Chord Progressions
Chord Progressions
Chord Progressions
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.
• 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.
Basic Blues F7
Bb7 F7
C7 Bb7 F7
Bb7 F7
G7 C7 F7 C7
Gm7 C7 F7
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.
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.
A list of standards that use this progression and the guitarists that played them:
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.
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.
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:
We could go on building chords on the other notes of the scale, but I think you get the
picture.
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.
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 :
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
• 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.
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).
Major 9 V 5 7 9
9,#11 II 9 #11 6
VII- 7 9 #11
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
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
IV 4 13 1
bVII b7 9 4
bVII b7 9 11
IV 11 bb7 1
bVI b6 1 b3