Chord Progressions

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Blues Chord Progressions & Variations

This chord lesson is all about the blues.

We all know the chord progression for a typical blues, but there are so many
variations that it's hard to know them all.

The blues originated in the USA and evolved from African, European and Latin
influences. The blues had a very big influence on jazz. Nowadays every jazz musician
has some blues in his repertoire.

There are many many different sets of blues progressions, going from the basic
original blues to the more modern variations like the bebop and Coltrane blues changes
or the changes played by Miles Davis or Thelonious Monk.
The foundation however stays the 12 bar blues with a set of 3 chord changes.

Here are some characteristics of the blues:

• Most blues chord progressions are 12 bars long, although there are also
14, 16, 24 or more bar blues changes. There are many different 12 bar blues
forms though.
• The tonic chord of a blues is a dominant 7 chord, a fact that doesn't fit very
well in traditional music theory.
• The blues is not only about chord changes and scales, but is also about a
certain sound, a feeling.
Responsible for that sound are the blue notes: a lowered 3rd note and a
lowered 5th note.
• The 3 basic chords of a blues are all dominant 7 chords.

Here's a list of possible sets of blues chord changes:

Basic Blues F7

Bb7 F7

C7 Bb7 F7

1930s evolution F7 Bb7 F7

Bb7 F7

G7 C7 F7 C7

Basie Blues F7 Bb7 Bdim F7 Cm7 F7


Changes
Bb7 Bdim F7 D7

Gm7 C7 F7

Bebop Changes F7 Bb7 F7 Cm7 F7

Bb7 Bdim F7 Am7 D7


Gm7 C7 Am7 D7 Gm7 C7

Tritone F7 Bb7 F7 Cm7 F7


Substitution
Bb7 Bm7 E7 F7 E7 Eb7 D7

Gm7 C7 Bb7 Am7 D7 Gm7 C7

Charlie Parker Fmaj7 Em7b5 A7b9 Dm7 Db7 Cm7 F7


Blues
Bb7 Bbm7 Eb7 Am7 D7 Abm7 Db7

Gm7 C7 F D7 Gm7 C7

For those of you who want to know more about jazz & blues theory I strongly
recommend
The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine.

A good guitar book about jazz blues is All Blues for Jazz Guitar by Jim Ferguson.

Jazz Chord Progressions


Chord progressions are a succession of chords played one after another and during a
specified duration.

This page brings you the most popular chord progressions in jazz, provides you a list
of songs that use similar chord progressions and the jazz guitarists who recorded
these songs.

It's necessary thing to know and practice improvising over these chord
progressions, so fire up Band in a Box, type in the chords and get those fingers going!

1) IIm7 V7 | Imaj7

Dm7 G7 | Cmaj7

This is without any doubt the most popular chord progression in jazz. I'm not going
to give you a list with songs that use this progression, since a jazz standard without a II
V I is almost unthinkable. Some jazz standard chord progressions are nothing more
then a series of II V's.

2) Imaj7 VIm7 | IIm7 V7 | IIIm7 VI7 | IIm7 V7

Cmaj7 Am7 | Dm7 G7 | Em7 A7 | Dm7 G7


This chord progression is the first A of a 'rhythm changes'. 'Rhythm changes' are a
kind of chord progression that use the same chord changes as 'I've Got Rhythm', a song
written by Gershwin in 1930. People started using this progression to jam on and so
many different melodies came into being that use the same chord changes.

A list of standards that use this progression and the guitarists that played them:

Song Title Played By

Moose the Mooche Pat Metheny

Shaw Nuff Barney Kessel

Cheek to Cheek George Van Eps

Mean to Me Barney Kessel

Isn't It Romantic Tal Farlow

Long Ago and Far Away Earl Klugh

3) Imaj7 | | (IIm7 | V7 ) | Imaj7 | | (IIm7 | V7 )

Cmaj7 | | Cm7 | F7 | Bbmaj7 | | Bbm7 | Eb7

This is also a very common jazz chord progression.


There are 2 modulations in this progression. The progressions starts in the key of C
major, modulates to Bb major in the 3rd bar and again modulates in the 7th bar, this
time to Ab major.

Song Title Played By

How High the Moon Joe Pass

Tune Up Wes Montgomery

Cherokee Tal Farlow

Joy Spring Joe Pass

One Note Sambe Charlie Byrd

Solar Pat Metheny


4) Imaj7 #I°7 | IIm7 #II°7 | IIIm7 VI7

Cmaj7 C#°7 | Dm7 D#°7 | Em7 A7

Song Title Played By

Cherokee Tal Farlow

Have You Met Miss Jones Kenny Burrell

Joy Spring Joe Pass

But Beautiful Lenny Breau

Ain't Misbehavin' Django Reinhardt

5) Imaj7 | | II7 | | IIm7 | V7 | Imaj7 | |

Cmaj7 | | D7 | | Dm7 | G7 | Cmaj7 | |

Song Title Played By

Take the 'A' Train George Benson

The Girl from Ipanema Charlie Byrd

Desafinado Charlie Byrd

Mood Indigo Kenny Burrell

6) Imaj7 | (IIm7 V7) | IVmaj7

Cmaj7 | Gm7 C7 | Fmaj7

Song Title Played By

Satin Doll Tal Farlow

Cherokee Tal Farlow


Joy Spring Joe Pass

Have You Met Miss Jones Kenny Burrell

There Will Never Be Another George Benson


You

7) Imaj7 | I7 | IVmaj7| IVm7| IIIm7 VI7| IIm7 V7|Imaj7| |

Cmaj7 | C7 | Fmaj7 | Fm7 | Em7 A7 |Dm7 G7 | Cmaj7| |

Song Title Played By

Moose the Mooche Pat Metheny

Shaw Nuff Barney Kessel

All of Me George Benson

All the Things You Are Pat Metheny

There Will Never Be Another You George Benson

For those of you who want to know more about jazz chord progressions and music
theory I strongly recommend The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine.

