6 Common Chord

Relationships in
Jazz Improvisation
 jazzadvice.com
 View Original
 April 10th, 2013

“How do I connect chords when I’m soloing?”

You’re asking yourself this question in the
practice room and you’re frustrated when there
doesn’t seem to be an easy answer. But you’re not
alone. This is a question that every improviser
struggles with as they create solos over tunes.
Improvising over one chord is simple enough,
however when you begin to play tunes with actual
chord progressions, creating and connecting lines
becomes a bit more challenging.
This musical obstacle goes to the heart of the
skills you need as an improviser and the solution,
like many obstacles we encounter in music, is
simple in theory yet significantly more involved in
implementation.
Imagine for a moment that you took away all the
theory terminology, the voice leading rules, the
maze of scales and the chord symbol jargon that
you normally encounter as an improviser. What
would you be left with? You’d be left with sound
– that’s it!
Despite everything that our brains get caught up in
as we try to create a solo, the harmonic aspect of
improvisation boils down to sound:Individual
sounds (chords) and the relationships between
these sounds.
As an improviser a theoretical understanding and
technical proficiency are the first steps when
approaching these harmonic relationships, but
your ultimate goal is melody. Can you create a
seamless melody over these sounds and
subsequent chord progressions?
Your ability to play melodies over a chord
progression is directly related to how well you can
hear the individual chords of a progression and the
relationships between them. If you want to play
effortlessly over any chord progression you need
to start by focusing intently on the movement
between one chord and the next.

Approaching chord
relationships
Think back to the first time that you where
introduced to the idea of a chord progression. If
you were like a lot of people most of your time
was spent figuring out “stuff” to play over those
individual chords, not on the relationship or
melodic connection of the entire progression.
Around the same time you also likely encountered
the ii-V7-I progression. With this harmonic
relationship came ideas of connection like voice
leading, guide tone lines, and 7-3 resolutions. This
is a great place to start learning the basics of
functional harmony and chord relationships.
Many musicians begin their journey into chord
progressions with a study of ii-V’s, the only
problem is that this is also where their study of
harmonic relationships stops. If you think about it
a ii-V-I only contains two chord relationships: a
minor ii chord moving to the dominant V7chord
and a V7 chord resolving to the I chord.
However, take a quick listen to any tune and
you’ll immediately see that you’re going to need
to know more than just these two chord
relationships.
While the progression of a sub-dominant to a
dominant to the tonic is a progression that is
central to much of Western music, there are
definitely other key chord relationships that you
should know to be fully prepared to play any
standard.
Below are six common chord relationships,
besides the standard ii-V-I progression, that you
should start incorporating into your daily practice
routine:
Parallel Minor
The direct movement from a major chord to its
parallel minor is surprisingly common within the
body of standards that are frequently played by
musicians. There is something inherently logical
about stating a melody in major and then moving
it to minor. For instance take a listen to the
opening four bars of Ornithology:

As an improviser this is an important relationship

to have in your ear and under your fingers. Being
able to modulate quickly from a major sound
directly its parallel minor will serve you well in
many situations. Here are a few other standards
that utilize a direct modulation from major to
minor:
 Just Friends
 On Green Dolphin St.
 How High the Moon
 I’ll Remember April

This parallel minor relationship also appears in

some not so obvious places as well. Take a look at
the bridge to Cherokee:

We often think of the bridge to Cherokee as four

separate ii-V’s that descend in whole steps (play a
ii-V in B – stop! – play a ii-V in A – stop!…etc.)
Instead aim to create a seamless line where the
resolution of one ii-V connects to beginning of the
next ii-V a whole step lower. This means utilizing
and mastering the above parallel minor
relationship – B Major to B minor, A Major to A
minor, G Major to G minor.

II7 to ii-7
The parallel minor relationship doesn’t have to be
limited to only the movement from Major 7 to
minor 7 chords, you also frequently find this
chord relationship between Dominant 7 and minor
7 chords. For instance, take the last 8 bars of the A
section of Cherokee:

Or the opening chords to If I Were a Bell:

In both cases the Dominant II chord modulates to

ii-7 resulting in the progression: II7 – ii-7 – V7 –
I. Other tunes utilizing this relationship:
 Take the A Train
 Just Friends
 Donna Lee

I7 to IV7 (movement by 4ths)

The progression from the I chord to the IV chord
is so common that it is often overlooked, but this
is an essential progression to have at your
disposal. Here are two standard examples of I to
IV7:
Blues (dominant I chord moving to a dominant IV
chord):
Rhythm Changes (bridge in the key of C):

The movement of a I7 chord to a IV7 chord is

essentially a V7 to Irelationship. When you begin
to think of this harmonic relationship in this way
the progression becomes much more logical and
intuitive. You aren’t just switching between
random dominant chords, there is a V to I
resolution implied.
In the above examples you can also imply a ii-V7
progression over the I7 chord (see this article for
more on implied progressions). For example on
the first 4 bars on the bridge to Rhythm Changes:
And if you turn every V7 chord on the bridge
you’ll encounter the parallel minor relationship
from above:
This fourth relationship can also be found in other
standards between two minor chords or two major
chords. For example check out the opening 8 bars
of All the Things You Are:
I to VI7 (Sixth relationship)

