The 3 Jazz Chord Progressions Every Beginner Needs To Know

[00:00:02]If you're a jazz beginner and you don't know these three important jazz chord progressions, things are going to get difficult really fast. Know these jazz chord progressions and every jazz standard gets exponentially easier. In this video, I'm going to reveal to you the three jazz core progressions that you must know, especially if you're a beginner. How to play them, how to master them, how to practice them. All right, let's do this.

[00:00:25]Hey, I'm Brent Barstra here from Learn Jazz Standards. I've been teaching jazz online for 15 years. Thousands of students taught. And if you don't know these three progressions, things are truly difficult because they show up in jazz standards time and time and time again. Know these patterns. You'll see them everywhere. So, this is a really important video that I really want you to watch. Now, after I talk about the three chord progressions, I'm going to tell you exactly how to practice them and master them at the very end. So, please stick around for sure. Chord progression number one is the major 251 chord progression. Sounds like this.

[00:01:05]really pretty. If you learn one chord progression for jazz, make it this one.

[00:01:10]Let's take a look at this jazz standard.

[00:01:12]It's called Autumn Leaves. Autumn Leaves is a super important jazz standard, especially if you're a beginner. Okay?

[00:01:17]So, really pay attention here. And where we can find the 251 chord progression is right here at the top. C minor 7, F7, and then B flat major 7. Okay? And it has this really pretty sound that is super recognizable in all of jazz. Now, before we continue, I really think it's important that we step back for just one second and talk about how do we even get to these chords and what does a 251 mean at all? Because if you don't really understand that, the rest of this video is going to be a little bit murky and I don't want you to feel that way. So, let's do a crash course. take a look at this major diietonic series of seventh chords chart that I've made for you here. Now, we're going to go back to I call the teachers key, which is concert C major, just to keep things super simple. No sharps or flats at all. And you'll notice at the very top of this chart is a scale. Okay, it's the C major scale. Sounds like this.

[00:02:12]Okay, really, really, really, super simple. Now, below that you have the quality of the chord, right? major, minor, dominant. Okay, talk about that in a second. Then you have the root of the chord and the quality of the chord beside it. And so what happens is when we harmonize this scale with seventh chords, meaning we start with each scale note, right? But on top of each note, we stack a third, we stack a fifth, we stack a seventh, we create a chord, right? So what it sounds like in this C major is it's C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G7, A minor, B half diminished, and then we can complete it with the octave up at the C major. Okay, that's how we harmonize scales with seventh chords. Now, if you look at the chart and you want to come up with a 251 in the key of C major, then just go ahead and look at what's the two chord, right? It's the second note of the scale. So it' be D minor 7.

[00:03:18]And the five chord would be G7.

[00:03:21]And then the one chord would be C major 7. Right? So there's that beautiful sound again that we've come to know.

[00:03:29]That's the jazz chord progression if we're going to call it that. So going back to Autumn Leaves here really quick.

[00:03:34]Okay. So we're in a different key now.

[00:03:36]We're in the key of B flat major. Okay.

[00:03:39]So B flat major. We're harmonizing a B flat major scale now with seventh chords, right? So, we have a C minor 7, an F7, and a B flat major 7. That's how the song starts.

[00:03:55]Those notes of the melody fit perfectly with those chords. Now, if you're looking for kind of a formula for how to recognize a 251 chord progression outside of hearing it, which hopefully you'll develop that ability, but looking at it at a chart, if you see a minor 7th chord followed by a dominant seventh chord, okay, and then followed by a major 7th chord, that's a good clue that you might be seeing a major 251, right?

[00:04:20]In a major key. Now, to be sure, chord progressions and chords are obviously not just for guitar and piano players.

[00:04:27]They're for horn players as well. So if you're a horn player and you want to practice these chord progressions, then what you want to do is just simply play the chord tones or the arpeggios, if you will. So you want to get fancy with it, start connecting the chord tones melodically with each other rather than starting on the roots every single time.

[00:04:56]Okay, so here's a really cool variation on the major 251 chord progression that you should be aware of that happens all the time in jazz as well. Take a look at this tune. It's called But Not for Me and it's in the key of E flat major.

