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TWO-FIVES
The whole "down a fifth" thing, coupled with the strong sound of a dominant
resolution, has made the II/V/I progression a very popular one in jazz. When
I say "popular" here, I mean it in the same sense as "breathing is very
popular among animals with lungs". "Two-fives", as they're often called, are
on nearly every page of any book of jazz standards.
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A II/V strongly suggests its "parent" key. When you come across a minor 7
chord that moves down a fifth to a dominant chord, it may not always be a
II/V in the key of the song, but it does put the song in a "key of the
moment". You could also call this key of the moment a "key center", and
that's exactly what we did in lesson 4. Look at these changes, which bear a
remarkable resemblance to the chords in "Misty" (if Misty where in the key of
C):
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Cmaj7 G-7 C7 Fmaj7
| / / / / | / / / / | / / / etc...
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We're in the key of C, so the diatonic chords are easy to pick out--Cmaj7 and
Fmaj7 are made up of notes from the C major scale. But what about the chords
that go outside the key?:
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I ? ? IV
Cmaj7 G-7 C7 Fmaj7
| / / / / | / / / / | / / / etc...
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We call that part in the middle a "two-five into the four chord". How's that
for jargon? All it really means is that, instead of just going the the IV (in
this case, Fmaj7), we toss in a "relative" two-five along the way. The
two-five is diatonic to the key of F, not C. It makes you feel like the F is
the tonic chord for a short while, or that we've suddenly switched to a C
Mixolydian mode. (Remember modes? Sure you do!) Although the song is in C, F
is the key of the moment during those last two bars, and the relative
two-five is what leads you there.
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As luck would have it, you can use this information when playing a melody or
soloing over those changes. An F major scale (F Ionian) or C Mixolydian (same
thing, note-wise) sounds great over those chords. In fact, the melody for
"Misty" hits a B-flat during that part, which makes sense, since that note is
in the key of F, not C.
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THREE-NOTE VOICINGS
It's time to put this mumbo-jumbo to some specific, real use. So put down
your Mupp-o-phones and Bulgarian Zithers, plug in your Stick, and read on...
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Brace yourself for Universal Truth #978: "Apart from the root note, the most
important notes in a seventh chord are the third and the seventh." This is
because the third tells us whether the chord is major or minor, and the
seventh tells us whether the chord is dominant or not. What does the fifth
do? Not much, besides just sitting there being perfect. For several reasons,
which we won't get into here, it's common to omit the fifth entirely. Here,
we're going to omit it for purely instructional reasons, since it leaves us
with a nice, three-note voicing that allows us to concentrate on the third
and seventh:
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II-7 (anywhere on the neck)
|---|---|---|---|
|---|---|---|-X-| <--- Third (Minor)
mel |---|---|---|-X-| <--- Seventh (Dominant, or Minor)
|---|---|---|---|
|---|---|---|---|
|---|---|---|---|
|---|---|-A-|---| <--- Alternate Root (We'll get to this later)
bas |---|---|---|---|
|-X-|---|---|---| <--- Root
|---|---|---|---|
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Sounds nice, eh? In real life, you'd probably play the alternate root an
octave lower, but for now, play the one marked with an "X". Let's continue
with the rest of the II/V/I progression:
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V7
|---|---|---|---|
|---|---|---|-X-| <------- Seventh (Dominant)
mel |---|---|-X-|---| <------- Third (Major)
|---|---|---|---|
|---|---|---|---|
|---|---|---|---|
|---|---|---|---|
bas |-X-|---|---|---| <------ Root
|---|---|---|---|
|---|---|---|---|
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Imaj7
|---|---|---|---|
|---|---|-X-|---| <------- Third (Major)
mel |---|---|-X-|---| <------- Seventh (Major)
|---|---|---|---|
|---|---|---|---|
|---|---|---|---|
|-X-|---|---|---|
bas |---|---|---|---| <------ Root
|---|---|---|---|
|---|---|---|---|
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Notice anything? Every time we change chords:
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- The root moves down a fifth, or one string. (You probably expected that)
- The seventh *always* slides down one fret, to become the third
of the new chord.
- The third of the old chord stays where it is, but becomes the
seventh of the new chord.
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