degenaro
Active member
Seems Stratotone's Am7-Am6 (D9) post goes well with this...
Lets start with the application of ii-V-I's. I always try to know what tonality I play over at any given time (that includes times where somebody leads into uncharted harmonicterritory).
Tonality to me means keycenter. The way I can stablish keycenters is by knowing what key the chords belongs to.
As I've said before the most basic progression is the ii-V-I
or part of it, or variation of it. The reason for this is that they're
considered the "definitive chords" in major. Meaning, nothing wll
tell you faster that you're in the key of C major then hear Dm7-G7-C.
Vai? Howe?
oops...Why? How?
the I and IV chord in major in its basic 7th form is always
a major7,
the ii,iii an vi chords are m7
the V is a dom7
and the vii is a m7b5.
That's always the same in any key.
So in C major that would be
Cmaj7=I
Dm7 =ii
Em7 =iii
Fmaj7=IV
G7 =V
Am7 =vi
Bm7b5=vii
So, hearing Dm7-G7-C will define your key.
Mind you, you do have the options of looking at the scale choices we dealt with when doing subs and treat each chord separately, or you can use keycenter thinking and play the parent scale through it. If you choose the latter, pay mind to the strong chord tones though. A f note sounds fine over the Dm7 or the
G7 but needs to be resolved over the C. But I digress...
Now that we know that a ii-V-I will define the keycenter, what about a
ii-V, or ii, or V by itself same thing, you can either think of it as
chord and use the stuff we did during subs, or think keycenter. As you
see personally I'm not all that big on modes in general, but there are
applications where I prefer modes.
But for a garden varitey ii-V-I in C I find it overkill to
think D dorian, G mixolydian, C major. When C major will do, AS
LONG AS YOU KNOW WHAT ARE THE STRONG CHORD TONES ARE.
Plurality
---------
since there is a major7 chord on the I and the IV, we an
think of a
Cmaj7 in two ways. Either as the I in C, or the IV in F.
Same with the
m7, a Dm7 can be thought of the ii in C, the iii in Bb, and
the vi in F.
Applied Plurality
-----------------
Just as we can use plurality across scales, we can use it
across chords.
Cmaj7 c,e,g,b--I (T)
Dm7 d,f,a,c--ii (SD)
Em7 e,g,b,d--iii (T)
Fmaj7 f,a,c,e--IV (SD)
G7 g,b,d,f--V (D)
Am7 a,c,e.g--vi (T)
Bm7b5 b,d,f,a--vii (D)
Lets compare the iii chord has 3 notes of the I chord, as a
matter of
fact iii chord can be viewed as a Cmaj9 without the root.
The vi chord
has all the notes of a C6 chord. So what does this mean?
It means that we can substitue those for each other.
The Fmaj7 and Dm7, have the same type of
interchangeabilty, due to the
fact that Fmaj7 is nothing than a Dmin9 without root, or
Dm9 is a F6 for
that matter.
The Bm7b5 is the rootless version of a G9. Music
functions with tension
and release moving along from the Sub Dominant(SD) to
tension Dominant
(D) to release Tonic (T).
There are differnt degrees of tension and release
depending on what
chords you chose, but you see (look above) that the
chords that are
plural to each other have the same function. Hence the
bility to swap
around. That is called substitute by funtion. That means
that we can
break down progressions into simpler forms. Lets use an
example here.
Em7---|Fmaj7-Bm7b5-|Em7---|Am7---|--Fmaj7|G7---|
Em7
actual chords within the scale
iii |IV vii |iii |vi | IV |V |iii
function
T SD D T T SD D T
applying plurality and simplyfying
I |ii V | I |I | ii | V | I
Cmaj7 |Dm7 G7 |Cmaj7 |Cmaj7 | Dm7 |G7 |Cmaj7 That
should be enough to
give you a headache already<g>
Nothing in music is difficult, only unfamiliar... Kenny
Werner
Lets start with the application of ii-V-I's. I always try to know what tonality I play over at any given time (that includes times where somebody leads into uncharted harmonicterritory).
Tonality to me means keycenter. The way I can stablish keycenters is by knowing what key the chords belongs to.
As I've said before the most basic progression is the ii-V-I
or part of it, or variation of it. The reason for this is that they're
considered the "definitive chords" in major. Meaning, nothing wll
tell you faster that you're in the key of C major then hear Dm7-G7-C.
Vai? Howe?
oops...Why? How?
the I and IV chord in major in its basic 7th form is always
a major7,
the ii,iii an vi chords are m7
the V is a dom7
and the vii is a m7b5.
That's always the same in any key.
So in C major that would be
Cmaj7=I
Dm7 =ii
Em7 =iii
Fmaj7=IV
G7 =V
Am7 =vi
Bm7b5=vii
So, hearing Dm7-G7-C will define your key.
Mind you, you do have the options of looking at the scale choices we dealt with when doing subs and treat each chord separately, or you can use keycenter thinking and play the parent scale through it. If you choose the latter, pay mind to the strong chord tones though. A f note sounds fine over the Dm7 or the
G7 but needs to be resolved over the C. But I digress...
Now that we know that a ii-V-I will define the keycenter, what about a
ii-V, or ii, or V by itself same thing, you can either think of it as
chord and use the stuff we did during subs, or think keycenter. As you
see personally I'm not all that big on modes in general, but there are
applications where I prefer modes.
But for a garden varitey ii-V-I in C I find it overkill to
think D dorian, G mixolydian, C major. When C major will do, AS
LONG AS YOU KNOW WHAT ARE THE STRONG CHORD TONES ARE.
Plurality
---------
since there is a major7 chord on the I and the IV, we an
think of a
Cmaj7 in two ways. Either as the I in C, or the IV in F.
Same with the
m7, a Dm7 can be thought of the ii in C, the iii in Bb, and
the vi in F.
Applied Plurality
-----------------
Just as we can use plurality across scales, we can use it
across chords.
Cmaj7 c,e,g,b--I (T)
Dm7 d,f,a,c--ii (SD)
Em7 e,g,b,d--iii (T)
Fmaj7 f,a,c,e--IV (SD)
G7 g,b,d,f--V (D)
Am7 a,c,e.g--vi (T)
Bm7b5 b,d,f,a--vii (D)
Lets compare the iii chord has 3 notes of the I chord, as a
matter of
fact iii chord can be viewed as a Cmaj9 without the root.
The vi chord
has all the notes of a C6 chord. So what does this mean?
It means that we can substitue those for each other.
The Fmaj7 and Dm7, have the same type of
interchangeabilty, due to the
fact that Fmaj7 is nothing than a Dmin9 without root, or
Dm9 is a F6 for
that matter.
The Bm7b5 is the rootless version of a G9. Music
functions with tension
and release moving along from the Sub Dominant(SD) to
tension Dominant
(D) to release Tonic (T).
There are differnt degrees of tension and release
depending on what
chords you chose, but you see (look above) that the
chords that are
plural to each other have the same function. Hence the
bility to swap
around. That is called substitute by funtion. That means
that we can
break down progressions into simpler forms. Lets use an
example here.
Em7---|Fmaj7-Bm7b5-|Em7---|Am7---|--Fmaj7|G7---|
Em7
actual chords within the scale
iii |IV vii |iii |vi | IV |V |iii
function
T SD D T T SD D T
applying plurality and simplyfying
I |ii V | I |I | ii | V | I
Cmaj7 |Dm7 G7 |Cmaj7 |Cmaj7 | Dm7 |G7 |Cmaj7 That
should be enough to
give you a headache already<g>
Nothing in music is difficult, only unfamiliar... Kenny
Werner
