Here’s a mashup of Kalinnikov and Willie: Willie’s tune is in E, but again, I transposed into C for easier comparison. Nevertheless, the emotional effect is the same. The version of the progression in “I’d Have To Be Crazy” uses a different harmonic rhythm, and starts on the I chord instead of vi. I had the pleasure of performing this tune many times back in my country music days, and it makes a great lullaby for my kids. I mentally refer to this progression as the Willie Nelson turnaround, because I first heard it in his classic recording of “I’d Have To Be Crazy”, written by Steven Fromholz. It’s in the key of E-flat, but I transposed it into C for ease of understanding:
If you listen to this piece at 6:16, there’s a particularly beautiful and tragic chord progression. The short-lived Russian composer Vasily Kalinnikov is best known (to the extent he’s known at all) for this piece of music: Check it out if you think it may help!Īny other chord progressions you think other musicians should be aware of? Leave them in the comments below.See also the happiest chord progression ever. Zero to Improv is my basic jazz theory eBook and Companion Course that helps with these concepts and applies it all to improvisation.
#EASY SAD PIANO CHORDS HOW TO#
But if you want to start improvising over them with confidence, you’ll want to figure out the note choices you have to work and how to choose and place the right ones to make the changes come out in your solos. I highly suggest spending considerable time isolating these progressions outside of the context of a song so that you can learn to improvise over them.Īgain, these are just progressions to be aware of. Get all of these chord progressions down, and you will have a huge advantage. Next time you come upon a ii-V-I, play a tritone substitution either in your comping or in your solo.
Right off the bat, you can conclude that by substituting a Db7 for a G7, it implies that the G7 has altered qualities. Notice that a tritone sub of V in the context of a ii-V-I has the root notes moving chromatically (D-Db-C). In jazz, you will often see the iii chord replacing the I chord. While I won’t be going over every possibility, I’ll cover some key ones that you should be The basic chord progressions are foundational, but they are just scratching the surface. I think it’s important that we go over a handful of important substitutions, alternativesĪnd add-ons to the basic chord progressions. Common Substitutions and Chordal Movements I provide lick examples for all of these as well as strategies for starting to connect these chords together in my eBook and Companion Course Zero to Improv. If you have these down you will be well on your way to dominating jazz standards. These are the basic jazz chord progressions you need to know. A great “pitch collection” to use is the Locrian mode.
#EASY SAD PIANO CHORDS SERIES#
Remember that the vi chord in the minor diatonic series is being borrowed from the melodic minor harmonization of 7th chords. You’ll want to spend plenty of time working on ii-V-I’s. This chord progression is also important in other styles of music as well. The major ii-V-I is easily the most important chord progression to get a handle on when it comes to jazz. If you need extra help with understanding jazz theory, how to construct chords, connect them together, and ultimately start improvising, check out my eBook and companion course Zero to Improv.įirst we’ll start with “basic” jazz chord progressions, and then we’ll move to substitutions and other common progressions. Once you have a good handle on these, you will be surprised at how easy playing jazz starts to become. If you want to break down jazz tunes and learn how to improvise over them, you need to master these 9 chord progressions. Even the slightly unusual ones can be de-mystified. And once you know them, and learn how to improvise over them, any jazz standard you come across becomes exponentially simpler. The key is you need to understand basic chord progressions used in jazz. Once you know a few jazz standards, you start to realize they all have similarities. It’s easy to listen to jazz or even look at a piece of sheet music and feel discouraged, so I find that it is helpful to break it down into smaller pieces.įor the most part, it’s only a small handful of common chord progressions rearranged and reused. However, when you are learning jazz or any style of music for that matter, you need to simplify things. I often find that those who love jazz but are too afraid to try to learn it become deterred by the sheer overwhelming nature of the task at hand. It’s harmonically complex, and because of this, there is a demand for a certain level of virtuosity.
For some, learning jazz can be a daunting task.
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