Look at the major scale on the piano or above with the half and whole steps laid out. What do you notice?

Sing up from Do to Ti. Does that Ti feel resolved or does it want to go somewhere?

Sing down from Do to Fa. Where does Fa want to go?

What do Ti and Fa have in common?

They are half steps away from stable scale degrees. And they want to resolve to them.

What do we mean by stable chord tones? Simply put, you don’t feel that need to resolve them. On the tension gradient, they are low. Low potential, low voltage. Tunes end on them. Do, Mi, Sol are like this. Try for yourself, play to these tones and stop - do they feel settled or do they want to go somewhere?

Do the same with Re and La. My guess is they feel somewhere in between stable and full-blown tension. Let me know what you think.

Recall the formula for the Minor tonality. From major, lower the 3rd (Mi to Me), 6th (La to Le), and 7th (Ti to Te). Where are the half steps now?

Orient yourself in a minor key and sing or play down from Do to Le. Where does Le want to go?

Now sing down from Do to Fa. Does Fa still have the same pull to the 3rd scale degree (Me in Minor)?

Sing up to Te. Does Te have the same pull to Do as Ti does?

Does Me want to move down to Re since it is a half step away?

Hopefully you’re noticing that there are some important differences in the points of resolution between Major and Minor:

• Le has a strong pull down to Sol - a half step to a stable scale tone.

• Fa resolves nicely by a whole step to Me (a stable scale tone), but not as strongly, perhaps, as Fa to Mi, which is a half step.

• Similarly, Te and Do are connected by a whole step, not a half step, in Minor, so the resolution is not as strong. Harmonic minor raises Te back to Ti to regain that powerful pull back to Do.

• Because Re is still an “in-between” tense/stable note, and Me is stable, moving from Me to Re is not as obvious a resolution, but the half step motion creates some sense of resolution that can be exploited.

These varying degrees of tension and stability create directionality in music. Different tones want to move in different ways and with varying degrees of urgency. This is what makes music interesting.

If you have a lot of tones with more tension stacked on top of each other or played in close succession, you’ll have a passage that really begs some resolution. Maybe you’ll have your band play it louder to heighten the effect.

You might follow that passage with something that resolves the tension.

Listen to the following example. Here I am playing “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” First as traditionally heard/played, second adding Fa and Ti at two points of implied tension and resolution (or “cadences”). Which version creates a greater sense of tension and resolution?

In the next section we will discuss a system that describes these degrees of tension and categorizes them into three main functions.

Just ask.

When we formalize different “levels” of tension and directionality, we are talking about harmonic function. What is the purpose of any set of notes? What role do they play in the context of a harmonic progression or tune?

In general, there are three main functions:

• Tonic: High stability, resolution, finality - these harmonies don’t really express much directionality at all, and they sound highly stable and generally consonant (settled or pleasing).

• Dominant: High tension, directionality, instability - these harmonies need to resolve to something more stable, and they can be highly dissonant. You’re not ending on these harmonies, generally.

• Subdominant: Middle tension and stability. These are flexible harmonies - they can serve as a bridge to more or less stable harmonies, or as a way to extend both.

This is a simplification, but we’ll explore further.

What is nice about this framework is it gives you a simple way to conceptualize the harmony of a tune. A tune’s harmony can generally be explained by the following three dimensions:

• The sequence of tonic, dominant, and subdominant functions.

• The tonal center (including the home key itself) the functions are applied to.

• The timing and duration of the functions.

For example, I might explain a blues progression as follows:

• Three 4-bar sections.

• The first is primarily the tonic, perhaps including a subdominant on the second bar for interest.

• The second is the subdominant IV chord for two bars, followed by the tonic for two bars. Idiomatically, you want the subdominant to have a dominant sound, so use Me instead of Mi.

• The third is a traditional subdominant, dominant, tonic, one bar each. The last bar is dominant aimed at the tonic to restart the sequence.

If you knew only that much, you’d be able to convincingly play a blues. Of course there’s more you can say about a blues, but why not build on a simple, easily conceptualized framework?

This is home base. The tonic consists of the most stable tones available in a given key, and generally avoids the use of Fa in conjunction with Ti. Why? Because as we discussed in the prior section, those want to move. The tonic should not want to move. It’s that simple.

One way to create a tonic harmony, is to stack Do, Mi, and Sol. You’ll recognize this as a major triad and note that these are all quite stable tones.

You can do the same thing in minor, stacking Do, Me, and Sol.