[00:05:08]Okay, E flat major, but it has a little bit of a twist on the 251. The two F7 is dominant and then a dominant five going to the one. So in other words, instead of a two minor 7 chord, which would sound like this, right? F minor 7, B flat 7, E flat major 7, instead it sounds like this. F dominant 7, B flat 7, E flat major 7. And the melody goes So this happens a lot turning the two chord into a dominant seventh chord. It adds more tension to the line and it feels really good when we resolve to the one chord. So if you see or hear this happening, don't be alarmed. It's just what jazz musicians love doing. So know the the regular major 251, but then know that you can turn that two into a dominant seventh chord, too. So, that's the major 251, and I'll talk about how to master this at the end of the video, so stick around. Chord progression number two is the minor 251 chord progression. This jazz chord progression is so important that almost every single jazz standard has it in it, and it sounds like this.

[00:06:43]Really beautiful. So, let's go back to our little pet tune here called Autumn Leaves and look at the next little section here that I have colorcoded here in red. And right here is where we can find a minor 251 chord progression. In this case, we're in the key of G minor.

[00:06:59]Okay. So, the A minor 7 flat 5, that's a half diminished chord that you see first. Sounds like this.

[00:07:08]Okay. And if you're a horn player or guitar player like me, you're going to want to make sure you arpeggiate this, right? Which means you go root flat 3 flat 5 flat 7 root flat 3 flat 5 flat 7. Okay.

[00:07:26]That's an A minor 7 flat 5 chord or any minor 7 flat 5 chord. That's the formula to make it. Okay. Now it's followed by a five chord which is D7.

[00:07:37]A lot of times jazz musicians will alternate. That means they'll add what's called altered extensions. And if this is a little too advanced for you, don't worry about that. But just know that this is happening. They'll add like a sharp nine or they'll add like a a flat n or even a a flat 13 to it and then resolve it to a chord like the G minor 7 here, the the one chord. Right? So that's a minor 251 half diminished dominant G minor 7. Now again, if you're kind of looking for a bit of a pattern here, like how would you know when you see a minor 251? If you see a minor 7 flat 5 chord on a chord chart, that should be an automatic signal to you that you might be dealing with a minor 251 chord. Now, I'm not going to go into the deep, dark depths of minor harmony and how it works. It's a little bit more complicated than major harmony because there's three scales you can harmonize.

[00:08:33]But the best way just to memorize it is minor 7 flat 5 chord, dominant seventh chord, and then minor chord. If you see that combination, you're probably dealing with a minor 251 chord progression. And this chord progression comes up again in almost every jazz standard, and you must know it. Okay, so we've learned two of the chord progressions that you need to know, but you might be wondering at this point, I know them, but obviously I want to be able to improvise over them because that typically is the challenge. How do I improvise over these chord progressions?

[00:09:07]Well, we came out with a brand new challenge. It's completely free. It's called 7-day jazz solo breakthrough, and we walk you through step by step, one day at a time, everything you really need to know to improvise over jazz standards. and we focus on the major in the minor 251 chord progressions. Never broken this down in more simpler terms ever. And we've put this together for free in this challenge. So, if you're interested in 7-day jazz solo breakthrough challenge, we'll send you the first lesson right away to your inbox. Just click the link in the description down below and we'll send it right to you. Chord progression number three is the 1625 chord progression.

[00:09:45]Sounds like this.

[00:09:48]Again, another super classic chord progression you've probably heard before. This is a jazz chord progression hiding in half of the tunes that you already play. Now, just in case you need a little bit more reinforcement here for how jazz chord progressions work, let's pull up the major dietonic series of seventh chords one more time here and go back to C major and take a look at what this looks like. So if you look at the chart, if we did a 1 1625 in the key of concert C major, the one chord would be C major.

[00:10:24]The six chord would be A minor. The two chord would be D minor. And the five chord would be G7. That's how we come up with this chord progression. Okay. Now take a look at this jazz standard. It's really popular. It's called Olio by Sunny Rollins. Now, olio is what we call a contrafact. A contrafact means you take the existing set of chord changes from another song and simply put another melody on top. Olio is what's called a rhythm changes tune, which comes from the tune I got rhythm from George Gershwin. And lots of Bbopers like Charlie Parker or Sunny Rollins, they wrote other melodies on top of those chord changes. And olio has to be one of the most popular jam session rhythm changes tune there is. So you really got to know this stuff. Now the first two bars and honestly the first four bars and then you know this section right here and then this whole other a section right here. Most of it is a 1625 or a variation of the 1625. Now, what I want you to pay attention to here really quickly is this right here. This is a dominant seventh chord as the sixth chord. Now, as we know from going over the diietonic series of seventh chords, the sixth chord is usually a minor 7th chord. But jazz musicians love to turn minor 7th chords into dominant seventh chords. So, it sounds like this. B flat major 7, G7. Okay. And here's what it sound like if they're minor. Okay?

