Chapter 2

The Second Circle: diatonic seventh chord substitutes for I, IV and V7

Using All of the Diatonic Chords to Harmonize Songs

So now we have a lot of choices for how to harmonize a simple song. We can use I, IV and V in
triadic, seventh or (in the case of the I chords) 6th forms, we can also use ii minor7, iii minor 7,
vi-7 and vii-7b5. So from the basic full cadence:
I IV V I
We can create myriad variations by using the following diatonic substitutes:
I IV V vi
I IV V iii
iii IV V I
vi IV V I
iii IV V iii
iii IV V vi
vi IV V vi
vi IV V iii
I ii V I
I ii V iii
I ii V vi
iii ii V I
iii ii V vi
vi ii V I
vi ii V iii
vi ii V vi
I IV vii I
I IV vii iii
I IV vii vi
iii IV vii I
and thats not including the ones I left out because of my mediocre mathematical ability. I didnt
even get to variations mixing triads, 7ths and 6ths chords. I could also add inversions. There are
a LOT more possibilities now.
I keep mentioning Christmas Carols, but tunes like Silent Night have passed into the world of
popular song. Chorales are good illustrations of these cadences functioning in their pure form

such as this excerpt from the first chorale of Book I (4-Part Chorales of J.S.Bach.)

I I IV V/3 I V vi IV IV/7 V/V I

5 V I V/3 I vii I/3 ii V7 I

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The Second Circle: diatonic seventh chord substitutes for I, IV and V7 Chapter 2

(My apologies to classical theory students, to avoid a discussion of classical methods of labeling
inversions, I used the jazz method of labeling inversions, the chord followed by a slash and the
scale degree of the bass note. Im not advocating this technique, but it simplifies things by avoid-
ing introducing another system of analysis and labeling at this point.)

This is one of Bachs simpler Chorales, harmonically speaking. Most of the cadences are varia-
tions on I IV V I with inversions used to create more melodically interesting parts for voices. In
the second full bar (bar 3) we have a I V vi cadence (much like our I V I cadence in that it has no
subdominant and the final I chord is replaced by a different tonic triad, the vi.) Bar 4 has a IV V
I cadence following the vi triad on beat 3 of the third bar. Bar 5 has a V to I cadence, and in bar
6 the vii chord replaces the V in a I V I type cadence (so I vii I). Bar 7 is a full cadence with the
ii-7 (note the note G held over in the alto voice from the first beat of the measure) replacing the
IV chord. Youll notice that even though there is a lot of variety in the bass notes of these chords
due to the use of inversions, the basic cadences are similar to what weve discussed above. The
use of the vi, vii and ii chords as substitutes provide additional harmonic color.

As I mentioned above, these diatonic substitutes are not exact equivalents of the tonic, subdom-
inant and dominant chords that they replacebut they have a logic similar to the I, IV and V
harmonizations we did above. Some of these substitutes are easier to use than others. For exam-
ple, in a jazz context, ii-7 to V7 to I major7 is a more common cadence than IV to V7 to I major.
In fact, in the world of jazz, the IV chord is more of a substitute for ii minor7 than the other way
around. In either case, the substitution of a IV for a ii chord is usually less of a dramatic shift
than the substitution of a vii minor7 b5 for V7 chord. In this case, the vii-7b5 often feels like an
awkward choice for a V7 (in part because the minor7 b5 occurs much more often with a different
function, as the ii chord in minor, as we shall see later.) The substitution of iii-7 and vi-7 for I is
common, but (especially in contexts where the I major7 is particularly expectedsay at the end
of a tune) it can feel like a fairly radical change of color. All this is just a way of saying that you
have to check out these sounds carefully and be sensitive to the different colors these substitutes
provide and not just blindly substitute tonic for tonic, subdominant for subdominant and domi-
nant for dominant.

Now, with these new substitutes available to us, we can return to Silent Night. Even though
I, IV and V provided a marginally adequate harmonization of the song, you may have felt that
something was missing when you compared the harmony that we came up with to your own
memory of the way the tune is normally played. Thats because the use of harmonic substitutes is
so clearly etched into your sense of how the song goes.

