like the chords aren’t very settled, and it allows them to change through different key centers.

For example:

Another use is when one chord is played normally (with no slash) and then played as a slash chord.

This keeps essentially the same chord but it changes it up in the bass note to create motion and keep the listener from feeling bored.

An example of this is “Thinking Out Loud” by Ed Sheeran, in which the chord progression goes: D – D/F# – G – A.

This slash chord (D/F#) also allows him to go all the way from D to G with a step in between, so it’s not as big of a leap in the bass note: 

The song “Crash Into Me” by Dave Matthews Band is basically all slash chords.

The chord progression is an E Maj chord played on top of 8 different notes to create a progression: 

Every fourth chord is an E Maj chord with the bass note of E, so it’s not considered a slash chord, even though the bass note is separate from the E chord above, like it is in all of the other chords. 

For example:

Summing Up Slash Chords

That’s all of the main information on Slash Chords.

Now that you know what to look for, you’re bound to see them all over the place, especially in guitar chord charts and tabs.

Just remember, if you’re playing by yourself you play both the chord and bass note, but if there’s more than one person playing a guitar/piano and a bass, then the guitar/piano player just plays the main chord and the bassist just plays the bass note.

In this article, we’ll discuss Altered Chords. What are they, and how do we make them? To learn all about Altered Chords, first we need to know exactly what a chord is.

What is a Chord? 

A Chord is basically any time more than one note is played simultaneously.

Chords can have only two notes – these are called intervals or dyads – but the vast majority have three or more notes.

Here is a post we wrote about all the different types of chords if you want to go deeper but we’ll give a quick overview here.

Most of the time chords – especially chords with three or more notes – are created by stacking intervals of a 3rd on top of each other.

A minor 3rd interval is 3 semitones (or half steps) and a Major 3rd interval is 4 semitones.

A major triad (a triad is a chord with three notes) starts with a major 3rd and then stacks a minor 3rd on top.

So, starting on C – a Maj 3rd goes up 4 semitones to E, and then a min 3rd from E goes up 3 semitones to G – therefore a C Maj triad is written C – E – G. 

You can also figure out a chord by taking every other note from the diatonic scale that the chord is a part of.

Definition of Altered Chords 

We can give the notes of a chord numbers to keep track of them better.

This also allows us to switch between chords in different keys, because a major chord will always have the same intervals between the notes.

Let’s give the C major scale numbers instead of letter notes: 

Instead of using 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. a lot of the time you’ll see these represented as Roman numerals.

Therefore a Maj chord uses the numbers I – III – V, and if it’s a seventh chord you add the number VII.

There are also extended chords that use numbers greater than VII – these are called 9th, 11th, and 13th chords. 

An altered chord is when you change one or more of the notes in a diatonic chord (a chord taken from a diatonic scale, as shown above) by either raising it or lowering it a semitone.

If we’re in C major like the scales above, a dominant chord (which would be G major) would use the notes G – B – D.

However, if we lower the 3rd from B to Bb, or raise the 5th from D to D#, then we have an altered chord because it uses a note that doesn’t show up in the normal scale. 

One common type of altered chord is the augmented chord which is when the 5th note of a major chord is raised one semitone.

An example of this would be C major augmented chord (a type of altered chord) which would use the notes C – E – G#.

Here the G natural is altered and raised one semitone to G#.

Alt Chords 

The most common notes that are changed in an altered chord are the 5th and the 9th degrees.

This is especially the case with a dominant chord, which is a major chord that has a flattened 7th.

With a C7 (dominant) chord, you have C – E – G – Bb, and if you add the 9th it’s C-E-G-Bb-D.

An altered chord would either raise (#) or flatten (b) the 5th or 9th (Gb or G#, Db or D#), so you could have C7^b5, C7^#5, C7^b9, or C7^#9. 

These types of chords are called “Alt” chords, and you most likely will see them in Jazz music.

Instead of adding all of the different configurations of the flattened or raised 5th and 9th, you just need to write this chord as C7alt.

An “alt” chord has the following notes: 

• root (I)
• 3rd
• b5 and/or #5 (b5 is often written as #11)
• b7
• b9 and/or #9, and b13

Here are two ways you can write out an Alt chord.

They’re usually not specified as to which way you have to write them, so it’s up to you as a player or composer whether you want to have a b5 or #5 or both, or b9 or #9 or both also. 

Borrowed Chords and Secondary Dominants

Using the broadest definition any chord with a non-diatonic note in it can be considered an altered chord.

