The Dominant Seventh printable pdf download

music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush

The Dominant Seventh

The dominant seventh is the diatonic seventh

chord built on the fifth scale degree. we

already discussed diatonic seventh chords...

why give this one all this special attention?

but another reason

for one thing, the

for spending a little extra

dominant seventh is,

by far, the most common

time with it is the fact that

seventh chord used by

there are a few things

that apply to it that don’t

the composers of the

apply to the other diatonic

common practice period.

seventh chords.

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it’s just a major-minor seventh...

first, a note on terminology:

the reason these are often

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confused is that in popular

and jazz theory, the term

the terms “major-minor seventh”

“dominant” is used to label

and “dominant seventh” are not

the chord type instead of

interchangeable! “Major-minor

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until it’s placed in a particular key!

& b

the chord’s role.

seventh” is the chord’s type, and

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“dominant seventh” is the role

the chord plays in the context

of a particular key .

the other important thing to know about the dominant seventh chord is that common practice

period composers would sometimes use some non-standard ways of resolving the seventh!

ornamental resolution

transferred resolution

in this resolution, the seventh is still

this is the “hot potato” resolution: instead of

resolved down by step, but it takes an

being resolved down by step in the same voice,

ornamental “detour” before getting there.

the seventh is passed to another voice in

œ œ œ œ ˙

another dominant seventh chord.

the ornament

can be any

the seventh still

shape or

seventh

needs to resolve

resolution

transferred

length, but it

ornament

down by step by

to tenor

must resolve

whatever voice is

to the note

the last to have it.

down a step

from the

seventh of the

If the bass voice gets it, he resolves it

seventh chord.

immediately, ending the fun for everyone.

bass resolution

delayed resolution

in this resolution, the seventh of the chord

Here, the resolution of the seventh is

is still resolved down by step, but the note

delayed by moving to some other chord

it resolves to appears in the bass voice.

(usually the subdominant) and having the

seventh of the chord hold out until the

dominant seventh returns.

the voice that

had the seventh

after the V

resolves up,

seventh

returns, the

resolution

usually by step.

voice that has

seventh

resolution

the seventh

should still

resolve it

appropriately!

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The Dominant Seventh

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