Re: [Harp-L] Minor II V I

[bostonmoejo <bostonmoejo@xxxxxxx>]

Wooosh...waaaay over my head



In a message dated 01/08/10 15:12:18 Eastern Standard Time, michaelrubinharmonica@xxxxxxxxx writes:
I am working my way thru Mark Levine's The Jazz Theory Book.  In it he 
says Minor II V I's generally use a IIm7b5 V7Alt CmMaj7  pattern.  He 
says the II chord represents the 6th mode of the jazz melodic minor 
scale, the V chord represents the 7th mode of the jazz melodic minor 
scale and the I represents the 1st mode of the jazz melodic minor 
scale. 

So if this song would be in the key of C, the chords would be Dm7b5 
G7Alt CmMaj7.  The D chord is the 6th mode of F jazz melodic, the G 
chord is the seventh mode of the Ab jazz melodic and the C chord is 
the 1st mode of the C jazz melodic. 

You are in the key of C minor. 

I set up band in the box to loop a 4 bar pattern, the D for one bar, G 
for one bar and C for two bars.  As an exercise I played 1 note and 
held it thru the entire 4 bars to see how it would sound.  I tried the 
key's tonic chord and sure enough C sounded nice throughout the entire 
4 bars.  This confused me because in the Ab Jazz melodic minor scale 
there is a B note and not a C note.  Why does a C sound good during 
the GAlt7 chord? 

I am playing this on a harmonica. 
Michael Rubin 
Michaelrubinharmonica.com 
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