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6.7.4 Circular Harmonic Scale: Three Final Adjustments
In light of all this, it’s now possible to make three more adjustments to the emerging circular harmonic scale, finalizing it.
- The V chord must be changed to V7, the dominant seventh, so that it points unambiguously to I, the tonic chord of the major key.
- Similarly, the III chord must be changed to III7, the dominant seventh, so that it points unambiguously to VIm, the tonic chord of the relative minor key.
- And finally, since the circular harmonic scale subsumes the basic chords of two keys, a major key and its relative minor, it would help to identify the two tonic chords.
As for the VIIº chord, it’s always acutely dissonant, unbalanced. It can either be left it as it is or changed to a diminished seventh chord (VIIº7). It doesn’t really matter. Either way, the chord remains eminently unstable.