The II-V-I progression (sometimes called 2-5-1) is one of the most commonly found progressions in jazz music.  This article will discuss two variations of the II-V-I progression: the major version, and the melodic minor version.

But first, let’s first take a look at a stripped down version of the II-V-I progression…
 

The Basic II-V-I

In the key of C, the basic version of the II-V-I progression would simply be:

ii       V       I
Dm       G       C

This form of the progression will work in virtually every form of music from classical to pop.  But to make it better suit the style of jazz… let’s look at adding chord extensions to the progression.

Extensions for the II-V-I

To get a jazzier feel it is essential to harmonize sevenths onto the basic II-V-I progression.  This is commonly done in one of two ways:

1. with major tonality
2. with melodic minor tonality

Major Tonality II-V-I Extensions

To add extensions to a II-V-I in the key of C major we simply harmonize the appropriate seventh of the scale, which results in the following:

iim7       V7       IΔ
Dm7        G7       CΔ

The progression will always have the following pattern:

1. minor seventh chord
2. dominant seventh chord
3. major seventh chord

Melodic Minor Tonality II-V-I Extensions

Another way to jazz up the basic II-V-I progression is to apply chord extensions using the melodic minor scale.  A progression using this method usually contains the following sequence of chord types:

1. half-diminished chord
2. altered chord
3. minor-major chord

If you analyze this you’ll notice that these chords are not from the same scale.  They are in fact from three different scales.

Let’s take a closer look at this.  Using a tonal center of C we would end up with the following set of chords:

Dø       G7alt       CmΔ7

Here’s a list of scales to use over this progression:

• D half-diminished scale (F melodic minor / locrian ♯2) is used over the Dø chord
• G altered scale (A♭ melodic minor / locrian b4) is used over the G7alt chord
• C melodic minor is used over the CmΔ7 chord

These scales were chosen because each of the chords is derived from them.  For example, C melodic minor is as follows:

C - D - Eb - F - G - A - B

…and a C minor-major seventh is:

C - Eb - G - B

Additionally, F melodic minor is as follows:

F - Gb - Ab - Bb - C - D - E

…and a D half diminished chord is:

D - F - Ab - C

…and so forth.

Improvising over II-V-I Progressions

Now that each of the types of progressions have been discussed, here’s some backing tracks to improvise over.

Major II-V-I

Here’s an example of a swing jazz style II-V-I progression in the key of E that goes as follows:

F#m        B7       EΔ
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A basic approach to improvising over this would be to use E major or C♯ minor over the entire progression.  However, a more advanced way to attack it would be to dissect each chord and apply the appropriate mode of E major.  For example…

F# Dorian       B Mixolydian       E Major
F#m             B7                 EΔ

While it is true that each of these modes contains the same notes, it is technically better to think in terms of modes.

Melodic Minor II-V-I

Here’s an example of a II-V-I progression using melodic minor harmony.  The chords are as follows:

Dø        G7alt       CmΔ7
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I have two different backing tracks for this one.  The first one is a bit of a jazz funk thing, and the second one is slower and more dark.  For both of them I tried to make the chord changes a bit slower than normal to make the scale switches easier.

Once again you would use the following scales:

F melodic minor       Ab melodic minor       C melodic minor
Dø                    G7alt                  CmΔ7

If you want to think in terms of modes you’d use the following:

D half-diminished scale       G altered scale       C melodic minor
Dø                            G7alt                 CmΔ7

In case you missed, it the above two sets of scales are both equivalent.  For example, the D half-diminished scale has the same notes as the F melodic minor scale, and the G altered scale has the same notes as the A♭ melodic minor scale.

To assist you in improvising, here’s some guitar scale diagrams for each of the scales:

Melodic Minor Scale:

Half-Diminished Scale:

Altered Scale:

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So there’s a a basic rundown on II-V-I progressions. I hope this was informative, and feel free to leave any questions or comments you may have.