In jazz music you often add Ti to the major triad, which results in a major 7th chord. That’s interesting, because typically Ti is unstable, but anchored against the major triad it adds color, rather than directionality or tension.

When you have Do in the melody, however, Ti in the harmony often conflicts since it is only a half step away. In such cases, La usually replaces Ti, resulting in a major 6th chord.

You may even add Re to that whole stack. That’s called a major 9th chord. Again with the Do, Mi, Sol backbone, the note adds color without compromising stability.

This is function generally needs to move somewhere else. You’re usually not going to be ending here.

The dominant function is characterized by the use of Fa and Ti together. These two tones, as you will recall, are both unstable on their own. Together, that is even more true, and you’ll have two tones that want to resolve to more stable tones (Mi/Me and Do).

Compounding this sense of tension is the interval (distance) between Fa and Ti. These form what is called a “tritone,” which is one of the most dissonant of all intervals, so named because it consists of 3 whole steps. Interestingly, whether Fa or Ti is on top, the interval is always a tritone, as it is exactly half of an octave.

Musicians use the dominant to imply a strong sense of motion. For now we are focused on its resolution to the tonic, but it can be “applied” to other tonal centers.

Not quite home, not so far away. The subdominant function is somewhere in between. It usually includes the tone Fa, but not Ti.

Stacking Fa, La, and Do gives you a nice subdominant sound. Or Fa, La, Do, Mi if you like seventh chords. Also Re, Fa, La, Do.

Because of its in-between-ness, the subdominant is quite flexible. You can hang out on this sound for a long time. Or you can resolve it back to the tonic - this is called a “plagal cadence.” Amen.

Or you can use it to extend the tonic. Maybe you’re leaving home for the guest house or corner store, but not the next town. From here you can move back to the tonic or progress to the dominant.

In fact, this bridge to the dominant function of the subdominant is fundamental to the way people talk about jazz music. The much-talked-about “two, five, one” is simply shorthand for the subdominant, dominant, and tonic functions in succession. Medium tension ramping to high tension before resolving.

So far, we’ve talked about harmonic functions in the context of a major key. The difference in minor is simply which notes are most prominent in the various functions, but those functions remain the same.

The Tonic - similar to the major scale, we use stable scale degrees to derive the tonic tonality - Do, Me, Sol, primarily. In jazz you’ll also have Te, for the I-7 chord. As in major, the function is home base.

Subdominant - in minor, the primary sound that puts you in subdominant territory is Le, or the 6th scale degree, in contrast to major where the SD tonality is characterized by Fa. In minor, Fa simply doesn’t have the same impact, because it is a whole step from both of its neighbors in minor. But the 6th degree in minor, Le, is a half step from Sol and gives you a bit of tension.

So chords built on the 2nd and 4th degrees are generally still going to yield this sound: Re, Fa, Le, or Fa, Le, Do. Additionally, in minor you have Le, Do, Me for subdominant. In my view, this one is not as convincing without Fa or Re in the bass.

Dominant - this is where things get interesting. Remember we said in natural minor we don’t have the leading tone, or Ti. For a proper dominant function, however, you do need that tone. So when we want to make dominant in minor, we change Te to Ti. As in major, the dominant sound is defined by the tritone: Fa and Ti.

Sol, Ti (not Te), Do, and Fa still works. Also, Ti, Do, Fa, and Le is a new sound that defines dominant that you only have in minor (so far). This last group is a diminished chord - all tones are separated by minor thirds. It is completely symmetrical, a fact which can be exploited in many different contexts.

Most music includes all three main harmonic functions. As you listen to music, try to take note of various points of tension and resolution, and see if you can hear tonic, dominant, and maybe subdominant harmonies.

This is a great way to organize your thinking in improvisations. If you can take a major or minor scale and emphasize the various notes that give rise to these main harmonic functions, you can play freely and convincingly on most tunes. As long as you know that a given chord change falls into one of these three buckets, you don’t need to worry about that chord specifically.

Sure there are complications (or “features” for the optimist) to this approach, but those can usually be addressed by an “adjustment” or “alteration” of one of these buckets, or an “application.” We’ll talk about these later.

Just ask.

Until this point we’ve talked about harmony more conceptually. However, in order to talk about functionality more directly, we need to define some vocabulary.

