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AP® Music Theory · Unit 7 · Topic 7.1

Tonicization and Secondary Dominants

Watch it drawn5 questionsPractice

Watch it explained

  1. How it worksHow does a secondary dominant borrow the V chord of a key you are not actually in?
  2. How it worksWalk me through reading the slash in V of V as dominant of the dominant.
  3. Worked exampleFind the notes of the V of V chord in C major and the accidental it requires.
  4. Common mistakeWhy isn't a tonicization the same thing as a modulation?
  5. Ties togetherHow does a series of tonicized chords develop into a full pivot-chord modulation to a new key?

Check yourself

Your turn1 of 2
A secondary dominant borrows an accidental not in the home key's signature to tonicize a target chord. A passage tonicizes 5 different chords in a row, each needing exactly one such borrowed accidental. How many total borrowed accidentals does the passage contain?

End of topic.

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