3.4.11

Daily Licking 037: Playalong ii-v In All Keys

(fixed the link to the wrong mp3. Doh.)

Spent some time goofing around with GarageBand and the many minutes of hard work (not really), have resulted in a handy play along file that others may find some use for. Ya can't have too many ii-v's to practice. Use it to work up some of the ii-v licks posted previously, or your favorite lick from Pent-up House or just to practice soloing on, there are a million and one uses. Goes great on salads too.

The track is very very simple rhythmically, just whole notes, so you can really hear how any notes you play fit (or don't) against the chords. There is also no bass so you can add your own.

Here is a simple chart that shows the order of the progression. The mp3 is loopable so it will continuously repeat until you get the lick nailed. Click on the chart, save to disk, blah blah all that.


To loop the audio, just load the mp3 in Quicktime Player (free for mac and windows), and just select "Loop". Ta-da. Done. Then bust out your favorite ii-V-I lick and practice moving it through each key.
http://www.divshare.com/download/14480543-5e1
Some other things to do that are fun:
  1. Play just the third of each chord as a whole note. Record yourself so you can hear what that sounds like. Then do the 5th, 7th, etc to hear what each note sounds like against each chord.
  2. Run the arpeggio of each chord up and down.
  3. Play other arpeggios against the chord, for instance on Dmin, try a F maj, or an Amin arpeggio, on the G7 try a Bmin7b5 and go up to the ninth. HA! Tricked ya, that is just the G7 starting on the third! But check it out, play around with stuff like that.
  4. Start a scale on the third of each chord and go up in 8th notes. Try different scales (appropriate ones for each chord type). Where does the end of the scale leave you relative to the next chord? A nice juicy note?
  5. Play different pentatonics against each chord, on Dmin7 try Amin, Emin, and even, wait for it, Bmin.
  6. And of course, practice walking lines over the progressions. This is the most common progression there is in a lot of improvised music, so you can't ever go wrong trying different ways to connect these chords.

Enjoy. And if there are any other progressions y'all would like to see let me know, or if you would be interested in how to make your own, I could do a post on that as well. Ciao!

10 comments:

Nate said...

Thanks for the write-up as always! I think you linked to the wrong track on divshare as a downloadable version, though.

Bassist Ridiculoso said...

Woops. Fixed! Thanks for telling me! Should be pointing at the right file now.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps, but I have thus far been unable to download this into Quicktime. I've never done this before. Please help!

Bassist Ridiculoso said...

To download go here -

http://www.divshare.com/download/14480543-5e1

Click the green "Download" button under the player, then open the file on your machine with Quicktime player, and under the "View" menu choose "Loop" (or command-L, use control-L if you are on a PC). And there ya go.

Download the chart by right clicking and say "save link to disk" and then you are ready to go.

Anonymous said...

Shouldn't the title of chart be 2-5-1 Progressions? The r after the g is missing.

Bassist Ridiculoso said...

Allllll right, ya smart-arse.

Fine. There. Fixed. Now it is spelled all nice and pretty.

But thanks. I think faster than I can type sometimes.

Michael said...

Just so's you know, this stuff is really used and it's very much appreciated. Spent an hour last night playing the loop with a printout of the chart propped in front of me, and it was terrific training exercise -- hearing the chord tones while trying different lines. Thanks, and keep 'em coming.

Bassist Ridiculoso said...

Awesome! Yea, these are great for playing specific things against them and hearing how they fit. I made some recordings of thirds and sevenths to listen to.

Hector said...

Fantastic! This is getting an unreal amount of usage from me, much appreciated. Any chance of a version for minor ii-V-Is as well? I've written out a Word file of about 20 different exercises to try using this...

Bassist Ridiculoso said...

Brilliant! I called the factory and told them to get right on it! Check back soon, I will post it as soon as it comes off the assembly line.

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