There are some really beautiful variations and reharmonizations of a basic II V I progression that you can check out and start adding to your own repertoire. You don’t always want to play the chords exactly as written, especially if you are trying to make a chord melody arrangement or an intro sound better.
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There is a great way that you can create new lines over a chord progression which is a simple way of changing the chords and outline other chord sequences. This way you get more movement in the lines and another logic to the melody. And checking out a few of those options on basic progressions like a II V I or a static chord can add a lot of variation to your solos.
In this lesson, I am going to show you a few examples of this. Some are staying within the key and others add a few outside sounds, and later I will also show you how this works if you open up the rhythm a bit.
The Basic Chord Progression and Concept
To show you how this works, first we need to set up a key and a II V I to work with.
We have a basic II V I in G major: Am7 D7 Gmaj7 and often if I play these chords then I can also get away with these chords: Am7 Bm7 Cmaj7 D7 (see example 2 below)
Using this progression in a solo
If I do that in a solo in a really basic way then that sounds like this:
You can hear that the comping is just playing the II V I, but it still works and a freer solo line that still sounds like this: could be something like this:
As you can see I am still using the super-imposed chords (short rundown of the arps)
A Modal or Static Variation
You can hear that I am using the direction of the “alternative chord progression” to give the line a specific direction that works great, almost as a counter-point to the comping underneath.
And of course, the same concept used on a static Am7 chord works as well:
More Diatonic Reharmonizations
The previous example was moving up the scale, and there is a very easy way to use the same principle and move down through diatonic chords like this:
The Ab7 is there because it fits in the descending motion, but a D7 would work as well, of course.
Strong Triad lines
A good way to clearly use the descending movement on top of the standard harmony is to use basic triads like this:
Adding Chromatic Passing Chords
There are two obvious ways you can add a chromatic passing chord in this context, namely using a side-slip up or down.
The two examples below shows how that might sound:
And if you translate these into solo lines:
Example 10 using a Bbm7:
And example 11 using Abm7:
More Creative Rhythms and Polyrhythms
Until now the chord progressions have been used as if the chords are placed on the heavy beats of the bar. This is of course what you usually find with chord changes, but when you solo you can be a lot more open and have more fluid barlines.
These 3 examples have a more open approach to the rhythm and also make use of polyrhythms.
A loose Bbm side-slip
Example 12 is a more loose way to quickly insert a Bbm7 line (actually just a Db major triad) and here it almost sounds like an added Eb7 in the context.
The triad is introduced by moving up the preceding C major triad a half step.
Dotted Quarter note arpeggios
The example below uses the Am7 Bm7 Cmaj7 D7alt chord progression, but the melody uses a 3 8th note long melody for each of the chords.
Another great 3 8th-note grouping
Again triads are a fantastic resource to create melodies. This example is using the basic triads of the chords and spelling out the Cmaj7 Bm7 Am7 Ab7 chord progression. The last two beats are covered with a quartal arpeggio that is essentially an Ab7(13).
Level up your Jazz Lines with Bop Embellishments
Another great way to add more variation to your jazz vocabulary is to use more interesting phrasing:
You can also download the PDF of my examples here:
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The II V I is the most important and common chord progressions in Jazz.
But sometimes it is also nice to have some other ways of approaching this progression so that it sounds a little less predictable maybe even less like a II V I.
In this video, I am going over 8 ways to change the chords to get some new sounds, and I am only messing with the II and the I chord because I have a ton of other videos with different V chord options.
Of course, you can also take these examples and use them on a static chord if that fits the music you play better and you want to change it up a little.
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