RE: [Harp-L] II V I

[Jérôme P. <peyrelevade@xxxxxxx>]

Concerning the II V I, I had the impression, reading the different posts,
that some may make a confusion about it.

II V I in C doesn't mean you play in D, then in G then in C.
It means 2nd, 5th and 1st degrees of the C Scale.
These are arpeggios derived from the C scale.
So you can play all along with the C scale with no problem (good news! only
one scale!).

Playing that way, the listener will be very comfortable with your play as
you play C major on a C major chord progression.
He will be comfortable but maybe a bit bored, as he will hear the C major
scale from one end to another, and our occidental ear is already very used
to it.

So you can begin to introduce tensions, to make it more interesting.
1/2 tone steps are the greatest tensions in the occidental culture
(everything is relative to your culture I think).
To be accepted by the listener, the tension needs to get back to something
more stable.

If you want to play with those concepts, as proposed by other harp-lers, you
can begin by introducing an altered note on the 5th chord.
For example, on : Dm7  G7  CMaj7, I will play in C major, but on the G7 you
will play a Ab instead of a A.
Do the same replacing the E by a Eb, then the B by a Bb, always on the G7
chord.

Once you are a bit more familiar with it, you can begin to use another scale
than C Maj on the 5th chord.
For example, use this scale on the 5th : G Ab B C D Eb F G
As said before, this works only if the tension leads to something more
stable. You do a lick in C, you do a very similar lick with the described
scale (which is in fact the 5th mode of the C minor harmonic), and you get
back to the previous lick in C.

If well done, this should sound great.

Examples given with the minor melodic are great too, of course (maybe a bit
more difficult to use at first step).


Now, speaking about substitutions ... as already mentioned by me and others,
there are many possible substitutions. To have a good idea of all
possibilities, the only way is to get a book on harmony, understand the
theory part of harmony, and then work on all possible substitutions.
Trying to make understand what a substitution is, let's speak about the
"tritonal" substitution, which is a very common one.

Here is the G7 chord : G B D F

Here is the Db7 chord : Db  F  Ab  Cb

Db is three tones over G = "tri tone".

You can see that these two chords have two common notes, 3rd and 7th for
each, which are very characteristic notes (in a certain way, at least to
improvise, 3rd and 7th are the most important notes in a chord).
So the idea is to replace the G7 by the Db7. This is what is called a
substitution : replacing one chord by another.
Now, the replacement can be made directly in the harmony, meaning that the
piano will play Dm7  Db7  CMaj7. But it can also be made only by the soloist
"in his head", even if the harmony remains the same.
While the piano plays Dm7 G7 Cmaj7, you can play a phrase built on a Dm7 Db7
CMaj7. This will create an important tension, resolved when getting back to
C Maj.

To end, here are two examples of II V I licks in Gmaj with a tritonal
substitution. 

+6 +5 -4 -3'' +5 +4° -4' -3''' -2

+4 +6 -4 -6 +6° -6' +4 -3''' -2

I think the first one is from Charlie Parker and the second one is from
Sebastien Charlier.
These work particularly well during a turnaround.


Last but not least, concerning Jazz at least, the question is not where to
find II V I, but where not to find them.

99% of jazz standards include II V I. Just take any jazz standard tune, and
try to find a progression of 4th (like D => G => C, or E => A => D => G =>
C, in any tonality).



Congrats for those who have read until this point ! :-)


Best regards,


Jerome
www.youtube.com/JersiMuse