The Dominantmusic theory Seventh for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush 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? for one thing, the but another reason dominant seventh is, for spending a little extra 77 by far, the most common time with it is the fact that seventh chord used by there are a few things the composers of the that apply to it that don’t common practice period. apply to the other diatonic seventh chords. first, a note on terminology: it’s just a major-minor seventh... the reason these are often VVconfused is that in popular the terms “major-minor seventh” bw and jazz theory, the term and “dominant seventh” are not w “dominant” is used to label interchangeable! “Major-minor & w the chord type instead of until it’s placed in a particular key! seventh” is the chord’s type, and the chord’s role. “dominant seventh” is the role the chord plays in the context b w of a particular key. b w & Vw7 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! theornamental resolution thetransferred 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 before getting there. “detour” the seventh is passed to another voice in another dominant seventh chord. the ornament # can be any œ œ œ œ œ ˙ the seventh still # & seventh˙ ˙ shape or œ œ œ resolution needs to resolve & œ œ transferredœ ornament length, but it by to tenor must resolve down by step ˙ ˙ to the note whatever voice is œ the last to have it. œ œ ? # ˙ ˙ down a step ? # œ œ œ from the 7 7 6 V I seventh of the V V5 I seventh chord. If the bass voice gets it, he resolves it immediately, ending the fun for everyone. thedelayed resolution thebass resolution Here, the resolution of the seventh is in this resolution, the seventh of the chord delayed by moving to some other chord is still resolved down by step, but the note (usually the subdominant) and having the it resolves to appears in the bass voice. seventh of the chord hold out until the dominant seventh returns. the voice that # had the seventh after the V7 œ œ œ resolves up, # the & seventh œ œ œ œ œ returns, resolution usually by step. & seventh œ resolutionœ voice that has the seventh œ œ œ œ œ œ should still ? # ? # œ œ œ resolve it œ œ œ appropriately! V7 I6 V7 IV V7 I licensed under a creative commons BY-NC-ND license - visit tobyrush.com for more.