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The "II - V7 - I" Chord Progression
In a previous class we
established the foundation for chord prediction by learning
the primary chords for each key. I hope you internalized
that and committed each "family of chords" to memory. (It
is re-printed below for those who missed that lesson).
Now
that you know "the fam," today I would like to introduce
you to the "cousin" chords. These are chords that
don't occur near as often as the primary chords, but much
more often than "neighbor" chords, and way more often than
"stranger" chords.
The
most likely cousin-chord to show up in any key is the II
chord. In other words, after the I, IV, and V chords,
the II chord is the next most likely to be used. It
might show up in one of several forms--it might be a major
chord, it might be a minor chord, it might be a 7th chord--but
however it shows up, it is far and away the most likely
chord to occur after I, IV, or V.
So
in the key of C, that means that some form of the D chord
is the 4th most likely chord to occur. Maybe D7, maybe Dm7,
maybe just D, but whatever the form, it is like the cousin
that likes to show up at dinner time to eat with the fam.
And
when it does occur, you can then predict with uncanny accuracy
which chord will come after it -- the V chord. And
after that, the I chord. So if you were a betting person,
your odds would go sky high at that point for that succession
of chords to occur. In musical terms, this progression
is known as the II - V -- I chord progression. And
it happens over and over and over and over again in countless
songs.
So
let's get it down cold. If it happens so much, it's worth
your time to master it both intellectually and hand-wise
(in other words, understand it and be able to play it).
Here's
the II, V, I progression in all keys:
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Key
of C: D G C
Key
of F: G C F
Key
of G: A D G
Key
of D: E A D
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Key
of E: F# B E
Key
of A: B E A
Key
of Gb: Ab Db Gb
Key
of Db: Eb Ab Db
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Key
of Eb: F Bb Eb
Key
of Ab: Bb Eb Ab
Key
of B: C# F# B
Key
of Bb: C F Bb
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Remember your Circle of Major Keys? Let me
show them in the order in which they appear on the
left-hand buttons of an accordion with "C" being the
key chord (the one indented or marked in someway as
to be identifiable):
Db
Ab Eb Bb F
C G D
A E B F#
Now note that this II - V7 - I chord progression
is easily identified by looking at the two chords
above the key chord. In the Key of C, move up
two to a "D" and then down one to the "G" and then
back to the "C". It's that way for all of the
keys.
One additional point, you may recognize
this progression as one that is used at the end of
a song to smoothly return you back to the beginning
of the song to play it again. This sequence
is normaly II7 - V7 - I (e.g. key of C: Dm7 - G7 -
C; key of F: Gm7 - C7 - F; key of
Bb: Cm7 - F7 - Bb). You
must surely recognize those progressions. Now,
in order to determine whether to play minor 7th or
not, simply look to the notes in the scale.
In the C scale there are no sharps or flats, so "D7"
would be played as Dm7 -- using an "F" rather than
F# -- followed by the G7. In the key of F, there
is one flat, Bb , so the G would become
Gm7 (G-Bb-D-F) playing Bb instead
of B, and C would be C7 (C-E-G-Bb). Let's
take one more example, for a song in the key of D,
the II-V7-I would be E-A-D. The key of D has
two sharps, F# and C#.
Therefore, the E would be Em7 (E-G-B-D -- can't use
G# since it's not in the scale) and the A would be
A7 (A-C#-E-G). It certainly doesn't hurt to
practice these chord progressions because you will
encounter them all the time. Below is a modification
of the table above with the actual 7th chords written
out. -- Joe Waters
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Key
of C: Dm7 - G7 - C
(#'s or b's in Key)
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Key
of G: Am7 - D7 - G (F#)
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Key
of F: Gm7 - C7 - F
(1
flat - Bb)
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Key
of D: Em7 - A7 - D (F#,C
#)
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Key
of Bb: Cm7 - F7 - Bb
(Bb,Eb)
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Key
of A: Bm7 - E7 - A (F#,C
#,G#)
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Key
of Eb: Fm7 - Bb7
- Eb (Bb,
Eb, Ab)
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Key
of E: F#m7 - B7 - E
(F
#,C#,G#,D#)
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Key
of Ab: Bbm7 - Eb7-Ab
(Bb,Eb,Ab,Db)
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Key
of B: C#m7 - F#7
- B (F#,C#,G#,D#,A#)
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Key
of Db: Ebm7 - Ab7 - Db
(Bb,Eb,Ab,Db,Gb)
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Key
of F#: G#m7 - C#7
- F# (F#,C#,G#,D#,A#,E#)
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And
here's what the progression looks like in the keys of C,
F, and Bb:
I hope you noticed something
about this progression as you were thinking or playing through
it. I hope you noticed that each chord is a 4th higher
than the previous chord. In other words, in the Key
of C, after the D chord is used, you go up a 4th (4 scale
notes -- in terms of traditional harmony it is a "perfect
4th") to G. Then after the G chord is used, you go up a
4th to C to complete the cycle. If you didn't notice that,
go back and play through these again.
Next issue we'll meet another cousin,
and see where she fits it to the scheme of things as far
as chord prediction is concerned.
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