Practice Sessions CHORDS #2
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Hi Emil,
Your voice leading in a ii V I sounds so tasty. Is there some theory behind it? Would you kindly explain how you choose what chord to play?Best regards,
Kavi
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P.S. I now see that my post was categorized under IMPROVISATION LEVEL # 2 which is of course not correct. Sorry for that! Probably it should be labelled as Jazz Guitar Forum. So if the forum admins can fix it i would be greatefull.
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@kavusha
Hi Kavi!! Glad you liked that one! :)
That idea could be looked at in several different ways. It starts off with a Am9 chord, followed by that Bbm into the D major triad. The Am and the D is the ii V progression, and the Bbm is just a passing chord that I won't dare to explain theoretically, other than; you can always play a chord up a half step from the chord you're currently playing - to get some tension. It's like we're playing Am --> tension (Bbm) --> D...After the D triad we play that Bb13 (which can aslo be looked at as a E7(#9), just an altered chord leading to the 2 chord again.. This time it's a A13 instead of an Am9. But still a 2 chord! :)
After the Bb13 (again, a chord a hal step above the 2 chord to add tension).. we move that a half step down to the A13 which is the 2 chord. The next chord is the V chord. It's a D altered (D7#9#5), or you could see it as a Ab13 too, which takes us to the tonic, the 1 chord which is Gmaj7. So the chord just before the Gmaj7 is simply a V chord that leads us "home".That Ab13 (or D altered) is a subsitution for D7. This is called a "tritone substitution" or "flat five substitution". I go through that concept in a clear way in this free YouTube video, check it out here if you haven't already: Tritone substitution
So the whole example is a variation on a ii V I, adding tension using passing chords, flat five subs and nice voice leading! Let me know if you have any other questions Kavi!
All the best, /E -
Thank you very much for the explanation Emil! Now everything falls into place.
Best regards,
Kavi.
