CHAPTER 2

Secondary Chords

Up until this point, the melodies and chords you’ve learned have been built from the seven scale degrees that make up the major scale. The exclusive use of these notes is the foundation that underlies much of the theory we’ve discussed so far.

Of course, the truth is that songs do at times use notes that are outside their scale. In this chapter, we’ll discuss the first of several important classes of chords that do this. The fact that songs can sometimes use notes outside their scale does not mean the theory you’ve learned so far is being invalidated. The majority of the songs you hear on the radio really do stick almost entirely to their scale. When notes outside the scale are used, it is often done in very specific ways that reinforce the ideas you’ve been taught. This chapter will discuss one of the ways this is done and show you how to incorporate these techniques into your own songs.

2.1 The “V of V” chord

So far, the I chord has been the tonal center of the songs we have studied. It is the chord on which progressions often start and end, and its stability defines the home base of a song. Home base is such an important idea that songwriters have developed powerful methods based on this concept to change the feel of their songs. One technique in particular is to establish one of the other chords in a song (i.e., not I) as if it were the new home base chord instead. This temporary new home base can be short-lived and can last for as little as the duration of a single chord. However, as part of this home base switch, a new class of chords shows up that can give your songs greater variety.

When temporarily switching to a new home base, the most important thing a songwriter needs to do is make the listener hear and feel this new tonal center. It turns out that the best way to set this up involves a special kind of V chord. This shouldn’t be surprising. Recall that one of the first things we learned in Hooktheory I is the strong relationship the V chord has with the I chord. No other two chords establish a key faster than these. Entire songs have been written with nothing but V and I chords, and, as a cadence chord, V loves to resolve to the I chord. This suggests that the quickest way to establish a new home base is to simply play the chord that would be the iV chord of the new home base followed by a strong resolution to the new “I.” To see how this works in practice, let’s consider a specific example.

Assume we are writing a song in the key of C. This means every basic chord will be built from the notes of the C major scale:

C major scale

Let’s say we want to temporarily make V feel like a new home base (the new “I”). To do this, we will use the major scale that starts on scale degree 5 of the C major scale (scale degree 5 is the bass of V). This is the G major scale:

G major scale

Next, we build a V chord (scale degrees 5, 7, and 2) in this new scale.

V chord in G major

The V chord in the key of G major is a D. This D chord functions as the V chord of the V chord (D is the V of G major and G is the V of C major). For this reason, it is called a “V of V” chord (read “five of five” ) and notated as V/V. By playing a V/V, we can temporarily make V feel like a new home base.

To determine the scale degrees that V/V contains, we can look at the notes of the D chord back in the original key of C major.

V/V chord in C major

As shown above, the V/V chord contains scale degree 2, the note between scale degrees 4 and 5 (an F♯), and scale degree 6. What scale degree does F♯ correspond to given that F♯ is not in the C major scale? Just as we add ♯s and ♭s to notes to indicate that they are raised or lowered, we can do the same thing with scale degrees. In this case, the F♯ corresponds to scale degree ♯4 (read “sharp four”). Thus, V/V chords contain scale degrees 2, ♯4, and 6. Any time you use a chord that has a function relative to a different home base, you are using what is called a bsecondary chord.

V/V in music

The primary function of V/V is to resolve to its target chord, the V. Let’s listen to a few examples to see how the V/V sounds. First up is “Desperado” by The Eagles:

“Desperado” by The Eagles

Here’s another typical use of V/V in “We Are the Champions” by Queen.

“We Are the Champions” by Queen

The V/V can sound surprising initially due to the ♯4 in the chord not being in the scale. What makes this progression work is the quick, strong cadence to the V to get the song back to the key that it was written in.

Notice that in this example, the V/V is a seventh chord (V⁷/V). In the following exercise, you will go through the process of figuring out the scale degrees of a V⁷/V.

Check for Understanding

What scale degrees are in a V⁷/V chord?

If you don’t immediately know the answer, it’s OK. We don’t expect you to. Below, we will work through it together. If you think you already know the answer, you can click “Show Answer Now.” Otherwise continue reading through the explanation.

Show Answer Now

V⁷/V contains the scale degrees 2, ♯4, 6, and 1.

To determine the scale degrees of V⁷/V, we will use the same approach we used when determining the scale degrees of V/V. We start with the C major scale on piano:

C major scale

Next we build a major scale that starts on scale degree 5 of the C major scale since, we want to temporarily establish the V as a new home base. This is the G major scale.

G major scale

Next we build a V⁷ chord (scale degrees 5, 7, 2, and 4) in the G major scale.

V⁷ chord in G major

Now all that is left to do is figure out the degrees of the C major scale the highlighted notes correspond to.

Show Answer

V⁷/V chord in C major

Looking at these same notes back in the C major scale reveals that V⁷/V contains the scale degrees 2, ♯4, 6, and 1.

In C major, scale degrees 2, ♯4, 6, and 1 correspond to a D dominant seventh chord. As we learned in Chapter 1, when V chords are made into seventh chords, they take on a dominant seventh quality. Here we see that this is also true of V⁷/V .

Revisiting “We Are the Champions”, another important thing to notice is the ♯4 that occurs in the melody over the V⁷/V. V⁷/V has a ♯4 in it, and using this note in the melody avoids a clash that would occur if scale degree 4 were used instead. Because ♯4 is between scale degrees 4 and 5, we color that note in the melody both green and blue in a striped pattern.

While the V/Vs sounded somewhat surprising in these previous examples (until they resolved), some progressions prepare the listener a bit more so that the chord doesn’t sound so unexpected. In Hooktheory I’s chapter on inverted chords, we showed you how Billy Joel used inversions in “Piano Man” to create a descending bass line. Listen to the example again, and see if the V/V seems less surprising to you.

“Piano Man” by Billy Joel

By the time the bass line drops one final time to the V/V, your ear is expecting a chord on scale degree 2, so you are more prepared for the out-of-key sound.

These examples have all used V/V near the end of a progression to close an idea. It’s a very strong way to end a progression because you are cadencing twice in quick succession. However, V/V isn’t always used in this way. Listen to the Christmas classic, “O Come All Ye Faithful”:

“O Come All Ye Faithful”

Here the V/V acts to center the song around the V for a bit longer than one chord. It lingers on V for a while, establishing it more fully as a home base before returning back to I.

So far we’ve focused on making the V a temporary home base which led us to the V/V chord. But V/V is only one of the possible secondary chords that show up in popular music. You can play chords that are not the "V of" other chords as well. In the next section we’ll look at two other common secondary chords: V/IV and V/vi.