Easy steps to learn jazz piano episode 3

Here is episode 3 of easy steps to learn jazz piano. In episode 1 our first step was to find the notes V that lead to I, dominant leading to tonic, tension to release. This interval, up a perfect 4th or down a perfect 5th is the backbone of most Western music. The graphic below shows the note D moving to the note G. D=5 and G=1.

The second step in episode 2 was to convert these two notes into chords: the dominant 7 chord leading to the tonic chord. An example would be D7 – G or A7 – E. The tonic chord can be major or minor. In the above graphic E7 is moving to A6.

In this article, episode 3, we add a third chord, the ‘II’. This is usually a minor 7. And now we have the most important 3-chord sequence in jazz: The II-V-I sequence.

Here’s the short video that I created for YouTube.

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