Understanding Jazz Harmony - Part Two



Developing Lines for the II, V, I Progression:

Lines can be established for this series of chord changes based upon either scales or arpeggios.

MAJOR:
The II chord in Major key jazz turnarounds is "Minor 7th." The V chord is "Dominant 7th." By performing the Dorian Mode off of the root of the two-chord we can achieve a solid selection of tones for covering these changes. Another option is covering the changes with arpeggios.

MINOR:
In minor keys we see a II chord showing up as "Minor 7 (b5)" and the V chord being "Dominant 7th." In this tonality we can cover these changes with the "Harmonic Minor" scale built off of the root of the "I" which we resolve toward. As with the Major key "II - V" we may also cover these chords with the appropriate arpeggios.

An excellent video I would highly suggest on this subject is by, "Jimmy Bruno." It is called; "No Nonsense Jazz Guitar."