Episode 4 : A chord melody lick over a ii V I progression.

A chord melody lick over a ii V I progressionPodcast #4 - Additional notes

© Copyright Darren Dutson Bromley 2012

A chord melody lick over a ii V I progression.

A chord sequence is like a journey. It starts on the first chord and moves forward through a progression of other chords before reaching the end with the final chord. This may sound like a rather fanciful description but it’s actually a very useful way of thinking about chords and its implications will be discussed in later podcasts, particularly in relevance to improvising.

We learned in the previous podcast about the chords in a major key built from a major scale where each note was harmonised with notes a third, fifth and even a seventh above.

The C major scale as an example:

Harmonised with the root and the fifth it looks like this:

With the seventh added

As a general observation, the order of the chords can be jumbled up and notes can also be doubled to thicken out the chord.

C major for example contains only the notes C - E - G. Let’s see how that relates to familiar chord shapes.

Chord I is the tonic, this is the strongest chord in the key.

In the key of C this would be C major or Cmaj7:

The chord which has the strongest attraction to chord I is chord V, often with the 7th added.

In the key of C this would be G7:

A chord which leads really well into chord V is chord ii or ii7.

In the key of C this would Dm or Dm7:

This is known as the ii - V - I progression and is one of the most common progressions in music. It can be found in all genres of music from Bach to Bowie and is certainly the most common chord sequence in jazz. Musicians can spend years leaning effective ways of negotiating it, manipulating it and adapting it.

It should be a goal to learn to play and recognise this progression in every key.

Lets find a ii - V - I progression in G major:

Starting with a G major scale

When harmonised with the 3rd, 5th and 7th notes it looks like this:

The ii - V - I progression in G major would consist of Am7, D7 and Gma7.

This episode demonstrates a useful chord melody style lick over a ii - V - I progression in the key of G major.:

The lick begins with Am7 at the 5th fret, chord ii in the key of G.

This moves to an inversion of Am7 (no root) at the 8th fret via a passing chord. This is actually a D major chord but in this context it isn't functioning as one but rather a stepping stone from one chord to another using scale tones.

The note B is added to the Am7 chord. The shape here is now Cma7 but is implying Am9 (no root) with the B being the 9th, the two chords have similar notes.

Over the D7 chord we have Am7, this is a common substitution over a dominant chord where you can play a m7 chord who’s root lies a perfect 5th above.

This is then followed by Am9.

Finally D7, but here with the inclusion of a flat 9, then a #5 before finally resolving onto G6.

Study these techniques and try and apply them into other aspects of your playing in as many different keys as you can.

See you next time.