The two most common types of chords that feature non-diatonic notes are:

• Borrowed chords
• Secondary dominants

Borrowed Chords

Borrowed Chords are chords in a specific key that “borrow” notes from the parallel major or minor key.

For instance, if we’re in D major, the parallel minor is D natural minor:

D – E – F – G – A – Bb – C – D.

So, if a chord that is diatonic to D Major (G Major, E minor, A Major, etc.) were to borrow a note from the D minor scale, it would become a borrowed chord. 

A G minor chord is G – Bb – D, which uses the Bb from the D minor scale, and would be considered a borrowed chord if the song we’re playing is in D Major.

Same with an A minor chord, or a C Major chord, or even D minor. 

Secondary Dominants

A Secondary Dominant, on the other hand, is a dominant chord (a seventh chord with a Maj 3rd and a min 7th) that resolves to any note besides the tonic.

What this does is it typically alters either the 3rd (raising it to make it Maj) or the 7th (flattening it to make it minor).

In the D Maj scale above, the F# chord would be minor (F# – A – C# – E), so to make it an F#7 chord, we’d need to raise the 3rd to become F# – A# – C# – E.

This alters the A, making it non-diatonic.

An example of secondary dominants can be found in Don’t Know Why by Jesse Harris. In Norah Jones’ cover, which is in Bb major, you’ll hear a C7 chord (In the key of Bb major you’ll have an Eb but it’s been raised by a semitone to E natural).

Altered Chords Summed Up

We hope this article was really helpful to help you learn all about Altered Chords.

Just as its name implies, an altered chord is at the most basic level a chord with one or more notes altered – raised or flattened a semitone – to make them non-diatonic.

From there, the rest is just a matter of which notes to alter and how you want the chord to sound.

This post is about a very specific chord, called a Neapolitan Chord. What is it, and how does it function? To find out, we need to recap exactly what a chord is. 

What is a Chord? 

Anytime you hear more than one note being played or sung at the same time, you are hearing a chord.

Chords come in all shapes and sizes, but they all have to have at least two notes sounding simultaneously.

A chord with two notes is known as either an interval or a dyad.

A three-note chord is known as a triad. 

Chords with more than three notes include seventh chords (called so because they use the 7th scale degree) or extended chords which can have five, six, or even seven notes in a single chord.

Triads and sevenths chords are almost always made out of stacking intervals of a 3rd on top of the other.

A minor 3rd is 3 semitones, and a Major 3rd is 4 semitones, and a Major and minor chord are different because the Major chord has a Major 3rd – minor 3rd stack and a minor chord has a minor 3rd – Major 3rd stack. 

Definition of Neapolitan Chords

A Neapolitan Chord is a very rare and unique chord, because it is non-diatonic, meaning it is not built from any of the notes of a major or minor scale.

It is a major chord built from the flattened 2nd scale degree.

For example, in C major, the 2nd scale degree is D – so if we lower the D it becomes Db, and so in C major a Neapolitan Chord would be Db Maj. 

The most common way you will see a Neapolitan chord written is in first inversion.

This means that the root note goes up an octave, and the 3rd of the chord is now the lowest note.

So instead of the flat II chord being written as Db – F – Ab, it would be written as F – Ab – Db.

Because chords in first inversion are called “sixth” chords in figured bass you will most likely see a Neapolitan written and referred to as a “Neapolitan Sixth Chord”. 

You will see it notated in music both as “bII” and “N”, and if it is in first inversion it’ll be written as “bII⁶” or “N⁶”.

Harmonic Function of a Neapolitan Chord

Just like the ii chord that it shares a scale degree with, a Neapolitan chord is most often used in a predominant function, meaning it acts as a setup chord to the dominant, which then resolves back to the tonic.

Here is an example progression in C min, going from predominant (N6) to dominant (G7) to tonic (Cmin7). 

Neapolitan Chords are typically found more often in a minor key.

This is because, in minor the “vi” scale degree is lowered, and therefore is the same note that would appear as the 5th in a bII chord.

In both major and minor keys, the N chord can be thought of as a chromatic alteration to either the iimin or the ivmin chords.

Examples of Neapolitan Chords

In Vivaldi’s “Summer” concerto from his Four Seasons group has an N6 chord in it, in bar 22.

The current key center is Gmin, and so the Neapolitan chord is AbMaj, but played in first inversion it’s written C – Eb – Ab.

It is also prominent in Beethoven’s famous “Moonlight Sonata”.

The piece is in C#min, and in the second half of bar 3 Beethoven plays a DMaj chord – listen for it at 0:23.

Neapolitan Chords – In Summary

That’s all of the main information to know about Neapolitan chords.

