Jazz Has Always Confused Me Options

[PosterBoy]

I'm not a big fan of jazz, but I do love the chord melody stuff of the late Ted Greene, one guitarist was a genius without throwing that word around too freely.

So I've been learning about jazz chords and accompanyment. And I'm starting to understand some of the basics that used to confuse me.

When someone said a tune was basically a I vi ii V and I heard lots of different things going on and thought that it was more than 4 chords for now we don't even have to look into modulation

So a Basic progression

It's jazz so of course they'll add the 7ths in
I vi ii V
C Am Dm G
Cmaj7 Am7 Dm7 G7


First we can change the I to a iii (there's only one note different)

Cmaj7 - C E G B
Em7 - E G B D

C Am Dm G
Em7 Am7 Dm7 G7

Next change changing the vi to a VI

Cmaj7 A7 Dm7 G7

Next tritone substitution for the VI


Cmaj7 Eb7 Dm7 G7


A tritone is an interval with 3 tones between it in this case in A7 the 3rd (C#) and the dom7 (G) which is the same tritone interval in
Eby between the 3rd (G) and 7th (C#) just switched places.
I've dedided to work out the tritone sub by changing the chord to a dominant 7th chord based on the flatted 5th .
So A7, find the 5th (E) flatted it (Eb) and make a dom7 chord Eb7.

Next we can do the same to the V


Cmaj7 Eb7 Dm7 Db7


and lastly we can extend the 7th to 9ths, 13th, 9#5th etc


Cmaj7 Eb9 Dm13 Db7


So with a few basic changes being done we can cycle through, all considered 'normal' in a I vi ii V chord progression


Cmaj7 Am7 Dm7 G7
Em7 Am7 Dm7 G7
Cmaj7 A7 Dm7 G7
Em7 A7 Dm7 G7
Cmaj7 Eb7 Dm7 G7
Em7 Eb7 Dm7 G7
Cmaj7 Am7 Dm7 Db7
Em7 Am7 Dm7 Db7
Cma7 A7 Dm7 Db7
Em7 A7 Dm7 Db7
Cmaj7 Eb7 Dm7 Db7
Em7 Eb7 Dm7 Db7

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This post has been edited by PosterBoy: Mar 15 2012, 10:06 AM