The Major II-V-I

This month John Wheatcroft looks at the undisputed heavyweight champion of chord progressions in jazz, the major II-V-I.

- John Wheatcroft

It's often said that understanding how to use verbs forms the backbone of any language. As far as jazz is concerned, it could be argued that understanding harmony, how the chords relate, progress and develop throughout any given piece, is its own backbone. Harmony inspires your melodic choices; suggests suitable scale and potential harmonic replacements and much more besides. In jazz, the ubiquitous II-V-I major progression is king. So much so, that if you were to open up a Real Book with your eyes closed and simply point at any page, odds on that you’d likely have you finger directly above, or at best an inch away from an example of this sequence in action.