In the staves above I’ve dropped in a C major scale and the 7th chords built in 3rds above those roots. “Root” refers to the tone the chord is built upon, and “3rds” refer to the distances between successive tones (i.e. Re to Fa covers a distance of 3 scale tones - Re and Fa and the tone being skipped, Mi - so is called a 3rd).

The term “7th chord” refers to a 4-note chord built from 3rds that reaches the 7th above the root.

All chords are named from the root, and the “quality” of each chord is determined by the 3 intervals each of the higher tones makes against the root:

• major 3rd, perfect 5th, major 7th = Major 7th chord

• minor 3rd, perfect 5th, minor 7th = Minor 7th chord

• major 3rd, perfect 5th, minor 7th = Dominant 7th chord

• minor 3rd, diminished 5th, minor 7th = Half Diminished or Minor 7th b5 (“flat 5”) chord

These chords are all derived from the major scale.

The four main chord qualities just described are derived from the major scale. Check out this PDF if you haven’t already to better understand how the major scale is constructed.

The pattern of whole and half steps is what gives rise to the major and minor 3rds and 7ths, and the perfect and diminished 5ths when you skip a given number of scale tones.

The above staves show the C major scale and the 7th chords built from it. To make the chord names key-agnostic, we can use roman numerals to denote what scale degree a given chord is built from. That’s the last row above.

I’ve also shown the functions for each chord in major. We’ve already talked about this - if the chord excludes both Fa and Ti, it’s can generally fill a Tonic function. If it has Fa but not Ti, that’s a Subdominant function, and if it includes the Fa + Ti tritone, it’s probably Dominant.

There is another naming system that also talks about tonic and dominant, in addition to supertonic, mediant, submediant, and subtonic, but this is primarily referring to scale degrees, not function.

Thanks for bearing with me so far on nomenclature. This is the last section.

Here I want to focus on that dominant chord, G7 above. Notice the following:

• in the major scale, building from a root on the 5th degree, or Sol, yields Sol, Ti, Re, and Fa. We call this the “V chord” or “V7 chord.”

• You have two unstable notes in Ti and Fa.

• Those tones want to resolve to Do and Mi, respectively, the first two tones in the chord built from the 1st scale degree (the “I chord”)

So the V7 chord wants to go to the I chord.

But what if you wanted to go to the II-7 chord?

Well the idea is to construct a V7 chord of the II-7 chord. You think as though you’re in a new key temporarily, in this case D minor, and find the dominant chord in that key. In D minor the 5th scale degree is A. So the V7 chord of D minor is A7.

Note that you need to use a dominant chord here. A strict spelling of D natural minor would imply the chord built from A, C, E, and G, which is a minor 7th chord. But that C is not the “leading tone” to D, so you want C#, which is the 3rd of A dominant 7th, not A minor 7th.

Generally speaking, applied dominants like this must impose a dominant quality to ensure they’re leading strongly to the desired place.

You can apply the same logic to other areas of the tonality. We just described “V of II,” but you should also think through “V of III,” “V of IV,” “V of V,” “V of VI”, etc. We’ll go through all of these.

The next several sections will cover common applied dominants, which generally lead to harmonic areas within the broader home key. In other words, we won’t be leaving the key, just pointing to areas within it.

First up, V of II-7 or “V/II”.

Construction:

• Built from the 5th scale tone as though you’re in the key of whatever the root of your II-7 is.

• In the key of C, II-7 is D-7, so a 5th above (or 4th below) that is A, or the 6th scale degree of C.

• So you want A7 - remember, you impose a dominant chord here (major 3rd, perfect 5th, minor 7th intervals) so that the 3rd of the chord is the leading tone of the root of the destination chord. Instead of C, we’re using C# as the 3rd of the A chord.

Function:

• The II-7 has a subdominant function.

• As such, it prepares the dominant function in the home key.

• In C, this means the D-7 often leads to G7, the dominant function, which leads back home to Cmaj7, or the tonic function. This is the common “two, five, one” progression in jazz music.

• From that point, you very commonly use the V7 of II-7 to restart that cycle.

• You’ve probably heard of the I, VI, II, V progression (“one, six, two, five”). That VI chord, when made dominant, is functioning to get you back to the II-7, V7, I in the home key.

• Instead of “six,” then, you can think of it as V/II or “five of two.”

Examples:

• “Fly Me to the Moon” - just before the lyric “in other words” (each time).

• “Alfie” - just after the lyric “is it just for the moment we live?”

• “You are too Beautiful” - just on the lyric “…true” at the end of “…my dear to be true.” Among many other places on this tune.