[00:12:06]It's almost like the dominant 7 lifts it up and then it goes to C minor 7, F7.

[00:12:12]Okay. So, what happens here is essentially this G7 does what it's called tonicizing.

[00:12:19]Tonicizing sounds scary, but it really just means that you're making one other chord sound like its own key center for a second, right? So, we call it a five of. In this case, it's the five of two because what's the two chord in B flat major? It's C minor. And I know this sounds a little crazy and confusing, especially if you're a beginner. But again, even if you're just aware that this concept exists, it's a good start.

[00:12:43]It's a great way to get your foot in the door here. So turning the G7 from a minor to a dominant 7 here makes that pull to the two chord, the C minor 7 really, really strong. So you end up getting that nice sound.

[00:13:05]really really really really nice sound.

[00:13:07]Tension and resolution. So you'll find both the regular 1625 meaning the two chord is minor like you would make this a G minor and you'll also find the version where the six chord is dominant.

[00:13:20]Okay? So being able to recognize those both by sound in your ear and on a page is really going to be helpful. Okay.

[00:13:26]Okay, so how do we practice these chord progressions so that we master them and get really good at them? Here are four things you must do if you want to master any jazz chord progression. Number one, learn them in all 12 keys. At the end of the day, knowing how to play your 251s and your 1625s in all 12 keys is going to be hugely beneficial for you. Not only because in jazz standards, they typically go through multiple different keys, but lots of jazz standards are in other keys. And having that knowledge and hearing it in different keys in your ear and playing it on your instrument is going to create that connection where you could become so familiar with these chord progressions. Okay, so all 12 keys or if you can't do all 12 keys, even several other keys is good. Number two, sing the root movement of the chord progressions you want to learn. Right?

[00:14:17]So if we're talking about the major 251 D and then we could change this a little bit to another key. Let's just do one reference note. D.

[00:14:35]Let's hear if I was right.

[00:14:38]D I did up the octave. Okay.

[00:14:43]Okay. Awesome. So, so singing the root movement, it helps you start to hear the changes in your head. Use a reference note like I just did and force yourself to sing the root movement. That way, you're not just seeing chord changes, you're actually starting to hear them. Number three, find chord progressions in jazz standards that you already know. Go through every single jazz standard you know, get out a chord chart or just simply go through the changes yourself and identify what these chord progressions actually are. The more that you're actually understanding what chord progressions are in the jazz standards you're already learning, the more you see those patterns emerge time and time again, the less mysterious that jazz standards feel. Right? Sometimes jazz standards feel overwhelming because there's so many chords on a page. But if you're simply just starting to bucket the different chords into these chord progressions that you know, then all of a sudden the tune becomes easier and makes a lot more sense. Number four, practice improvising over them by looping the chord progressions.

[00:15:42]Sometimes we practice improvising over jazz standards from top to bottom and we're not really actually good at improvising over a certain chord progression like perhaps the 1625 chord progression. Well, a good idea instead of just working down an entire jazz standard when you're practicing is get a backing track and just simply loop the one section that has the chord progression that you want in it. So, if it's a 1625 chord progression, loop that section, get a looper. Lots of software available for you to do that. and just loop that section and practice. Slow down the tempo, speed it up. The more that you get that into your fingers and into your ears, you're going to start improvising a lot better if you use this strategy. Okay? And if any of this stuff kind of went over your head when it comes to core progressions and the music theory behind it, and you want a better deep dive and understanding of how this works a little bit more, then no worries. I have a video up on the screen right now called Jazz Harmony in 15 minutes. It really goes over this stuff a little bit deeper and it'll help you make more connections. Finally, the best way to learn and improve at jazz core progressions is simply to learn jazz standards. And that's exactly what we do in our inner circle membership. We learn one jazz standard every single month, so you're continually improving. So, if you like to check that out and join us over there, have that linked up here on the screen and in the description down below. All right, if you like this video, make sure you give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel, and we'll see you in the next video. Cheers.