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What actually precedes V
"Predominant" is the textbook name for the family of chords — ii, IV, and their color variants — that set up the dominant. We traced every chord that resolves into V or V7 across our corpus (54 pieces, including all 36 WTC preludes): 481 resolutions in all. The honest answer to "what precedes V" is mostly not predominant harmony at all — it's 132 plain I/i tonic chords sliding straight into the dominant, tonic prolongation rather than the ii/IV family. Set that aside and count only the real predominant-function chords, and ii7 takes the lead with 49 — more than plain IV or IV7 on their own.
Practice with the pieces that use it →
Top 10 chords leading into V
Every chord that immediately precedes a V or V7 in the corpus, ranked by how often it happens — tonic chords included, since that's the honest picture:
| chord → V | count |
|---|---|
| I | 85 |
| ii7 | 49 |
| i | 47 |
| vi7 | 41 |
| IV | 28 |
| IV7 | 26 |
| iv7 | 19 |
| ii | 17 |
| I7 | 16 |
| iiø7 | 15 |
Just the predominants
Filtering down to the diatonic predominant-function chords — ii, IV, and their minor and seventh-chord colors — out of 159 true predominant resolutions:
| chord | count |
|---|---|
| ii7 | 49 |
| IV | 28 |
| IV7 | 26 |
| iv7 | 19 |
| ii | 17 |
| iiø7 | 15 |
| iv | 5 |
ii7 is the single most common predominant chord — 49 times, ahead of plain IV (28) or IV7 (26) individually. Group by root instead of exact quality — every ii-chord (ii, ii7, iiø7) against every IV/iv-chord (IV, IV7, iv, iv7) — and the two families are close: 81 for the supertonic against 78 for the subdominant, a slight edge to ii. The half-diminished iiø7 (15) is minor-key ii7's usual disguise; plain triadic ii and iv trail behind — composers reach for the seventh-chord color first.
Hear them in real pieces
Each link opens the piece in the harmony player, chords labeled — the bar numbers below name what leads into the dominant.
- Canon in D J. Pachelbel 20 shown
- Prelude 7 in E-flat major (BWV 852) J. S. Bach 14 shown
- Clair de Lune C. Debussy 9 shown
- Arabesque No. 2 C. Debussy 8 shown
- Nocturne in C-sharp minor (Op. posth.) F. Chopin 6 shown
- Sonata in C, K. 545 W. A. Mozart 6 shown
- Prelude No. 1 in C, BWV 846 (WTC I) J. S. Bach 5 shown
- Prelude 1 in C major (BWV 846) J. S. Bach 5 shown
- Prelude 19 in A major (BWV 864) J. S. Bach 5 shown
- Prelude 22 in B-flat minor (BWV 867) J. S. Bach 5 shown
- Prelude 6 in D minor (BWV 875) J. S. Bach 5 shown
- Moonlight Sonata, 1st Movement L. v. Beethoven 4 shown
Go deeper
- Train your ear to catch them → Our ear-training site drills recognizing predominant function by ear — ii7 vs IV vs the tonic that's just passing through.
- The theory: predominant seventh chords → How ii7 and IV7 set up the dominant, and how they differ from a plain tonic prolongation — the full chapter on our theory site.
- More seventh chords, surveyed → ii7 above is the same minor seventh chord that leads the corpus-wide seventh-chord census — the connective tissue shows up twice.
- Learn a piece that uses them → The practice ladder loops eight bars at a time — hear the harmony slowly, read along, then play at tempo.