Jazz Chord Progressions - Accelerated Practice

Jazz Chord Progressions – 

Accelerated Practice and Chord Modeling Techniques

APP REVIEW: ProChords for iPAD 

I downloaded the iPAD app called “ProChords” that allows you to stack up chords with chord suggestions, modify and arrange the voicing and set the octave, etc., and then email as a MIDI file. This is a fun program to play if you want to hear how different chord arrangements sound, but if you want to understand why you should use a certain chord pattern, then this app doesn’t inform well. 

The app doesn’t suggest common stylistic progressions (folk, jazz, rock, blues, etc.), so we need to look for these from other references.  With some stylistic references in hand, this app will be more useful for someone trying to output a song structure to work from. For example, how do you make chord progressions for jazz music? The starting point for traditional jazz music is to follow the ii-V-I chord pattern, so making some reference MIDI files from “ProChords” for these patterns would be a nice educational training exercise. Also, jazz music rarely uses triad chords, and so the 7^th note, and/or extended octave notes are usually included in the chords.

Towards this goal of creating or using “Jazz chord progression” reference material, I found a great video presented by GuitarLessons365.com on how to practice traditional jazz chord progressions using the circle of 4ths/5ths, by cycling through the ii-V-I chord patterns.   

While going through the mental exercise of ii-V-I patterns through the circle-of-fifths, and input of this chord sequence into “ProChords” app, I realized that putting this in shorthand in a text document first, may be another good mental exercise. So here it is:

ii-V-I chord progressions in Major keys, Cycled through the circle-of-fifths, starting with C Maj with Mixolydian (lower 7th interval) mode chords:

C Major=         Dm7—G7—C7

F Major =        Gm7—C7—F7

Bb Major =      Cm7—F7—Bb7

Eb Major =      Fm7—Bb7—Eb7

Ab Major=       Bbm7—Eb7—Ab7

Db Major=       Ebm7—Ab7—Db7

GbMajor=        Abm7—Db7—Gb7 or F#7

B Major=         C#m7—F#7—B7

E Major=         F#m7—B7—E7

A Major=         Bm7—E7—A7

D Major=         Em7—A7—D7

G Major=         Am7—D7—G7

courtesy of: http://goo.gl/kmxLz

The trick here is that the minor (ii) of the chord progression, will be two notes away in the clockwise direction of the circle-of-fifths from the tonic (root or I), so visualizing the circle-of-fifths, or using as a reference, will quickly generate this chord-pattern list. Another way that works for me is to visualize the violin finger-board, since the strings are in ascending fifths/descending fourths.

Now I’m going back to the “ProChords” app to input these sequences, and then record with a “guitar-like-strumming” rhythmic patterns, so that the MIDI files could possibly be useful for a guitar part later in the audio editing program. Ah, there might be a way to make "ProChord" more professional here.

Whether or not the "ProChords" app can be a useful educational tool completely depends on how you come to terms with each suggestion being made. For this information, you can engage in easy to understand resources that explain how the jazz scales fit into chord patterns used in jazz. To write a good jazz song, we need a good understanding of how a jazz musician can move through the chord changes. These are good references to build this understanding:
http://www.thejazzresource.com/jazz_theory.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_scale

 Best Explained Chord Progression Theory:

courtesy of: http://goo.gl/fGvNP

From this chart, it is easy to see how the ii-V-I jazz chord progressions fall into place with the natural movements of tonal harmony. 

Conclusion:  For ProChords and other applications that attempt to give us some insights on how chord progressions work, it would be nice for the authors to go full-circle (pun intended), and give guidance to assure that we are using chord progressions that create good songs. Otherwise, we may fool ourselves into believing that chord progressions in music composition are just a gimmick. Movements do matter, after all, and the wisdom of the ages in music composition are important regardless of the fluid nature of musical preferences. People always prefer music with good solid chord progressions that are pleasant, and fit the natural harmonic progressions established over time.