Where to Start With Music Theory, Episode 15: Secondary Dominants

[@modestgabriel-m6s]

You bring joy to everyone learning music

[@sandem100]

Interesting you mentioned Adrian at ACG, you are the 2 guys I find most relevant, useful and FUN

[@visionset1456]

Agreed

[@Kleyguy7]

I am currently on lesson 5 with the music theory. Though I have to say I absolutely love your lessons! They don't feel like a lesson. They feel like you went to your chill friend home and you are relaxing and jamming on your guitars while learning new stuff. Great experience.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Word up, brother!

[@visitur4914]

I had a lightbulb moment, the mark of a great lesson. This'll change my routine when I do "chord practice" from now on. Thanks, Eric!

[@darenraskovic3965]

9:36 that just cleared it up for me. I was always wondering why people put ii in their songs as major II but still sounds good.

[@studmuffin1212]

Idea for a future lesson: Something I've always wanted to learn but never could, a skill only the truly gifted can master, the coolest thing you can do on guitar and a skill you show off every week: How to talk and play at the same time.

[@stephenowen5229]

Another fantastic lesson Eric! I always look forward to Haugen Friday! Many thanks.

[@andrewptob]

I love your conversational approach to these lessons, Eric. It helps make theoretical stuff much more digestible

[@atonofspiders]

I liked the tremolo. I also have been letting your channel ride for an hour or so here and I like how you just let a tone take over when it wants to.

[@connorlarkinbass]

the film analogy is on point my friend...set up and pay off! your videos help me teach my people! thank you for being a great teacher and a great player! you're a really great dude Eric! don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise!

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Thanks Connor! Y'all know I keep it real here :-)

[@haymakersboston]

I was already thinking, "This is the best lesson I've heard on secondary dominants" -- then there is a Come reference! Tipping my Red Sox cap to you, sir.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Dude that record is HUGE for me! The whole band plays their asses off and DAYUM Thalia's vocals are perfect!

[@cathalwhelehan]

your comment about secondary dominants feeling "old-timey" definitely hits the nail on the head with "Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out" (e.g. the Clapton version), where the entire progression moves through about half a dozen secondary dominants one after the other.

[@misterknightowlandco]

Another great video. I only recommend two online teachers to people I know and they’re you and Scott grove. After years on KZbin and being apart of the guitar community and watching all the same channels we all do, for guitar teachers, I’ve boiled it down to you two and these are the lessons I show my daughter to help her play like dad. Thanks for another great video, cheers!

[@karlfarren]

Hey Eric. Transparency, honesty and kindness! Along with “is this what Levon would do?”, words to live by. Also, I love that you are ‘accidentally cool’ when you try to demonstrate something that doesn’t work. 🤓 You just can’t help being effortlessly hip! Where I first really got the effect of secondary dominants was in the bridge of The Beatles ‘One After 909’, on the line “the railman said”. I loved how it felt like it lifted the song, so I promptly stole the idea. My other favourite example is in the bridge of ‘Need Your Love So Bad’ by Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, on the line “tell me you love me, stop drivin’ me mad”. Same lift. See you in a couple of weeks for my lesson. Cheers.

[@danbgt]

General comment: I just recently ran across your channel and you know, I think it is the best guitar channel. Bar none. I am an old guy that picked up a guitar less than three years ago in retirement as a way to keep my brain and hands active and challenged. I started playing drums at 12 years old in 1962 and still have some chops. 😂 I started the guitar thing because of John Fahey, Leo Kottke and that sort of thing. I have spent 2 1/2 years working mainly on my right hand fingerstyle. I discovered early on that I love open tunings. Particularly open “D”. That is what brought me to your channel. Your videos on open D have been the most informative and best explained that I have run across. (Please do more!) But in watching your channel in general I have learned and become more interested in actually leaning a little music theory. Being an old drummer . . . . . . . . well, you know! 😂 Anyway. Thank you young dude for your attention, expertise, laid back explanations and general good nature!! Love you man!!

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Thanks brother! I play drums too, and it totally affects my guitar playing! Keeps everything about the groove and pocket - who needs hot licks anyway :-)

[@michaelbobson6375]

I love the way you teach, Eric. Looking for this for a while. Thank you!

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Thanks Michael! I'm from NJ, so try to be very efficient, and to the point!

[@bombase991]

For some reason, I find secondary dominants easy for me to comprehend & apply in progressions off the top of my head. Made sense when you mentioned that most progressions follow a linear structure, which I had a hard time remembering full step or half step differences across the 7 modes, while the nonlinearity of secondary dominant is just like a simple equation, using the target chord to "spice" up the progression. It does have an old-timey feel, ever since a commenter in one of your Tom Waits tutorial pointed out his love for secondary dominants, it clicked and that has led to spotting secondary dominants in most of his songs, especially when he wraps up a verse haha

[@ditchgator1]

"The Weight" is a favorite of The Band from Big Pink and soundtrack to Easy Rider😎👍 😎👍❤🖖 Love brother

[@michaelworsham2885]

Thanks!

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Thanks so much Michael - you're the man!