Jazz Guitar Chords in Fourths


We saw in the jazz guitar chord tutorial that chords are built by stacking 3rds and
most western music today use nothing but this kind of chords.

There are also chords based on fourths instead of thirds. These chords in fourths
were made popular by McCoy Tyner (John Coltrane's piano player).

Quartal voicings have a jazzy sound and work very well in modal music.

How is the jazz guitar chord in fourths constructed and how does it look on the guitar
neck?

Quartal voicings are used most often in modal music and most often in a minor or
dominant key.

Let's start with the D Dorian scale:

D E F G A B C
Let's build a chord on the first notes of the D Dorian scale, but instead of stacking
thirds we'll be stacking fourths:

D G C F

The result is a chord you could call a Dm11, but I don't want to give names to these
quartal voicings because they behave like harmonic chameleons:

• If we put a D in the bass of our first example, we get a Dm11.


• With F in the bass we get an F(6,9).
• A G in the bass gives us a Gsus4.

We could go on building chords on the other notes of the scale, but I think you get the
picture.

Let's have a look at the guitar tab for chords in fourths:

1) 4 string chord, lowest note on the A string

Here are the guitar chord diagrams for the 4 chord shapes you have to remember:

2) 4 string chord, lowest note on the D string


Here are the guitar chord diagrams for the 4 chord shapes you have to remember:

I like to look at and use quartal voicings more as an harmonized scale then as actual
chords: they are very usable as a solo improvisation device. They also work well for
accompaniment or for creating vamps.

Upper Structure Triads


Upper structure triads are very useful for bringing some new elements in your
comping and single note soloing. These guitar chord substitutions open up new
sounds and give you fresh ideas.

Triads are ideal for comping because they are easy to finger and most of the time don't
contain the root of the chord (which is played by the bass player).

On this page you'll see which upper structure triads work best.

If you want to know even more about upper structure, I suggest you take a look in this
excellent book (it's the jazz theory bible) :

The Jazz Theory Book By Mark Levine. The most comprehensive Jazz
Theory book ever published!. Theory Book. Published by Sher Music
Company. (JTB)
See more info...

Let's start with the upper structure triads for the Cmaj7 chord :

Here are the triads from the root on :

CEG 1-3-5 : is not an upper structure triad because it contains only chord tones
EGB 3-5-7 : is not an upper structure triad because it contains only chord tones
GBD 5-7-9 : this is the first upper structure triad
BDF 7-9-11 : this is not a usable upper structure triad for Cmaj7 because it
contains the avoid note (11) for C major
DFA 9-11-13 : this is not a usable upper structure triad for Cmaj7 because it
contains the avoid note (11) for C major
FAC 11-13-1 : this is not a usable upper structure triad for Cmaj7 because it
contains the avoid note (11) for C major
ACE 13-1-3 : this is the second upper structure triad

Some things to keep in mind :

• the upper structure triad must contain at least one tension which is not an
avoid note.
Avoid notes only play a role in major chords.
• An upper structure triad can be major, minor, diminished or augmented.
For me major upper structure triads work best.
• You can use upper structure triads for soloing as well as for comping.
Triads are technically non complex chord forms, but in combination with a bass
player they can really open up your sound.

Here's a list of upper structure triads that sound good to my taste.

I'll do the first one with you so you can see how the list works:

The first upper structure triad in the list is for a major chord type.
V means we build the upper structure triad on the 5th note (compared to the root of the
chord).

So in case of a C major chord the upper structure chord is G: G B D (5 7 9)

V- would mean a minor triad on the 5th note.


V+ would mean an augmented triad on the 5th note.
bVII would mean major triad on the b7.
bV are the tritone upper structures.

Chord Type Chord Tensions Upper Structure Triad Note Function

Major 9 V 5 7 9

9,#11 II 9 #11 6

VII- 7 9 #11

Minor 6,9,11 II- 9 11 6

IV 11 6 1

V- 5 b7 9
bVII b7 9 11

bIII+ b3 5 7
minor/major 9
V 5 7 9

Dominant 9,13 V- 5 b7 9

VI- 13 1 3

9,#11,13 II 9 #11 13

II+ 9 #11 b7

bVII+ b7 9 #11

b9,#9,b5,b13 bII- b9 3 b13

bIII- #9 b5 b7

bIII #9 5 b7

III+ 3 b13 1

bV b5 b7 b9

bVI b13 1 #9

b9,13 VI 13 b9 3

Sus 4 9,13 IIm 9 4 13

IV 4 13 1

bVII b7 9 4

Half Diminished b6,9,11 bVI b6 1 b3

bVII b7 9 11

Diminished b6,9,11 II 9 b5 bb7

IV 11 bb7 1

bVI b6 1 b3

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