While this sound is less common than some other applied dominants (V of II, IV, and VI), it is quite distinctive because it is uses multiple tones that are foreign to the home key.

Recall that V/II is rooted on the 6th scale degree of the home key (La). Stacking 3rds from La in the home key will not generate a dominant chord. You need to adjust the 3rd from minor to major (raise Do a half-step to Di, pronounced “Dee”). V/III is built on Ti, or the 7th scale degree, and requires adjusting the 3rd and 5th to make it dominant.

Construction:

• Built from the 5th scale tone as though you’re in the key of whatever the root of your III-7 chord is - in C we’re talking about E-7, the 5th above which is B.

• So you want B7 - B, D#, F#, A. Notes from the C major scale give you B, D, F, and A, which spells a half diminished chord, so you need to sharp both D and F to make it dominant.

• In terms of solfege, this is equivalent to raising Re to Ri (“ree”) and Fa to Fi (“fee”).

Function:

• The fact that you’re adjusting two of four tones gives this harmony a distinctive character, so it’s a little less common than other applied dominants.

• Still, you see it in plenty of tunes, generally when the composer wants to extend the cadence back to II, V, I and prepare III-7, VI7 (or V/II), II-7, V7, I.

Examples:

• “My Foolish Heart” - roughly on the lyric “beware.”

• “More than You Know” - on the lyric “loving you the way that I do.” Since this sets off the bridge, it could be considered a modulation to A minor (she sings this in F).

If you’ve ever listened to blues you’ve heard this one. It’s unique in that the V of IV is the I7 chord - that is, from the Imaj7 chord, you change one note (flat the 7th) to make it the dominant of IV.

Construction:

• Built from the 5th scale tone as though you’re in the key of whatever the root of your IV chord is - in C we’re talking about F, the 5th above which is also C.

• So the dominant you want is C7 - C, E, G, Bb. The only note you need to adjust from the diatonic stacked thirds the 7th, moving Ti to Te (pronounced “tay”).

Function:

• Moves you to a subdominant (IV) part of the key.

• If moving from a Imaj7 via I7 or V7/IV, the subtle change in chord quality sounds really nice.

• If used in blues, you’ll typically be moving to a IV7 rather than IVmaj7 - given this happens so frequently, I didn’t specify chord quality in the title of this section.

• From the IV chord, there are many good options to get back to I. We’ll talk about those in future sections.

Examples:

• “Misty” - one of the best examples of this sound. The lyric “helpless as a kitten” is the V/IV. The melody emphasizes the movement from Ti to Te.

• “My Romance” - while this happens earlier in the tune before the lyric “no month of May,” it is easier to hear a bit later in the form after the lyric “…to a constantly surprising refrain” setting up “wide awake…” which happens just after the chord change to IV.

• “Over the Rainbow” - second half of the lyric “high” before “there’s a land…” which starts on the IV chord.

I tend to think of V of V in two relatively distinct ways. The “jazz” way and the “traditional” way.

Traditionally, you often see V of V as part of what is called a “half cadence,” or the dominant chord at the end of a phrase, rather than the tonic. This gives a “questioning” sound, and the subsequent phrase “answers” that question. As in:

• Question: “Oh say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light?”

• Answer: “What so proudly we’ve hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming.”

On the lyric “light” you have a dominant, which ends the phrase, and the next phrase is the “answer” (musically, perhaps not literally).

In advance of “light,” you have something really common in traditional half cadences, a V chord of that dominant, which strengthens the half cadence. In the Star Spangled Banner, the melody reinforces the V of V, giving you the leading tone to the V chord - or the tone, Fi, on the second syllable of “early.”

Fi is Fa raised a half step, the function of which is generally to lead to Sol, or the root of the V chord in both major and minor. You’ll see when you construct the V of V where this Fi comes from.

In jazz, you rarely see the V of V leading directly to V, because it can sound too direct or obvious. More frequently you see the II-7 interposed between V of V and V7.

Construction:

• Built from the 5th scale tone as though you’re in the key of whatever the root of your V chord is - in C we’re talking about G, the 5th above which is D.

• In the key of C major, the 7th chord built from D is D, F, A, C, or a minor 7th chord. To make it a dominant chord, we need to raise the 3rd to F#. This is where the Fi sound comes from - F# is Fi in C major and exerts a strong pull to G, the root of the V chord in C major.

• An equivalent name for this chord is II7, since the root is the second scale degree of the major key.

