3 Licks To Unlock Backdoor Dominants (Once And For All)

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]A backdoor dominant is when you use a seven chord on the flat seven degree of the home key to get back to chord one instead of using the traditional five chord. What the hell am I talking about?

[00:00:10]Right, here is chord five to chord one.

[00:00:15]And here is the flat seven dominant >> [music] >> going back to chord one.

[00:00:22]So, traditional five to one, that would be in this key G7 would go to C. A backdoor dominant is when you use a B flat seven to go back to C.

[00:00:35]Today, I'm going to give you a lightning version of the theory of backdoor dominants and backdoor 251s. Then, I'm going to teach you three key licks that you can use to get the sound of this ubiquitous chord change nailed down. And that's the important bit. The theory is useless unless you can apply it using the right notes when you improvise. Make sure you go and grab your free PDF cheat sheet which has got these three licks written out for you with all the variations, which is really going to help you dial in your backdoor dominants. So, in a nutshell, a backdoor dominant is a version of a minor plagal cadence. What's a minor plagal cadence?

[00:01:10]That's chord four minor to chord one.

[00:01:13]So, a plagal cadence is the posh name for a chord four resolving to chord one.

[00:01:18]So, if you had F going to [music] C, chord four to chord one, that's a plagal cadence. In other words, like a church cadence. Now, if you just change that four chord to a four minor, in this case it'll be F minor going to C, [music] that is a minor plagal cadence. Now, to make things even more wistful, it's common to make that four minor chord into a minor six chord like this.

[00:01:46]That's F minor six to C.

[00:01:50]From that minor six four chord, it's a simple step to just change the bass note to the flat seven of the home key to get what we call a backdoor dominant. For example, in the key of C, you take the F, A flat, C, and D [music] of F minor six, and you replace the bass note, the F, with a B flat, and hey presto, there's your backdoor dominant. And the reason it works is because you've got all this lovely, uh, voice leading. The A flat is going down to the G, the D is going up to the E or down to the C, and the F can go to the E. So, you've got all these lovely movements inside the chords, [music] which really make it work. And it's a much more wistful, thoughtful way of getting to the home key than the traditional five, you know, one, which is what you might call the front door.

[00:02:39]This is a more, it's just a more, it's a slightly darker way of getting to the home key. So, what about a backdoor 251?

[00:02:46]Well, we're jazz musicians, we have to put a 2-7 before every five, don't we?

[00:02:51]So, in the case of B flat seven, we would throw an F minor seven before that. Now, that kind of gives you a 251 in the key of E flat, but the surprise is we're not going to E flat, we're going to C. So, to make our backdoor dominant into a backdoor 251, you just do a 251 basically in a key a minor third above. So, there's the home key of C, and here's the key of E flat. Now, if you were in E flat, you would go F minor seven, B flat, E flat. But this time, we're going F minor seven, B flat seven, but resolve to C.

[00:03:26]>> [laughter] >> So, that's how you get a backdoor 251.

[00:03:29]And the two chord of that 251 is actually the minor chord on the fourth degree of the main key you're in. We're in the main key of C, the fourth degree is F, there's your minor seven, and there's your B flat seven, and then we resolve up a tone. So, that is how you spot a backdoor dominant. It resolves up a tone. It's a dominant seven chord resolving up a tone. And the final bit of theory, I'm not going to go into the weeds with the with the theory of this, but when you use a backdoor dominant, the extensions you use are here's the root, third, flat seven, you use the nine, you use the sharp 11, and you use the 13.

[00:04:11]Which is weird because you actually have a triad of the home key at the top of the chord. So, we're in the key of C, our backdoor dominant is B [music] flat seven.

[00:04:21]And there's there it is with the third and seventh. Now, you just [music] throw a C triad on top. Look.

[00:04:28]What?

[00:04:29]And that resolves nicely to [music] the home key. So, don't use flat extensions on a backdoor dominant. We're not going to get into the weeds with the theory.

