Day 4 - Major II-V-I Bass Lines

When I was in younger, I can remember asking older jazz musicians and educators “what are some things I should be practicing.” A common response by all of them was always “work on II-V-I licks.” At the time I honestly did not even know what that meant. I also had a sense of resentment towards older jazz musicians because they always made it seem like some type of elitist club and the knowledge was sacred. I think it kind of made them feel more important and validated but that’s besides the point. Later on I learned that they were referring to a chord progression. Even understanding that, I needed more of a connection and a reason WHY I should be working on these things and what is the significance of it. I think sometimes blanket information without context can actually be damaging to the student. I spent a lot of time back in the day working on “II-V-I licks” just hoping I would get better at jazz and it literally was helping me do absolutely NOTHING. In this lesson I am going to try to break it down in a way that I wish some of my teachers have done for me.

In It’s Simplest Form

Let’s start with the basics. As I mentioned above II-V-I is just a chord progression. Note that when chords are notated using numbers, typically we use Roman numerals. If that is confusing, just thing of 2-5-1 instead of II-V-I. It is the same thing just a little less fancy.

Here is how it works

Imagine you are in the key of C Major. Your second note of the scale would be D, your 5th note of the scale would be G and your first note of the scale would be C. Now let’s take each one of those notes and build them into triads. Your 2nd note is now a D minor triad, your 5th note is now a G major triad and your 1st note is now a C major triad. We can take that same concept and add the 7th chord tone to that. So now your 2nd is a D-7, your 5th is now a G7 and the 1 is now a CMaj7. When building the 1, 3, 5, 7 of any chord we are always moving diatonically in that key. Feel free to take a look back to our chapter on chords if you would like a quick refresher course.

Why?

The II-V-I progression is essentially a direction in music. By the nature of the progression it tells the lister that we are about to move to a new place. There are a few different ways to move in a new direction in music but in jazz, the II-V-I is the most widely used across the board. This is what makes this progression important.

For Example

Imagine I am in the key of C major and I want to get to Ab major.

Here is how it would look and sound:

Let’s try another one. Let’s imagine I am in the key of Db major and I would like to get to Bb major.

Here is how that would look and sound:

Rules Can Also Be Broken

Now ultimately, I can just go straight to any new key without a II-V-I progression but the feeling may come across as being a little disjunct. Imagine you are driving on the road following directions but then decide the quickest way to your destination is to drive off the road and through a corn field. You may make it to your destination, but it probably wasn’t pretty. But hey, this is music so we make rules to break them as well. If you want your music to sound like an off road trip through a corn field and that’s cool too. At the end of the day the II-V-I progression offers us a road map and a set of directions where to go, whether you choose to use it or not in your own compositions is up to you, but regardless of that, its all over the place in jazz hence the need for our study.

Major II-V-I Exercise

The sheet music below contains a simple II-V-I bass line played in all 12 keys. Because the line is the same throughout the exercise, the goal is to keep the same quality of sound as you move through all of the different key centers. Strive to keep everything at the same level of quality throughout. The play along track is set to 100bpm. If you want to slow it down, just take out the metronome and work yourself up to that tempo. Finally, remember everything we talked about in regards to style. The goal with any exercise is to make MUSIC as quickly as possible. If played correctly, this excerpt should just sound like a song in of it self, not an exercise.

Please be aware that the accidentals change every measure. It is easy to miss the new set of flats or sharps and play a note that takes them out of the key. Harmonically speaking, every 16th notes move in the exact same direction, just in different tonal centers.