Lesson 2

 Voice Leading Chords

• The dominant function chord is any triad that can take the place of the dominant chord to expand the tonic area and in the middle or even at the beginning of the piece like a dominant chord can.
• Some examples of these are the dominant 7 chord and seventh chords deriving from the leading tone. 
• These dominant function chords are most likely always in first inversion.
• An example of a dominant function chord in the key of C major would be B on top as the root, d at the bottom as the bass and F in the middle and B would be our leading tone hence it is a dominant function chord.

Reference: The Musician's Guide to Theory and Analysis

This picture just simply shows the different Scale degrees and their functions and as you can see VII chords can be used as Dominant chords it makes perfect sense. 

Here we see again the relation between how the vii and V work as Dominant chords and why the vii is a dominant function chord.

These videos explain the dominant function.

Me Playing the major 7, dominant 7, minor 7, half diminished 7 and fully diminished 7 of the leys of C,F and G.

Study Questions: 

What makes the 7 chord able to function as the dominant function?

It has the leading tone in it and so does the 5 chord.

List an example of a dominant function chord in D major?

A-C-Eb-F# = F shard dim 7 chord in 1st inversion