[00:04:37]Just believe me, when you've got a backdoor dominant in jazz, it's a 13 sharp 11 chord, and you use Lydian dominant. That's the posh scale. Okay, that's the theory out of the way. Let's get into those key licks. If you like the way I teach, by the way, just before we do that, go and check out my free saxophone success masterclass. The link is in the description. It's a whole hour of teaching which can instantly move the needle on your playing. You're going to love it. So, go and check out the free saxophone success masterclass. Let's look now at lick number one. Okay, I call lick one the seven to three because it's using the traditional voice leading that you go from the seventh of the two chord to the third of the five chord.

[00:05:14]Now, we don't actually resolve like a normal two five one cuz remember, we're resolving to a different surprise key.

[00:05:20]Um but that's why I call it the seven three. It sounds like this. Now, we've changed key because of B flat transposition and all that stuff. So, now now we're actually in the home key of B flat concert, which is C for tenor.

[00:05:33]There is the backdoor dominant going to the chord, and here is the backdoor two five.

[00:05:39]>> [music] >> Okay, just to get the sound in your head. And this is what the lick would sound like.

[00:05:51]>> [music] >> Now, I'm going to play this with the backing track so you can hear it. But, just to cover one quick thing, if you've got a long 2-5-1, in other in other words, a bar I'm going to talk tenor pitch, okay? If you've got a bar of F minor 7 and a bar of B flat 7, you can still use these licks. You just have to kind of cram it into the second half or do a little lead-in like one of the variations that you can see there. So, most of the time you have a short 2-5-1 with the backdoor dominant, but if it's a longer one, you know, you can fit the whole thing in the second bar, it's absolutely fine. But, once you've got the sound of these backdoor 2-5s, you can extend the notes and make them into two bars. Okay, let's hear what that sounds like now with the with the actual chords. The chord sequence you're going to hear in tenor pitch is C major 7, then it's a 2-5-1 to chord 4 cuz this is what commonly happens. Then, you've got the backdoor 2-5-1 and I'm going to play the lick. Here we go.

[00:06:58]Okay, see how that works? Now, here's a little variation with that lead-in.

[00:07:05]2-5 to chord [music] 4 and there's the backdoor 2-5-1. It really gives the sound of this chord change. It gives the sound be able to wa.

[00:07:22]And you're resolving to the major 7 in this case. Right, now, I've got some other examples to show you it where the rubber really hits the road. We're going to play it over a few different standards, all right? You're going to find backdoor dominants all over the place, not just in jazz, in Stevie Wonder songs, pop songs, you name it, it's all over the place. But, we're going to see how this fits on Just Friends, then Misty, and then Stella by Starlight, which actually has three backdoor dominants. So, I'm going to play this one lick over all these different examples to really start getting the sound of this particular lick in your head.

[00:08:02]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Okay, the second lick is called I've been to the Guildhall. Why is it called that? Because when I was at the Guildhall, that's the way we used to sing it. I've been to the Guildhall.

[00:09:07]>> [laughter] >> It's just a funny way of remembering it.

[00:09:10]Now, this one focuses on the classic Lydian dominant sound. Now, if you're doing a B flat seven sharp 11 with the 13th and the ninth, the the scale that comes from it is an F melodic minor scale. Now, you don't need to worry too much about that, but when you arpeggiate that F melodic minor scale from the root all the way up to the ninth, that arpeggio that you get, that is the classic I've been to the Guild Hall. All right, now that's what this lick sounds like.

[00:09:42]So, here's lick two.

[00:09:48]You can resolve from the F to the E, or you can resolve to the G. They both work equally well.

[00:09:57]And then there's a few different variations on this. For example, 3 4 1.

[00:10:04]>> [music] >> That's quite a Charlie Parker-ish one.

[00:10:09]Then you've got the little lead-in into it. A 1 2.

[00:10:16]Or a little variation like a 3 4.

[00:10:23]Okay, so here's what it sounds like in context with the chords that we had before. Check this out.

[00:10:30]2 5 to chord 4. Here it is.

[00:10:35]>> [music] >> Let's hear that again going to the third this time. 2 5 to chord [music] 4.

[00:10:49]Let's hear a little uh one of those variations. [music] 2 5 to chord 4.

[00:10:58]>> [music] >> And here it is with another little variation, the final variation down there.

[00:11:06]>> [music] >> 2 5 to chord 4.

