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Secondary dominants are one of the most powerful tools a guitarist can learn. They add color, momentum, and direction to chord progressions — without requiring advanced theory or complex shapes. Once you understand them, you’ll start hearing them everywhere: pop, jazz, worship, country, blues, film music, and even rock.

This tutorial explains what secondary dominants are, how to build them, why they work, and how guitarists can use them creatively.

What Is a Secondary Dominant?

In any key, the V chord (the dominant) naturally wants to resolve to I (the tonic).

Example in C major:

• G7 – C

A secondary dominant is simply a V chord that temporarily tonicizes another chord in the key.

For example:

• D7 – G

Here, D7 is not diatonic to C major — but it acts like the V of G.

We label it:

V/V

(“Five of Five”)

Because G is the V chord in C major, and D7 is the V of G.

How to Build a Secondary Dominant

Take any diatonic chord

Then find the V chord of that chord as if that was the tonic

This is most common using the dominant V, of the original key, but can apply to any diatonic chord.

Examples in C major:

These chords add tension and pull strongly toward their targets.

Please sign up to silver membership if you would like to learn more, such as

• Why Guitarists Love Secondary Dominants
• How Secondary Dominants Sound (Guitar Examples)
• Secondary Dominants in Real Progressions
• How Guitarists Can Use Secondary Dominants Creatively

Silver members get access to downloadable pdfs of this tutorial and all other full tutorials, alongside handy composition reference sheets.

Build your own composers toolkit with PhysMuse resources with silver membership.