To be able to improvise well over most standards

you need to have the relationship of a I chord to
the VI chord down. Not only a mental grasp of
this movement, but a repertoire of language for
this harmonic relationship in all 12 keys. The most
prevalent example of this sixth relationship is the
A section to Rhythm Changes.
The first few measures of Donna Lee is another
good example:

I – #i°
A chord that provides the same function as the
VI7 chord is a #i° chord. Instead of the chord
sequence I – VI – ii – V you can also play have I –
#i°7 – ii – V7, essentially implying a VI7 flat9 and
utilizing a half-step root movement. Some tunes
that use this chord relationship are:
 Easy Living
 Have You Met Miss Jones

Half-Steps (I to bII)

The relationship of a half step is also common

among the standards you’ll encounter as an
improviser. Take a listen to the first four bars
ofYou Stepped Out of a Dream:

A descending half-step progression can also be

found in Donna Lee:
A few other examples of standards that utilize
half-step harmonic relationships:
 So What
 Well You Needn’t
Minor Third Relationships
Another chord relationship to get in your ears and
under you fingers is a minor 3rd relationship. The
most well known example of this chord
relationship is John Coltrane’s tune Giant Steps:
Quickly changing key centers like the ones found
in the progression toGiant Steps take some serious
practice. Learning this sequence of chord
relationships is also useful in reharmonizing
standards or implying chord substitutions:
Tonic to Half-Diminished vii
(I – viiø)

One other progression that is also very common is

the movement from the I chord to the viiø chord.
You’ll find this progression in:
 Bird Blues (Blues for Alice)
 Confirmation
 Come Rain or Come Shine:
Practicing these chord
relationships
So now that we’ve identified these six chord
relationships, how are you going to practice them?
Well, before you can get to work on any chord
progression, you have to start by learning the
sound of the individual chords. The logic is
simple, if you can’t play over one chord, how are
you going to connect multiple chords?
For example if you want to improvise effectively
over the parallel minor relationship, you need to
begin by understanding (aurally and mentally)
each individual chord in that chord progression.
This means developing technique, doing a few ear
training exercises and learning language for both a
Major chord and a minor chord.
Then once you have those sounds in your ear and
under your fingers, you need to get some language
for each of these chords. Think of these two steps
as prerequisites before you can start connecting
chords. If you’re wondering where to start check
out some of these articles for information about
hearing the basic chords and gathering language:
This process is the same for any other chord
progression, and the 6 harmonic relationships
listed above are no exception. Once you have
acquired some language and can hear these
individual sounds, it’s time to focus on the
relationship between these two sounds. Below are
four steps for learning any chord relationship that
you come across.
Step 1: Isolate the chord relationship
The first step in learning any of the above chord
relationships is to isolate the two chords in
question. As an example let’s take the parallel
minor relationship from above:
Start by going to the piano and slowly playing the
two chords over and over again. (Not sure about
how to voice a chord on piano? See this article.)
The goal is to get the sound of this harmonic
relationship in your ear. Hear the movement
between the roots, thirds, fifths, sevenths, and
upper structures of the chords as the harmony
shifts. Listen for any common tones or half-step
resolutions between the two chords.
Next find a recording of a tune that contains this
progression (ex. the first 4 bars of Ornithology).
Isolate that spot in Transcribe! and loop it. Again
listen to the movement from one chord to the next.
Step 2: Transcribe language
Once you understand this chord relationship and
have the harmonic movement in your ears it
doesn’t automatically guarantee that you’ll be
playing great lines over this chord progression.
You need to start by learning and studying a
musical model.
The way you learn the jazz language is by
transcribing the lines and solos of great players.
When you’re working on a specific harmonic
relationship, find a specific line that you like over
this spot in the progression, then slow it down and
learn that line.
To continue with the example of the parallel
minor chord relationship, you might want to check
out how Clifford Brown or Sonny Rollins
improvise over the parallel minor change in I’ll
Remember April.

Find a line that grabs your ear, slow it down, sing

it and learn it on your instrument. Once you have
it down the next step is to learn this piece of
language in all 12 keys. This is one piece of
language that you have when you encounter a
parallel minor relationship.
Step 3: Repetition and variation
Now that you have a piece of language to work
with, you need to make this line your own. The
final goal of transcribing solos is not to cut and
paste these lines directly into your own solos, it’s
to ingrain all of these lines and have them evolve
over time into your own language.
After you’ve learned and internalized a piece of
language from the record it’s time to personalize
this line by altering it (harmonically, rhythmically,
and melodically) and combining it with other
language that you’ve already developed.
Check out these posts for some ideas on varying
your transcribed language:
After you have some variations on the original
line, take these new lines through every key.
Step 4: Create your own lines
Finally we’re back where we started – creating
improvised lines that connect a chord progression.
Only this time, instead of shooting unsuccessfully
in the dark, we’ve gone through the steps of
learning language and creating our own. You see,
contrary to what a lot of people think about
improvisation, you can’t create lines out of thin
air. Improvising is a skill developed from hours of
practice not a talent that you either have or don’t
have.
When you’ve haven’t practiced these chord
relationships and have no language to play of
course it’s going to feel impossible – this is just a
sign that you haven’t developed these skills yet.
Whether you’re working on hearing chord
progressions, trying to improve your technique, or
striving to connect various chord relationships the
answer is not going to come to you without any
work.
By incorporating these six harmonic relationships
into your practice routine, in addition to your
usual ii-V-I practice, you’ll find yourself much
more prepared to solo over the tunes in the
standard repertoire.
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