II V I progressions

[Andrew Gibson]

I have a question about the II V I chord progression.
Now, I understand the blues progression I IV V and how it fits into a 12 bar blues song.
I I I I
IV IV I I
V IV I V

But how do I similarly use the II V I progression into a song.

A

[Anonymous]

Are you trying to compose a song using II V I chords in it?
or are you trying to improvise on the sax to a song which has
II V I chords in it?

[john]

you can play the 2 on bar 9 of the 12 bar progression.
we use the 2 chord to spice up the basic 12 bar as you showed in your example above.
remember, normally it can be 5, 5, 1 as well as you noted: 5, 4 1
so, by using the 2 it looks like this: 2, 5, 1
it’s used a lot in jazz and pop and a little bit in blues and rock.

[Andrew Gibson]

Thanks Johnny and sxpoet.

I’ve been trying to compose simple tunes as a way of learning the theory; and then improvising around what I’ve written. I’m into 12 bar blues, so I’ll throw in some II V I chords into bars 9,10,11….thanks

[john]

Great! the 12 bar is really good to experiment and learn with but you can still change it up a bit as I’ve shown below.

the first example is the very basic way of playing a 12 bar followed by some common variations people like to use, depending on the feel you want in your tune:
| I | I | I | I | IV | IV | I | I | V | V | I | I |

| I | I | I | I | IV | IV | I | I | V | IV | I | V |

| I | I | I | I | IV | IV | I | I | II | V | I | V |

| I | IV | I | I I(7)| IV | IV | I | I | V | IV | I | V |

[Author]

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