The biggest takeaway from this article is to know that Neapolitan refers to the lowered (flattened) 2nd scale degree, and builds a Maj chord from it.

We hope this post helped you learn all about “N” chords, and if you have any questions or comments let us know.

Though there are many different types of chords, with major and minor being the most famous, this post will cover one specific type of chord: the half-diminished chord. First, however, we need to understand better what a chord is. Read on!

What Is A Chord? 

A chord is when two or more notes are played at the same time.

The number of notes is usually between two and four. A chord with two notes is called an interval or a dyad, a chord with three notes is called a triad, and the most popular type of chord with four notes is a seventh chord.

With triads and seventh chords, you create the chord by stacking intervals of a third on top of each other.

For example, a major triad is made with two intervals of a third. A major third and a minor third in C would be C, E, and G.

To make a minor triad, you stack a minor third followed by a major third, which in C would be C, Eb, and G.

On top of these triads, you can add a seventh, which is just either a major third (for a maj7 chord) or a minor third (for a 7 chord or min7 chord) above the top note.

So in a seventh chord, you have these notes: 

For more information on chord qualities and the different types of triads, check out our guide to chords here.

What Is A Half-Diminished Chord? 

A half-diminished chord is a particular type of seventh chord. It is a chord with a minor seventh above a diminished triad.

A diminished triad is a chord with two minor thirds stacked on top of each other.

Check out our post on diminished chords here for further reading.

Instead of a maj-min third stack (like a major chord) or a min-maj third stack (like a minor chord), a diminished chord is min-min thirds. 

From this diminished triad, we can add a seventh to get a seventh chord.

If we add a minor seventh, which is a major third above the diminished fifth interval produced by the triad, then that is considered a half-diminished chord.

This is a C half-diminished chord. It has a Cdim triad on the bottom (C-Eb-Gb) and then a min7th (Bb) on top.

This is slightly different from a fully diminished seventh chord, which would have a B double flat instead of a B flat.

In a major scale, a half-diminished chord is found naturally starting on the VII scale degree.

So in C, this means if you take a seventh chord starting on B, and only using the notes found in the C major scale (no accidentals), then you get the half-diminished B-D-F-A. This is also known as the Locrian mode.

In a minor scale, the half-diminished chord is found naturally starting on the II scale degree. In C minor, this would be D-F-Ab-C. 

Half-Diminished Chord Symbol

Because the half-diminished chord is a seventh chord, it usually has the number 7 written in the chord notation.

The half-diminished part is notated by a circle with a line through it: ø

Another way you can see a half-diminished chord written is as a minor seventh chord with a flattened fifth, Cmin7^b5 or G#m7^(b5) for example.

Sometimes there are parentheses around the b5, but not always. 

So a half-diminished chord is written as Cø7, Fø7, Dø7, Gø7, or you could use m.

Sometimes you see the chord written without the 7 — such as Cø or Ebø.

Even though there’s no number 7 in the chord, it’s still a seventh chord because the ø symbol means “half-diminished,” and that has to be a seventh chord.

Function Of Half-Diminished Chords

A ø7 chord has two primary harmonic functions:

First, it can act as a predominant chord in minor, one that leads to the dominant.

This is because in the minor scale, the chord built on scale degree II, which is always a predominant chord, is a half-diminished chord.

Here is an example in A min: 

In major, the ø7 chord usually provides a dominant function, leading back to the tonic (main chord of a song).

This is because a viiø7 chord shares almost all the same notes as a V7 chord in a major key.

For example, in C major, the G7 (G-B-D-F) and Bø7 (B-D-F-A) share the B, D, and F in common; meaning, the Bø7 chord can act as a stand-in for the G7 chord. 

Examples In Music

In the famous “Wedding March” by Mendelssohn, the big chord at the beginning of the main melody is an F#ø7. Listen for it at 0:16.

Chopin’s Scherzo no. 1 in B Minor starts with a long-held C#ø7 chord. 

In the song “We Are the Champions” by Queen, there is a Bbø7 in the line “And I mean to go on, and on, and on, and on.” Listen at 0:36 for the second “on.”

Summing Up Half-Diminished Chords

Half-diminished chords are really interesting to play and use in compositions because they have multiple functions and can sound really different depending on the context they’re played in.

Sometimes they sound and feel super dark and minor, and other times, they can be energetic and major.

We hope that this post has helped you learn all about half-diminished chords. Let us know if you have questions; we’d love to help!

This post will go through everything there is to know about extended chords. To do this, we need first to recap what a chord is.

What Is A Chord? 