[@bwhipp]

Hey man I’ve been enjoying your videos. Gracias algorithm. Sometimes I pay attention and grab the guitar, other times I just listen in the background. Really liked the notes at the end of this video. Excellent tone as always 🙌!

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Thanks Brian! I try to make chill content that you can play along with or, like you said - just throw on in the background and ponder the ideas :-)

[@icecubatron]

Bowie is such a goldmine for interesting chord progressions. Been digging the progression on Rock and Roll With Me from Diamond Dogs which has tons of secondary dom action

[@tlister67]

The part where you name all songs with that progression I thought of Wilco “somebody else’s song”. Great lesson!

[@Ekelemen2]

I think this is a very clear explanation. Thanks for doing it!

[@RobertSlover]

the marty robbins groove well done sir!

[@kevininman2013]

Eric thank you for everything you do!

[@rinosphere]

That 60s style end credit jam! Nice...

[@whoozworldizthis4221]

Dude you are just such a likeable guy aside from your teaching and guitar skills you are just a chilled dude qnd I always relax when you talk

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Yay! That makes me so happy to hear - THANKS!

[@jukejointjack]

Fantastic tutorial Eric 🤙🏼

[@karllongbottomguitars9192]

Golden nuggets of information Eric, thank you Pizza is overrated, and Friday is fish and chips

[@seanarooni]

awesome episode thank you 🙏

[@bfish89ryuhayabusa]

"King Harvest" has some interesting secondary dominants. I really pull that from The Band and Bobby Charles into my own stuff.

[@deanroddey2881]

The only other person I've ever seen that seems to know of the band Come. Their songs "Mercury Falls" and "German Song" are just epic prog scale garage rock tunes that I love.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Such a huge influence for me! Everyone in that band was the GOAT

[@BobHiltner]

This is about my 5th go around with secondary dominants. Always makes sense in the moment, but not yet natural knowledge or something I'm identifying the the wild. The "approach" chord idea makes sense. Seems to help if I think backward in the progression, from the end chord 5ths back to the start chord, but that takes me time for each one...

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

My other advice is: WRITE STUFF DOWN Have a notebook handy to play around with chord calculations. They say music is like math, and once you get into harmonic analysis it really is necessary to look at things on paper.

[@417altavista]

Thank you thank you!

[@YakBoss]

learning lots

[@calliopivogiatzis2235]

I would like to hear 60s surf music with that reverb sound

[@anonymousforensic]

I can identify secondary dominants in a chord progression, but not enough confidence in what I’m doing to make suggestions to the whole band to substitute in fun secondary dominants into four chord covers that we’re jamming on. If I’m playing rhythm at practice, I’ll sub in some secondary dominants as walks, but it sometimes backfires with what the bassist is doing.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Yeah, I tend to use them sparingly and compositionally. I too would not just throw them around in a loose jam - but as a songwriting tool, valuable!

[@scottmartin5492]

That first example (C-E7-Am) was explained as being in the key of C, but that E7-Am change *really* sounds like Am is the tonic. If you were composing a song with this sequence, how would you finish it to emphasize C as the home key?

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Maybe if it went C E7 Am Am/G F F G G boom fixed it!

[@scottmartin5492]

@@EricHaugenGuitar So your standard I-vi-IV-V with the 2dy dominant and a slash chord for voice leading. Cool. That was the one confusing thing for me about an otherwise excellent lesson - that the first example didn't seem to be a complete sequence in the described key. Thanks so much for providing these! Even after ~30y of off-and-on playing, I'm learning a lot from your pedagogical approach.

[@amaiahmusik]

And now you go and mention Thalia Zedek and Chris Brokaw...dude, you´re the coolest!!!

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

That record eternally blows my mind! Such a great capture of such a cool group!

[@Zeal808]

So awesome

[@liampezzano]

Dominant Chords are only a half step away from Diminished Chords. Any fun to be had imposing them over one another?

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Check out ep 17 of my music theory series! I talk about exactly that!

[@liampezzano]

@@EricHaugenGuitar I know what happened, I had a work meeting online, and I didn't see that one drop. That's exactly what i was thinking about. Still working on the basic stuff we talked about, but I'm getting there.

[@Abletoth]

Great videos. Had to sub!

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Yay! Welcome!

[@paddymaxwell]

I love all your lessons Eric, I am completely fascinated with music theory, I was at a point where I was ready to give up, ( I've no formal training) and then I found you ( or rather some algorithm found you for me) none... the .....less, quick question.....why does the E7 have to be referred to as the 5th of the Am, why can't it just be the 3rd of C, hit on the way to the 6th ,Am.

[@visionset1456]

Because it is about what function it serves, they serve a dominant function whatever chord you choose to do it to. And E7 is not in the key of C anyway, it's Em7 so if you'd like the naming to say diatonic it doesn't even do that.

[@karlfarren]

Hi Paddy. Well, it’s both. But in this context we’re exploiting that really strong pull from V back to I, so thinking of the E7 as the V of the Am, consolidates that. Also, it might be easier/quicker for us to think of what the V is of a given chord, rather than the iii, because we’re all so used to hearing and playing V in turnarounds. Have a great weekend,. Cheers.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Yeah what Karl said! By calling it V7/iii we're identifying it's name and purpose in this world :-)

[@paddymaxwell]

Thanks guys, all this is very helpful, visionset is so right, the 3rd of c should be minor, but then Karl cleared it up. There is so much to be learned here Eric, I love your lessons, and love the cut of your jib .

