The II - V - I

ii- Vb9 - II - V Analysis

This line comes from the final phrase of Stan Getz solo on 'I'll Remember April' with Chet Baker.

It is a great example of using chromaticism's and I hope to illustrate for you some key points worth observing.

Firstly. Beat 1 and 3 being the strongest, they are the ideal places to land your stronger chord tones (these are typically your (3rd 5th and 7th, the Root is also strong but I find 3 5 & 7 to be stronger). This way the listener will not get lost within all your chromatic passages and the underlying chords are still distinguishable, at a glance anyway.

Just so you know what I mean. Look at the first 3 bars above. Bar 1 ascends to 'D' (this is the 4th degree of Am7b5 and we have already broken our rule) fortunately it still works and as the line descend's to an A (the 5th of D7) in bar 2 our ears get a clearer picture of what is happening. On the 3rd beat we land on F# (the 3rd of D7) and the decent continues into Bar 3 ending this phrase on D (the 3rd of Bm7b5).

The rules aren't perfect and there are always exceptions but the more you listen to players who use these kinds of chromatic passages, you will notice how important it is to clearly outline chord tones on the strong beats.

The rest of the passage I will leave for you to analyse.

Quick tip. These minor ii-v's work just fine over Major II - V's. Practice them in different keys and in new positions.

The second image is an illustration of how I visualize the line. Most of the time I do not think in terms of scales, but chords and the notes that surround them. Here are the voicings of each chord that I see when playing this line.

The final 2 bars are a plain old D blues scale. You will find the final phrase in this line was derived from this scale.

I should point out, before I go. The first Tab indicates Gmaj7 even though the notes are outlining a D7 chord. This is simply because my chart for this tune calls for Gmaj7 in the final 2 bars. If you listen to the recording though, the bass player is in fact playing a pedal on D while the pianist comps Bm7-E7-Am7-D7(or some variation of the turnaround) so it makes for an interesting texture... I may fix the chord symbol on that tab when I have a chance.

Anyway. I hope you can take something away from this little lesson/rant/analysis :)

ii- Vb9 - II - V

Slow Version