First Chord Changes: Improvising over the II-V-I Progression

Описание: This video has been a long time in the making!

The II-V-I chord progression is arguably the most important progression in jazz music, and so let's work on it together to help you improvise over it fluently!

In this video we look at a II-V-I chord progression in concert F major. That's in G major for tenor and soprano players, and D major for alto and baritone players.

Firstly, let's get to know the chords and then we'll practise the related modes that fit them.

Once you can do this, try playing along to the backing track, where I play the exercise for the first 4 bars each time, and then have a go a copying me in the second 4 bars.

Can you play these arpeggios and modes to the backing track without reading them?

Next let's work on Guidetones as away to help us improve our accuracy of improvising over the II-V-I chord progression.

Guidetones are traditionally the 3rd and 7th of any chord, as it is these notes that dictate the chords qualities to us (ie. whether it is a major or minor chord, with a major, minor, or diminished 7th).

When I work on guidetones with my students though, I say that you can play any of the core chord tones (1st, 3rd, 5th or 7th), but that you ALWAYS need to move to the nearest available note either up or down each time.

Doing this helps you work on smooth voice leading, but also this will be easier for our ear to understand and so will help more with our ear training and line construction when improvising.

Finally, as a bit of a reward/treat for the last 2 turns improvise freely over the progression using either chord tones or the full modes.

However, when improvising using the modes, aim to land on a chord tone at the moment you move into the new chord. Doing this will help you convey the under lying harmony to the listener, and so it's a vital one for us to master. This is what we mean by the term, "Playing the Changes."

Once you can play over the exercises in this video accurately, if you'd like to have a go at playing and improvising over the full form and track, then you can download either a Bb or Eb pdf chart and mp3 of the backing here for free: -

https://saxophoneteacher.co.uk/2026/0...

(Copy and paste into your internet browser)

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:49 The II-V-I Chords and their Arpeggios
05:37 The Modes that fit the II-V-I progression
09:25 Arpeggios and Modes Exercise (to backing track)
11:42 Introduction to Guidetones
16:32 Guidetones and Improvising Exercise (to backing track)

If you'd like to know more about me, please do check out www.saxophone teacher.co.uk and please do like and subscribe!

This video has been a real labour of love, and so I hope you enjoy it and find it beneficial for your playing. Please do let me know in the comments how you get on.

If you enjoy the content of these videos, you can buy me a coffee and help support this channel here: - buymeacoffee.com/NathanHassallMusic

Happy practising!

Best wishes,

Nathan

#saxophone #saxophonelesson #saxophonemusic #saxophonejazz #saxophonelessons #jazzmusicforstudying #jazzmusic #learnsaxophone #learntoplaysax #improvisation #jazzimprov #jazzimprovisation #learnmusic #jazz #saxophoneteacher #saxteacher #saxophonetutor #sax #bebop #bebopjazz #learntoplayjazz #musiclessons #musiclessonsforadults #music #musicteacher #musicteachers #musiclovers