[00:11:12]>> [music] >> So, that's the I've been to the Guild Hall >> [laughter] >> uh Lydian dominant variation. Now, remember you can get your free PDF cheat sheet with these three licks written out. Uh just use the link in the description. Okay, let's hear this lick two, the I've been to the Guild Hall lick, in the context of the standards.

[00:11:30]Now, remember it's been adjusted to fit the key of the particular standards that you're hearing. It's not all going to be in C. Check this out.

[00:11:46]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Let's now move on to the final lick number three. This one is called the enclosure. Why is it called the enclosure? Durr, because it's an enclosure. An enclosure is where you do um either one or two notes above your target note and one or two notes below your target note, which converge into the target note. Now, the target note in uh in this case is the G, which in this key is the fifth of C major. So, there's C major for tenor.

[00:13:06]We're trying to find that note, and we go Now, before I play that lick over the chords, let me just point something out.

[00:13:17]If I go back to lick number two here, before we get some, you know, before people get cute in the comments, I'm perfectly aware that you're playing an E natural over an F minor 7 chord.

[00:13:30]So, in tenor pitch, here's the F minor 7. Ooh, that's a bit of a muddy voicing.

[00:13:35]Oh my gosh.

[00:13:37]Right. So, there's a tenor pitch is the F minor 9, and we're playing this.

[00:13:45]>> [music] >> So, you've actually got that chord with that note.

[00:13:55]Which in theory doesn't work, but in practice, because you're playing a strong sound, it does work absolutely fine. So, don't worry about it. In the big gumbo pot of harmony, it works. Now, the same thing is true here. You've actually got an an E flat over a B flat 7 chord. Here's the chord.

[00:14:14]Concert A flat 13 sharp 11. Now, you're actually playing this note.

[00:14:22]Because you're going da da ba da da da da da.

[00:14:26]Okay? Now, don't worry about it. The clash doesn't matter. You don't have to go >> [music] >> Although, you could.

[00:14:39]Because when I play it, you'll find out that it all just makes sense. The easiest way is to stop talking about it and demonstrate it. Here we go.

[00:14:48]2 5 to chord 4.

[00:14:54]>> [music] >> So, as you can see, it just works. Don't get on my case and start saying, "Oh, the theory is you're playing the fourth of the the dominant chord." It's just a sound. Now, you can also do the same type of thing on a slightly lower inversion.

[00:15:13]It works just as well. Check this out.

[00:15:16]2 5 to chord [singing and music] 4.

[00:15:24]So, see how they both work, these enclosures.

[00:15:30]And you could do your little lead-ins and all that.

[00:15:37]Let me know do lick three in the context of the standards.

[00:15:47]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> So, that's it. That's what I've got for you this week. Remember to go and get your PDF with those three licks. And the important thing is that you really get the sound of the structure of these licks. And then, next time you're playing standards, you'll be able to use the structure of these licks, the three different ones, three different slightly different sounds, to really sound like you're making the changes instead of skating over the chords and really not sounding like you're you're authentically making the chords.

[00:17:08]I wish somebody had taught me this kind of thing when I was learning because I just used to see a sea of chord symbols, not really knowing what was going on.

[00:17:16]But now I've given you some really cool key sounds, and then you can work with them, and when you're playing your standards, you throw them in, you're going to sound like you're nailing the changes, you're going to sound like a proper saxophonist, and it's not just jazz. You'll find it in pop, you find it in Beatles, you find it all over the place in soul, funk, you know, even rock, rock and roll, all over the place you'll find back door dominance, and you can use the same licks. I hope you really enjoy it. Now, remember I mentioned my free saxophone success class, the link's in the description only for that. And also, if you want more bonus content, and there's a monthly solo, and you can ask me anything you want live every month, go and join the inner circle membership.

[00:17:56]That's where you get access to little old me every month.

[00:18:00]Make sure you subscribe to my channel. I would appreciate it muchly, and until next week, practice hard, practice smart, that's why you're here, and more than anything else, enjoy your music.

[00:18:11]Take it easy, guys.

[00:18:14]>> [music] >> Am I ever going to get this right?

[00:18:21]>> [music] >> Uh, you have to play it.

[00:18:23]Uh, uh.

[00:18:24]>> [laughter] >> My singing.

[00:18:27]>> [music] >> I completely got that wrong.