Easily Use Secondary Dominant Chords & Diminished Triads

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Secondary dominant chords are used to spice up your chord progressions. The same goes for diminished triads or diminished chords. They are very beautiful and can be useful and incredibly powerful! But what if you don’t know any music theory? Don’t worry! It’s a lot easier than you think. Let’s get creative!

Secondary dominant chords and diminished triads

I will show you an extremely easy technique for creating diminished triads and a secondary dominant chord in the first inversion. It sounds difficult and like a mouthful, but trust me. Secondary dominant chord progressions are easier than you think!

I discovered this technique on the guitar. And it came to me by accident. I have used it to create music, write music and interesting chord progressions for years. This is without knowing the correct musical terms. Here’s how I found it:

When you have any normal major chord/triad, you just change one or two notes. There you go first inversion secondary dominants. And creating the diminished triad is even easier. You just move the root note of your major chord half a step up, while the rest of the chord stays the same. Let’s check out some diminished triad and first inversion secondary dominants examples.

Video Tutorial: Secondary Dominant Chords and Diminished Chords The Intuitive Way!

You can check out my video tutorial if something is not clear. Or if you want to hear examples with real music. For more creative songwriting and music composition techniques, check out my music writing and theory articles.

Easy Trick For Getting Diminished Triads

What do you hear when you play a chord progression like this?

Two chords with a diminished chord in between

Diminished chord example — In midi: Two chords with a diminished chord in between

The chord in the middle is a diminished chord/triad. This chord creates a strong pull towards the last Em chord. I made this chord by simply raising the root note of the D major chord with half a step.

You can apply this trick to any major chord. It will give you the diminished chord that lies half a step above your original major chord. So in this diminished triad example, we went from D major to D#diminished.

What are diminished triads?

Diminished triads are three-note chords that sound tense and dissonant. Diminished chords are made up of two minor thirds stacked on top of each other. You can easily create a diminished chord by stacking two minor thirds and playing them at the same time. And just to be sure, a minor third is the distance of three half steps on the piano or guitar.

In midi: How to create a diminished chord

For example, in the key of Eb, a D-diminished triad would be D – F – A♭. Each note is three-half steps apart from the next one.

To recap: Diminished triads often sound like they’re waiting for something else to happen. They create a bit of tension and make you feel like the music needs to move to another chord that sounds more stable.

How To Create and Use a Secondary Dominant Chord In First Inversion

What if you want to have the same kind of tension as a diminished triad, but you want the chord to sound brighter? Then using a secondary dominant chord in the first inversion is the way to go. And I know it sounds difficult, but it’s not! See below for more info about chord inversions, dominant chords and secondary dominant chords.

Let’s take the D major chord from our previous example. We need to raise the root note with half a step and the fifth with a whole step. What you get is a major chord in the first inversion.

When I apply this to our previous chord progression, we create a secondary dominant chord in the first inversion. Just play the previous example and this one to compare their sound.

Creating a B major chord in first inversion — Creating a major B chord in the first inversion

In midi: Creating a B major chord in first inversion — In midi: Creating a B major chord in the first inversion

Secondary Dominant First Inversion Guitar

On the guitar, this type of chord sounds amazing. And also the chord shape is easy to grab. In my song analysis of Foo Fighters Rope, you can see two first inversion secondary dominants in action. Play it and use it in your music!

First Inversion Secondary Dominants Piano

On piano, it is just as simple as on the guitar. In the example below the first chord is a C major and the third is a Dm. The chord in between is an A major in the first inversion. This A major chord functions as a secondary dominant chord. From the C major you raise the root note by half a step and the fifth by a whole step.

A major chord in first inversion as a secondary dominant — A major chord in the first inversion

Adding multiple first-inversion secondary dominant chords to a progression

Let’s compare a regular chord progression with a progression that uses many secondary dominant chords. You tell me which progression has more tension.

Em chord progression with secondary dominant chords

Go ahead and use these secondary dominant first inversion examples in any chord progression you like.

Conclusion

You don’t need to know the music theory terms that go along with this technique. Just apply how and what notes I changed to create these chords. You don’t need any music theory for this!

But for the people who want to get things straight: What you are doing is making a chromatic passing chord between the two original chords. These chords are one whole step away from each other. This added chord in between creates tension and a smooth stepwise connection to the chord half a step above it.

If you liked this article, then I think you will love my lesson about augmented triads or parallel chords!

Music Theory Questions

Chord inversions are a different way of arranging the notes in your chord. Instead of having the root note as the lowest note, one of the other notes from the chord is in the lowest position. If you compare a chord to a stack of blocks. When you change the order of these blocks, you get a new look, but it’s still the same set of blocks.

For example, in a C major chord, which has the notes C, E, and G. Normally the C is the lowest note. But if you put E or G at the bottom, you get a different inversion.

Chord inversions help make music smoother and more interesting.

Dominant chords are chords in music that have a powerful sound. They create tension and make the music want to go towards the next chord.

For example, in the key of C major, the G major chord is the dominant chord. When you hear this chord, it usually wants to go to the C major chord. The C is on the first scale degree and the G major is on the fifth scale degree. So there is a five-one relationship as it’s called.

Secondary dominant chords are chords that temporarily take on the role of dominant chords in a key other than the main tonic chord’s key. We use them to create tension by leading to a chord that’s not the tonic but still feels resolved. These chords are very common in music that has more complex harmonic progressions.

For example, in the key of C major (I), the dominant chord is G major (V). A secondary dominant option could be to play a D major chord (this is the dominant chord of G major). This will create a sense of tension before resolving to the G major chord.

Secondary dominant chords are often written using Roman numerals to show their relationship to the key. For instance, in the key of C major:

To recap, secondary dominant chords are chords that temporarily act like dominant chords in keys other than the main key.

The V/ii chord refers to the secondary dominant of the ii chord (D minor).
The V/iii chord refers to the secondary dominant of the iii chord (E minor).
The V/IV chord refers to the secondary dominant of the IV chord (F major).
The V/V chord refers to the secondary dominant of the V chord (G major).
The V/vi chord refers to the secondary dominant of the vi chord (A minor).