Function:

• Moves you to a dominant (V) part of the key.

• As mentioned, prepares a half cadence or “question” where a phrase ends on the V chord.

• Prepares the V chord as part of a resolution from V to I, but as mentioned, you often see II-7 between II7 (V7 of V) and V.

Examples:

• Amazing Grace

• Star Spangled Banner

• Take the “A” Train

• Danny Boy

I debated putting this application first, as it is very common. The VI represents the “relative minor” of whatever major key you are in. If you’re in C major, relative minor is A minor, or the VI tonality. Relative minor simply refers to the minor key that is defined by the same notes as the major key you are starting from. So A minor has all the same notes as C major, but obviously starts on A, not C.

Because these sounds are closely related, it is very common for a tune to move between these areas of the key, and using an applied dominant - V of VI - to accomplish that is also quite common.

The tone that characterizes this sound is the sharp 5th degree of the major scale, which leads to the 6th degree, or root of the minor VI chord. In C major, this is G#, or more generally “Si” (Sol raised a half step). This is the major 3rd of the dominant chord built a 5th above the VI chord. Again in C, we’re talking about an E7 chord, the 3rd of which is G#.

Construction:

• Built from the root a fifth above the VI chord. In C major, the VI chord is A minor, and a 5th above that is E.

• You want a dominant chord. The dominant chord rooted on E is E7, or E, G#, B, D. The change you need to make from the parent scale is to raise that G to a G# to produce the major 3rd of the dominant chord (or the leading tone of the target chord).

Function:

• Moves you to the relative minor of the major key.

• It’s a distinctive but also flexible sound. Can resolve “deceptively” - instead of landing on VI as expected, this chord is often followed by IVmaj.

• You can also pivot to different tonal centers:

  • After V of VI, instead of moving directly to IV (deceptively), you can prepare it with a [II-7 V7] of IV, as in “I Should Care.”

  • You can think of the VI itself as an applied dominant - V of II - so instead of landing on VI-7, you can change that to VI7 which leads to II-7, as in “All of Me.”

  • You can think of the VI as initiating a [II-7 V7] of V.

Examples:

So far we’ve focused almost entirely on the dominant function, particularly with respect to applied harmony, that is, harmony that points us to another area of the parent key. A common way to prepare the dominant is to preface it with the subdominant of the harmony you are approaching. Doing this creates an “on-ramp” of slightly increasing tension before the high tension of the dominant chord.

The most common subdominant in jazz music is the II chord (the chord built from stacked 3rds starting on the second scale degree of the parent key), which precedes the V or V7 chord in the context of the very common II-V-I. Low tension, high tension, release.

The quality of the II chord is always minor. That is, the 3rd of the chord is always a whole step plus half step away from the root. In a standard II-V-I, this is because between scale degrees 2 and 4, or Re and Fa in both major and minor.

What about the 5th? That is, the 6th scale degree, since we’re starting on the 2nd or Re. In major this is La, a perfect 5th above Re. In minor, remember, you lower La one half step to Le. This creates what’s called a diminished 5th between scale degrees 2 and 6, or Re and Le.

So the II chord is different in major and minor. That’s fine - if your II-V-I resolves to a major key, use the II chord from major (“II minor 7”, or II-7). If it resolves to a minor key, use the II chord from minor (“II minor 7 flat 5”, or II-7b5). Pretty simple.

And the 7th? That’s scale degree 1, or Do (since there are 7 scale degrees, you build the II chord from 2, 4, 6, and 1). Scale degree 1 is obviously the same in both major and minor, and the interval between scale degree 2 up to 1 (from Re to Do ascending) is always a minor 7th (you see that in the chord names above). Importantly the V chord does not contain Do, so the inclusion of this tone in the II chord creates contrast between the II and V chords - a sense of movement.

Like the V chord, the II chord (subdominant) can be applied to different harmonic targets. Let’s use a different key to illustrate some examples.

In Bb:

• II-V of II: [ D-7b5 G7 ] -> C-7 (II-7 in Bb)

• II-V of III: [ E-7b5 A7 ] -> D-7 (III-7 in Bb)

• II-V of IV: [ F-7 Bb7 ] -> Ebmaj7 (IVmaj7 in Bb)

  • Note the “minor 7” quality of the F-7 (no “b5”). This is because you’re targeting a major part of the parent key.

