Continuing with our journey of harmonic fluency, this lesson introduces a sound that feels natural, grounded, and deeply rooted in the American jazz tradition. After exploring secondary dominants and companion minor harmony, we take the next step by learning how a dominant chord can briefly lean away and then gently return right back home. This Bounce Back Dominant idea gives us a way to create motion, fill space, and add a bluesy sense of pull without ever losing sight of the original harmony. It is a subtle shift that brings simple progressions to life and lets the harmony breathe, stretch, and settle in a more expressive way.
Key Learning Outcomes and Topics Covered
Understand the Bounce Back Dominant/”Five of” concept
Learn how to use a dominant chord to return to the same harmony
Apply bounce backs within a single bar or phrase
Combine bounce backs with companion minor harmony
Explore voice leading using dominant and augmented triads
Hear how these ideas work in a real standard context
Develop a more fluid and colorful harmonic approach
Introduction
In this lesson, we continue working with harmonic expansion ideas by applying them to the jazz standard It Had to Be You. Building on secondary dominants and companion minor harmony, we introduce what Ted Greene referred to as “bounce back” harmony. Rather than using a dominant chord only to travel forward to a new destination, we learn how to use it momentarily to create motion and then return to the original chord, all while respecting the melody and form of the tune.
Lesson Summary
The core idea of this lesson is the Bounce Back Dominant, also called the “Five of”. When a chord lasts for more than a moment, we can briefly play its own dominant seventh chord and then resolve right back to the original harmony. This creates forward motion without actually changing the harmonic destination.
Using It Had to Be You as a working example, we hear how this technique can be applied within a single bar or across longer stretches of harmony. The lesson shows how bounce backs can be executed with standard dominant seventh chords, altered dominants, or even augmented triads that imply dominant function through voice leading.
Alongside bounce back dominants, the lesson revisits companion minor harmony, showing how dominant chords can move back and forth between their companion minor sounds for added depth. We also see how these ideas interact with approach from above harmony, which is introduced here and explored more fully in a later chapter.
Throughout the lesson, careful attention is given to melody, voice leading, and timing. Bounce backs can happen on different beats depending on what the tune allows, and the goal is always to enhance the harmony while keeping the song recognizable and musical. By combining bounce backs, companion minors, secondary dominants, and approach chords, we begin to see how even a tune built largely on dominant chords can open up into a wide palette of harmonic possibilities.
Soundbites
- “Not only can we use a V chord to get to a chord, we can use a V chord to get back to a chord.”
- “If you’ve got a long stretch of a chord, you can bounce to its V and come right back again.”
- “Dominant seventh chords give us all these possible substitute opportunities.”
Closing Thoughts
Bounce Back Dominant harmony is a wonderfully musical way to add interest without overcomplicating the song. It encourages you to hear harmony as something fluid and flexible rather than fixed. Take these ideas slowly, listen closely to the melody, and experiment with placing bounce backs in different spots within the bar. As you grow comfortable with this sound, it will naturally become part of your harmonic vocabulary and open the door to even more expressive playing.
Keywords
- Bounce Back Dominant
- “Five of” concept
- Dominant seventh harmony
- Companion minor
- Secondary dominants
- Harmonic enhancement
- Jazz chord substitutions
- It Had to Be You
- Voice leading
- Ted Greene
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