SecondarySubdominants Plus CatalogOfCycle4thPatterns 1975

Secondary Subdominants
Ted Greene 1975-07-01

You may be wondering if any diatonic major or minor chord may be preceded with a subdominant
type of chord in its own key (since you spent so much time working with dominant types); the answer is
yes, but not commonly. For some reason, Baroque composers went wild over dominant harmony, and it
is relatively rare to see a progression such as IV-I (iv i) or ii-I (ii i) in a temporary new key unless the
new I (i) is followed by a dominant type of chord.
Example:
C Bb F G C
IV I
is more rare than C Bb F C7 F G7 C (in Baroque music).

IV I V7 I
However, you may wish to try out some of these Secondary Subdominant harmonies even without
dominants, so here are a few examples that try to illustrate how good voice-leading and lines can help
make a progression sound more Baroque.
If you experiment with the above concepts, you will find that many secondary subdominants are chords
that are diatonic in the home key, so they will conform to normal sounds that you have experienced so far.
_____________________________________________________________________
Secondary Subdominants Ted Greene, 19750701 page 2

A much more common use of secondary subdominants is as follows:
When any chord is being tonicized with a secondary dominant, the secondary dominant may be preceded
with a chord that is functioning as a subdominant in the new key; naturally this subdominant functioning
chord is called a Secondary Subdominant.
_____________________________________________________________________
Examples:
Normal Progression:
With secondary dominant:
With secondary dom. and secondary subdom.:
C
C
C
Normal Progression:
With secondary dominant:
With secondary dom. and secondary subdom.:
C
C
C
F#765
ii7
Em
B765 Em
B
Em
V7
i
6
B6
IV
C7 5
C765
V7
F
F
F
I
To find out what secondary subdominants are available, you should get acquainted with the
Catalogue of Baroque Harmonies sheet; as you will notice, there are more subdominant harmonies than
any other type, so we are talking about a wealth of rich sounds. As mentioned, though, many of the
sounds already have appeared in progressions, so you dont have to be worried about learning thousands
of new chords its not nearly that bad of a situation. In fact, you have already worked with the great
majority of these sounds, but as dominant functions or diatonic chords.
Example:
C E765 A72 Dm6

II7
V7 i
You have already played progressions like this, but it would have been analyzed as:
I V7 of vi V7 of ii ii
or I III7 VI7 ii
So all this amounts to is a different viewpoint on this progression, not any different sounds.
You might be saying, If that is so, then why bother?
Well, look at it this way: Suppose you had a normal progression of C Am F Dm, etc.
Here it is with secondary dominants and subdominants:
I.
II7 V7
i.
II7 V7
I.. II7
V7
i
of vi of IV of ii
You can see that some nice sounds result from this different viewpoint; in other words, different
viewpoints inspire different creative ideas and chord progressions. (There is a good chance that you
wouldnt have come up with this type of progression unless you were thinking in II7 V7 I(i) groups like
these.)
Secondary Subdominants Ted Greene, 19750701 page 3
Exercises:
1)
Its suggested that you go back to any of the progressions that used secondary dominants and try
to squeeze in secondary subdominants where they seem to fit.
2)
Then take each type of subdominant harmony listed in the catalogue and make up a few
progressions that use it (in different inversions, different keys, etc.) and dont forget that the whole
catalogue is applicable to a tonic minor and its related keys if you renumber the whole business.
3)
A separate list of some progressions using secondary subdominants will follow on the next page;
these will all be cycle of 4ths types because they are so common and characteristic of Baroque music.
4)
Secondary dominants may resolve as in deceptive cadences; this new deceptive chord can: 1)
continue in the home key (if possible) or 2) in the intended new key.
Examples:
1) C E7 F G7 C
2) C D7 Em Am6 G64 D7 G
The new deceptive chord can even pull into a totally different related key:
3) C A7
B
Gm6 F64 C7 F
I Vof ii VI of ii
Examples 2) & 3) are.[page is cut off]
Catalogue of Common Cycle of 4ths Patterns (Including Secondary Chords)

Ted Greene 1975-07-04 & 10
Give the following progressions a try, starting from all the different forms of close and open
triads. These patterns are for sequence type voice-leading, but you might want to try regular voiceleading as well. Not all progressions will sound that great because of some augmented 2nd intervals that
will appear in the soprano. Breaking up these patterns and using decorations will help.
is optional at the end
of minor key cycles
Major Keys:
Normal
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
Minor Keys:
IV
IV
IV
IV
IV
IV
IV
IV
IV
IV
IV
IV
IV
IV
IV
vii
VII
VII
VII
VII
VII
VII
VII
vii
vii
vii
vii
vii
vii
VII
iii
iii
III
III
III
III
iii
iii
III
III
III
iii
iii
iii
iii
vi ii V I
vi ii V I
vi ii V I
VI ii V I
VI II V I
vi II V I
VI ii V I
vi II V I
vi ii V I
VI ii V I
vi II V I
VI ii V I
vi II V I
VI ii V I
VI ii V I
I IV VII iii
vi ii V I
normal
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
iv
iv
iv
iv
iv
iv
iv
iv
VII
VII
VII
VII
VII
vii
VII
VII
III
III
III
III
III
III
III
III
VI ii V (i)
VI ii V
VI II V
VI II V
Rvi ii V
VI ii V
VI ii V
Rvi ii V
[R = raised]
Try replacing i with I.

Then precede all of these (using I for i) with v or v , using substitute voice-leading.
Next try starting the cycle of 4ths on iv or V using sequence voice-leading.
Try replacing IV with #iv in all of the above.
Next try these:
I #iv vii iii vi ii V I
I #iv vii iii VI ii V I
I #iv vii iii vi II V I
Then try preceding all of the above with v or V, using substitute voice-leading.
If you start the cycle of 4ths from IV or V using sequence voice-leading, you will notice that vii , vii or
VII will sound better than VII in many cases (because of the augmented second problem again).
_______________________________________________________________________
One last thing you should try similar patterns with 7ths (or 4-note triads) replacing the above triads, or
in patterns of your own devising.
_______________________________________________________________________

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Secondary Subdominants

Ted Greene 1975-07-01

is more rare than C Bb F C7 F G7 C (in Baroque music).

Secondary Subdominants Ted Greene, 19750701 page 2

C E765 A72 Dm6

Secondary Subdominants Ted Greene, 19750701 page 3

Catalogue of Common Cycle of 4ths Patterns (Including Secondary Chords)

Try replacing i with I.

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