• II-V of V: [ G-7 C7 ] -> (C-7) F7 (V7 in Bb)

  • Remember, you typically insert the corresponding II-7 (C-7 in Bb) of the target V7 chord in V of V.

• II-V of VI: [ A-7b5 D7 ] -> G-7 (VI-7 in Bb)

  • Moving to the “relative minor,” G minor, means that the notes of that minor scale are the same as in major. So the tones of the II-7b5 chord of that target are all found in the parent key of Bb. Remember we do have to alter the V/VI to get the leading tone (F#) which does not exist in the parent key.

In the famous Cole Porter tune “Every Time We Say Goodbye,” there is a lyric that comments on the underlying harmony. In a way, breaking a musical fourth wall.

The lyric, “but how strange, the change, from major to minor” is sung over a subdominant part of the key, the IV chord (usually Ab in the key of Eb). Through this line, as the lyric progresses to “…major to minor,” so does the harmony, with the IV chord becoming IV minor (Ab minor). Ab minor has a note that is not in the key of Eb major - the third is Cb instead of C natural. Le instead of La in a major key!

What the composer has done in this case is very common, substituting a minor sound or note in place of its major counterpart in order to add more tension, interest, or motion to the harmony.

(And we may as well state it up front, you generally don’t see the reverse. I.e., in minor, it is very rare to use sounds from “parallel” major to reduce tension. And to be honest I’m not entirely sure why.)

The substitution of the minor IV chord (from minor) for the major IV chord (from major) is one example of the first family of adjustments we will look at: the subdominant minor.

The name is relatively self explanatory - you’re using a subdominant sound from parallel minor (the minor key starting on the same note as the major key you are currently in). This is in place of your standard subdominant chords in major: II-7 and IVmaj7.

There are three main subdominant chords in minor tonalities: II dim, IV minor, and bVII major. In C major these would be D diminished, F minor, and Bb major.

This concept is fairly simple: you can generally substitute any of the minor subdominant sounds for any of the major ones, and the effect can lead you back to the tonic or onward to the dominant.

Back to tonic:

• II diminished, or D diminished in C, contains D, F, and Ab. The Ab is scale tone b6, or Le. This tone leads strongly back to Sol, or scale tone 5, in the resolution from subdominant minor to tonic (major or minor, but this section is about substitution of these sounds in major keys).

• IV minor, also has a very prominent Le as its third, and its function is the same as in II diminished.

• bVII major contains scale degrees 2 and 4, as well as its root, the b7 of the key, or Te. The Te very often resolves up to Do, but it’s not a “classical” leading tone resolution from Ti to Do. It sounds much more bluesy, and just like the prior two resolutions, it the subdominant/tonic relationship (less “contrast” than dominant/tonic) is intact due to lack of Ti in the harmony.

• In most cases, when using this harmonic device in major, you will start with the major subdominant, and progress to the subdominant minor substitution - IV maj -> IV min; II min -> IV min; IV maj -> bVII maj, etc. - as the contrast btw major and minor is striking.

Onward to dominant:

• Subdominant minor substitutions can also provide a “bridge” to the dominant function, just like standard subdominants. The difference is you are starting with slightly more tension, and you will want to carry that through to the dominant function.

• As a reminder, functional dominants will always contain the leading tone, Ti, to lead back to the tonic, which contains Do. Any notes you carry over from the subdominant minor will be in addition to the standard dominant backbone of Fa and Ti (whether in the home key or relative to your target in the case of an applied dominant).

• Given the prominence of scale degree b6 in subdominant minor, you’ll often see Le carried through to the dominant. This is the b9 relative to the dominant root of Sol. To be explicit, in C, Ab is the b6 or Le. The dominant with this note included is therefore spelled G, B, D, F, Ab, or G7b9.

• The chord change D-7b5 moving to G7b9 and resolving to Cmaj7 is extremely common.

• The other note we talked about in subdominant minor was Te. Indeed, you’ll often see this tone added to the dominant function, in addition to the Ti, which as we’ve said is always included in the dominant function. Again to be explicit, G7#9 arises from the spelling implied by adding Te: G, B, D, F, Bb (note: #9 is actually A#, but we’re talking about the use of Te coming from the subdominant minor rather than as an alteration of the 9 on a V chord, which is a perspective we’ll cover soon).

These points could rightfully be viewed as too analytical. The main point is that the dominant chord following subdominant minor typically continues the amplified tension via tones carried through from the subdominant minor or additional alterations.

With that, let’s move onto the altered dominant.