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Dressing Up the Dominant (V) Chord
(^) The V chord in any key is referred to as the DOMINANT. Dominant chords resolve to I chords (which are also called
TONIC chords, for all of you music theory buffs). A common way to jazz up progressions is to add things to the
dominant chord, or the V chord, in any key. Dominacould become a G9 or G13. Dominant chords can alsont chords can be altered by adding color tones. Fo be altered by adjusting the chord tones themselvesr example, a G7. For
example a G7 could become a Gaug7, a G7(b5) or G7(#create varying degrees of added color to the chord progression. 9). All of these things can be done to a dominant chord to
(^) Adding simple diatonic color tones like the 9th would be a very “safe” note to add at any time. Adding tones that are
not in the key will sound more “jazzy” or “outside”according to the context of the song. If you just wanted to add a little color to a chord at the fami the normal harmonic structure. So whichever you cly sing-along add the hoose varies
9th. But if you are on-stage at Kennedy Center with Wynton Marsalis then you probably want to add something a little
more creative.
The following exercise demonstrates how dominant chords can be dressed up to add color to a progression. These
two examples are demonstrated in the bonus workshopchord forms may be unfamiliar to you, but work them out and learn them to add to your playing. for Session 18. Play through each example. Some of the
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