In music, notes can be played one right after another, which is what we think of as melody.

A chord, on the other hand, is when multiple notes are played at the same time, and they are the basis of harmony in music. 

Chords can have any number of notes in them, but the common ones have either:

• Two notes — called intervals (or dyads)
• Three notes — called triads
• Four notes — called tetrads

Most triads and tetrads are built by stacking intervals of a third one on top of the other.

These types of chords are called tertian chords because all the intervals between each successive note are a third.

Therefore, we can use the scale degrees to number the notes of a chord.

Take the C major scale, for example: 

We can label all the notes by their position on the scale. So a third interval skips from one number to two numbers to the right (or left).

So a C major chord is built from C-E-G, the I, III, and V (skipping the II and the IV).

A Cmaj7 scale uses the I, III, V, and VII (C, E, G, B).

An F chord built from this scale would be F-A-C, the IV, VI, and VIII (or I) scale degrees.

Definition Of Extended Chords

An extended chord is a tertian chord — meaning, it is based on stacking thirds, like major, minor, and seventh chords.

The difference, however, is that extended chords extend past the seventh note into the next octave.

These extended notes can be in addition to the four notes already used in a seventh chord, creating chords with five, six, or seven notes in them.

However, the extended notes can also be in place of the fifth or the seventh to lower the number of notes needed in a chord.

This is a C major scale that is two octaves long rather than just one.

After the first octave (notes 1–8), the second octave keeps counting (9–15) rather than starting over at 1 again.

An extended chord uses these higher numbers and adds the notes that they go with. 

Types Of Extended Chords

The main three types of extended chords are as follows:

• 9th chords
• 11th chords
• 13th chords

A 9th chord uses the scale degrees I, III, V, VII, and IX, which means a Cmaj9 would be played C-E-G-B-D.

An 11th chord would have all those notes plus the 11th (F in Cmaj11).

And a 13th chord, then adds the 13th (A in Cmaj13).

Extended Chords Qualities

Just like intervals and chords, extended chords can have different qualities.

These are the main ones:

• Major
• Minor
• Dominant

You can also get augmented chords and diminished chords, but we won’t look at those in this post.

Major Extended Chords

Major extended chords are built from the major scale (also known as the Ionian mode).

They typically would all be built with a major seventh chord (in C, this would be C, E, G, B), with the extended note added above.

Minor Extended Chords

Minor extend chords, on the other hand, are built from the natural minor scale (also known as the Aeolian mode).

These extended chords all start with a minor seventh chord (in C, this would be C, Eb, G, Bb), with the extended note added on top.

Dominant Extended Chords

The last type that we’ll look at is dominant extended chords, which are built from the Mixolydian mode.

This is the same as the major scale but with a flattened seventh note.

These extended chords all start with a dominant seventh chord (in C, this would be C, E, G, Bb), with the extended note added on top.

When writing the chord symbol for dominant extended chords, we just write numbers and no words with them.

For example, C9, C11, and C13 would imply a dominant chord (flattened seventh).

Voicing Extended Chords

With extended chords, because they have so many notes, you can sort of pick and choose which ones you want to use.

Choosing which notes and where to put them is called chord voicing.

For instance, take the Cmaj13 chord below.

You can play it with or without the 5th, 9th, and 11th and with the notes in any order.

In an extended chord, the most important notes are the root (I), the 3rd and the 7th (to determine the quality of the chord), and the highest note from the chord, whether that be the 9th, 11th, or 13th.

The other notes — the 5th and the lower notes of the extended parts — are not as important, and so can either be added in or left out.

Add Chords

There are also chords that are called added tone chords or “add” chords.

These are chords that take a triad (I – III – V) and “add” a note on top. 

These chords take the F major chord and “add” either a 9, 11, or 13, depending on which extended chord it wants to emulate.

The same can be done with Fmin, labeled Fmin(add9). 

Examples of Extended Chords In Music

Extended chords are used a lot in jazz and funk music because they add really unique colors and chord progressions when played.

Here’s a song that uses an E9 chord as the tonic, “Play that Funky Music” by Wild Cherry.

Here is the song “Red Clay” by Freddie Hubbard. It has many extended chords in its main progression, which is shown below.

See how many 9 and 11 chords you can find!

Summing Up Extended Chords

Extended chords seem a lot more complicated than they actually are. Most times, you hear them when a genius musician is playing really fast Jazz, and everything just sounds like a jumble of notes.

However, all you need to realize is that extended chords “extend” past the main four notes of a regular seventh chord and sometimes play notes from the second octave of the scale.