[@BrentGrowe]

Thanks dude!

[@maggieo]

::Eric turns S&G song into one by The Band:: Blow my mind, Eric! A Robbie Robertson lesson would be dope.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Robbie always knows exactly where to put the little pentatonic fills!

[@shanebrbich5698]

We love Addy!

[@nateo7045]

Okay, what is that outro from?!?

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Unreleased jam with my brother on bass and my buddy Adam on drums. I've got all sorts of demos and tapes laying around that I fly in to the outros (to avoid copyright claims) :-)

[@StratsRUs]

It 'pushes' momentum towards the target chord

[@hungryplump]

This and you are great.

[@studmuffin1212]

Dude, you're so damn good you can't play something bad even when you try. My heart bleeds for you, mate. 😉

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

I'll keep trying though! must. find. the. ugly. chords.

[@PascalNormand]

How come there’s no view on that video? Whether I’m really lucky and happen to get on a brand new just released video, or I’m in some sort of temporal vortex and I can’t figure out what is happening, Great video as always Eric.

[@SuperRbert]

Yes you are in a vortex

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Aha! Somehow you got to the "unlisted" version of the video before I made it public! I'm not sure how you got there, but it's interesting - there's always about 5 people who find my uploads before I hit "public" on friday.

[@PascalNormand]

@@EricHaugenGuitar it was from your playlist. I am actually going through this playlist on music theory, and I went back to see how many lessons were there in total. Then I saw the last one was about secondary dominant and I was like « cool! I’ll check that ». And then I got there and it has no views and no comments. It was like walking in virgin snow 😁

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Aha! Neat - that's what I figured!

[@murdle9921]

What pick is that?

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

It's either the blue turtle or the pink turtle - slow and steady wins the race! erichaugenguitar.com/pages/gear

[@maxtoomars]

Спасибо!!!

[@patrickmilano7262]

Dude I love you

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Thanks my brother!🧡

[@mantashaft]

I never knew Richard Dreyfus from Jaws would be my favorite guitar instructor

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

My favorite celebrity doppelganger HOOPER!

[@gab_ale]

12:42 STP Creep.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Oooh yeah throwback!

[@zachkaeser8320]

Haugen Friday!

[@M.2018-b3f]

Thank you. (New subscriber)

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Yay! Welcome!

[@thearno2885]

You can also sub a secondary Dom7 with a diminished chord 3 steps up, so A Dom 7 can be subbed with C diminished and vice versa.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Yup! I'm doing a 3 video series on just Dim7 chords - they're such a fascinating musical organism!

[@thearno2885]

@@EricHaugenGuitar looking forward to it.

[@saskfarm]

Wait…you give lessons?

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Yeah! 4 days a week and it's essential to my sense of self. Despite whatever KZbin "fame" I have, I am at heart just a guitar teacher :-)

[@bocabenkolstad]

I learned this as the 5 of the [whatever chord comes next]. Usually the 5 of the 5. Calling it an approach chord makes just as much sense.

[@jrpipik]

@@RobertSlover What I think Ben is saying is: if you're playing C-E7-Am, the E7 is could be called "five of six" which in musical notation would be written "V/vi." This is the way I learned it, too.

[@RobertSlover]

@@jrpipik thanks, but i went to college for music as well. what was confusing was his convoluted explanation.

[@bocabenkolstad]

@@RobertSlover My approach to music theory has been haphazard at best, so I'm sure my way of thinking about it seems convoluted! Calling it the 5 of the 5 is just the way that made the most sense to me after learning this several different ways, because chord substitution seems to happen most often when approaching the 5. In this video, he used it to approach the 6, but it's the same approach (just as jrpipik explained for me). And yes, you're absolutely right--it's a convoluted way of thinking about it! Wish I had a clearer one!

[@RobertSlover]

@@bocabenkolstad "knowledge speaks wisdom listens" spend your time studying then sir!

[@m.i.stapes]

Spicy

[@jukejointjack]

Eric Burdon is the Egg 🥚 Man

[@shipsahoy1793]

You can get anything to sound good if you’re not harmonizing with it lol

[@jimwilliamson9893]

Thalia Zedek? Live Skull? Jesus, I’m old.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

We are younger today than we'll ever be!

[@patrickobrien376]

I am the walrus? I am the walrus, Dude?

[@lawrencetaylor4101]

Noice.

[@greg6L6GC]

Bell Bottom Blues another example. Do you think Clapton or Whitlock were conscience of this change? If either I would say the latter.

[@EricHaugenGuitar]

Oh yeah I think both those dudes knew what they were doing!

[@RobY-e6o]

Can secondary dominant be used after the target chord for example Em to B7 to G. Em to G being the harmonic movement and B7 as the secondary dominant of Em is this possible?

[@FK-we1dp]

Hey dude I think I'm going to swing by your place this weekend. Will you DM me your address again?