Heres one possible harmonization:

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Chapter 2 The Second Circle: diatonic seventh chord substitutes for I, IV and V7

(CD track 5)
I^7 vi-7 iii-7 vi-7
B^7 G-7 D-7 G-7

FIRST CIRCLE CHORDS B






Piano

ii-7 V7 I I^7
C-7 F7 B B^7

5

F B






Pno.

IV^7 ii-7 V7 I vi-7

9 E^7 C-7 F7 B G-7

E B





Pno.

IV^7 ii-7 V7 iii-7 vi-7

13 E^7 C-7 F7 D-7 G-7

E B






Pno.

ii-7 V7 I/3 vi-7

17 C-7 F7 B/D G-7

F B




Pno.

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The Second Circle: diatonic seventh chord substitutes for I, IV and V7 Chapter 2
2

I V7 I
21 B F7 B

B F B




Pno.

If you refer to simple first circle chords Silent Night youll see that most of the substitutes fol-
lowed the I, IV, V harmony with a few exceptions. In bars 5, 10 and 14, I added a ii minor7 to the
V7 to lead back to the tonic chord. Still, this re-harmonization follows, more or less, the harmon-
ic functions of the original harmony. Its not impossible to change the function of a chord and put
a tonic chord where a dominant usually goesnever, say neverbut this kind of manipulation
often makes a re-harmonization feel more arbitrary.

I could create many variations of the harmony of Silent Night and each one will be slightly dif-
ferent, with a slightly different mood or color, depending on which diatonic substitutes I employ.

Inversions can often mimic the function of chords that are built on a particular bass note. Thus,
in the key of C, a C/E is a tonic chord variation on the I chord a bit similar in feeling to the iii-7,
and a C/G acts a bit like a dominant (in classical harmony, the cadential 6 4 is a I chord in 2nd in-
version that usually leads to a dominant.) Classical music is filled with inversions and inversions
ARE used in jazz harmony as well, although not to the same extent as in classical music. This is
probably because so much of jazz harmony is conceived in relationship to the root of the chord,
particularly as chords become filled with tensions or the upper-structure notes of the chord.
The more complex a chord becomes, the more likely it is that it will have a root in the bass.

Now would be a good time to go back to the other songs that you harmonized with I, IV and V
and add diatonic substitutes. See if you can come up with more than one harmonic variation that
you like for each of these songs, without changing the harmonic function of these progressions.

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Chapter 3 The third circle: secondary dominant seventh and related ii minor7 chords

Chapter 3 The third circle: secondary dominant seventh

and related ii minor7 chords

secondary
dominants I
and their IV
related iis V7

One defining element of the first two harmonic circles is that all of the notes of all the chords
come from the major scale. All of the other circles that we are studying will contain chords that
have notes that are not found in the major scale. These circles cause us to move outward into a
larger and larger pool of available notes, and yet, all of these chords function in the key, mean-
ing, that these chords with their notes from outside of the scale still behave like tonic, subdom-
inant and dominant chords (more or less). These chords from outside the scale behave in ways
that create the network of harmonic relationships that defines the harmony of a key.

The harmony of the third circle comes about because of the centrality of the V7 to I relationship
in western harmony. You could say that the V7 chord resolving to the I chord is the engine that
drives tonal harmony. Subdominant function is important, but ultimately the progression builds
toward the V7 that will lead to I. V7 defines where I is by making the arrival at this point of res-
olution a target or destination.

For this reason, the first chords that we are going to add to our diatonic harmony are the domi-
nant7 chords that lead to the diatonic seventh chords built on the degrees of the major scale other
than I. These chords are called secondary dominants, because they are not the dominant7 chord
of the key, (the V7) but rather the V7s of each of the other diatonic seventh chords. So (in the
key of C) A7 is the V7 of the ii chord, D-7; B7 is the V7 of the iii chord, E-7; C7 is the V7 of the
IV chord, F major7; D7 is the V7 of the V chord, G7; E7 is the V7 of the vi chord, A-7 and F#7
is the V7 of the vii chord (although it tends to be used less than the other secondary dominant
chords), B-7b5. (Secondary dominants are usually written with the dominant on the left side of a
forward slash and the target chord on the right, so, for example, V7 of ii is written as V7/ii.)

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