- How's it going guys? Julian Bradley here
from themusicalear.com. So a Musical Ear member has asked me if I can share some of my
favorite chord progressions at the piano, and it would be my absolute pleasure to share with you some of my favorite jazz piano chord progressions. So in this video I'm gonna show you three of my favorite chord progressions. But in addition to these three, I've put together a free download which is some sheet music
which shares actually six of my favorite chord progressions. So you'll have these three
but then an additional three. So, if you'd like to download that, just click the link
below, enter your email and you'll receive and automatic email from me with that sheet music. (soft piano music)
So without further ado, we're gonna go straight to the lesson. Enjoy the video and I'll talk to you again on the other side. (soft piano music) So here is the first of my
favorite chord progressions, here we go. (soft piano music) So let's take a look at this. C minor 7, and I'm choosing to voice these in this sort of open voicing (soft piano music)
root fifth, third and seventh. C minor 7, and then we just slide the left hand down a half step, C and G goes to B and F sharp, while the right hand stays the same, and that gives you B major 7. (soft piano music)
So, C minor 7, B major 7, and then we bring both hands down B flat and F, the root and the fifth, the third, and the seventh, and the right hand, D flat and A flat, and do the same pattern,
right hand stays the same, left hand slides down a half step. And that gives you an A major 7 chord. (soft piano music)
So, B flat minor 7, to A major 7. Those first four chords again. (soft piano music) These are called glide progressions, where you record changes to a new chord just by moving a couple of the notes or half of the notes roughly, (soft piano music) just sliding them, while the other two notes stay the same. (soft piano music) There's all sorts of possibilities. C minor 7, C major 7, C sharp minor 7, (soft piano music) lots of fun things you can do with that. (soft piano music) When I get to this A major 7 chord, I go up a major third, (soft piano music) and I play a C sharp minor, minor nine chord in this case (soft piano music) But just basically a
C sharp minor 7 chord, and I like to either add (soft piano music) the ninth or (soft piano music) that as a minor 11th chord, (soft piano music) and a C sharp minor chord, (soft piano music) and a B major chord, (soft piano music) which is a simple way to
think of a minor 11 chord, just these two triads. Here's the whole chord progression again. (soft piano music) And this is a chord progression that I composed when I was about 18. I remember stumbling across these chords (soft piano music)
on the piano. And I just fell in love with them. (soft piano music) Now in preparing for this video, I actually tried changing
these chords slightly. (soft piano music)
same, same, same. But in stead of A major,
you could play this as an A dominant 7 chord,
(soft piano music) except I was voicing it like this.
(soft piano music) Seventh, ninth, major third, major sixth, (soft piano music) and this just sounds a bit
more grown up, I think. It's up to you which one you prefer, but here's how this one sounds. (soft piano music) It sounds a bit more gospely. I like both, (soft piano music) as a younger player, (soft piano music) I would have definitely preferred
the A major 7 chord, so, (soft piano music) it's a bit more of a
pop music kind of sound, going from the A major chord up to (soft piano music) the C sharp minor chord. (soft piano music) But if you want more of a gospely sound, (soft piano music) I think this one is a bit
more perhaps interesting. (soft piano music) (light techno music) Now, the second chord
progression I'm gonna show you I'm gonna demonstrate in C minor. Does come out of key, but predominantly, this is in C minor, here's how it sounds. (soft piano music) Again. (soft piano music) Now I'm playing these open chord voicings which are root, fifth, third, and seventh. You can play that to any
type of seventh chord. Sounds great every time, very clean. So if we're in C minor, (soft piano music) starts on F minor seven, the minor 4 chord (soft piano music) goes up to A flat major 7 (soft piano music)
root fifth, third seventh, (soft piano music) resolves to C minor 7, the one chord. (soft piano music) Here's the interesting part, B flat major, and I've added a major 7, which isn't actually in
the key of C minor scale. You know, a second ago, (soft piano music)
you had a A flat major chord. Now I'm playing at A natural above this B flat major 7 chord. (soft piano music) So that's why it creates this nice (soft piano music) interesting sound, it's
basically modulating in a very subtle way. (soft piano music) We're in C minor, (soft piano music) now we're not in C minor 'cause we've got a B flat major 7 chord, (soft piano music) and then we're back in C minor
with an A flat major 7 chord. Here it is again. (soft piano music) And I've got this chord
progression from a dance track that I used to really
be into as a teenager, it's called, Need To
Feel Loved by Reflekt, and I used these string samples, which play
(soft piano music) these chords, goes like this. (soft piano music) But in the original song, these strings only play triads, they don't play seventh chords. So what I like to do (soft piano music) is I make these all into seventh chords, (soft piano music) and then I get this nice modulation. And I play the B flat
major chord as a major 7, (soft piano music) that's what makes this
chord progression so nice. Now I use this chord
progression in my piece, Falling In Love For The First Time. (soft piano music) So there's a few extra chords at the end. The original's actually (soft piano music)
in a different key, B minor. But I'm demonstrating it
in a C minor key here. So I turned these into minor 11th chords and major 11th chords, and I
use this Kenny Barron voicing. (muffled piano chord) (soft piano music) Here's the B flat major 7. (soft piano music) Even put a sharp 11 here. (soft piano music) But that is just this chord progression embellished into a sort of
arpeggiated 11th chord pattern, but it's the same nice chord progression, which you can play as simply as this. (soft piano music) (upbeat light tribal drums) And now we come to the
final chord progression, which I'm gonna share
with you in this video. Don't forget there's the free
download below this video that you can print out even more. But here's the final chord progression which I'm gonna look at in this video. (soft piano music)
C minor again, in the key of C minor, (soft piano music) You could actually play
this pattern forever. (soft piano music) And it will take you through all 12 keys and I finally got back to (soft piano music) C minor again, so let me explain this. Really, you can just do this once or you can keep doing
it two or three times, or you can keep doing it all
12 times, like I just did. But this is beautiful modulation. You're in the key of C minor, (soft piano music) I'll play it simply as a triad
here, here's a C minor chord. (soft piano music) But then, you modulate
to the key of F minor, (soft piano music) and the way you do that (soft piano music) is you play this D flat major chord, which is not in the scale of C minor. (soft piano music) You play a D flat major chord, going up to an F minor chord, and I happen to know that
these two chords are in F minor because
(soft piano music) both these chords are found in F minor, and using my ear, I can
hear it, this F minor chord, (soft piano music)
is the resolution chord, which in ear training is basically the one chord of the scale. (soft piano music) So I can use my ear to tell me (soft piano music) that the piece has modulated (soft piano music)
to F minor. And of course, we can get more interesting with the chord voicings. (soft piano music) Play that F minor as
a F minor 9 like this. (soft piano music) And then, once I'm on F minor, (soft piano music) If you want to carry on, you can just repeat the same pattern. We're now in the key of F minor, so now we just go up a half step, (soft piano music)
play a major chord, this case it's G flat major. (soft piano music) Resolves up in major third (soft piano music) to B flat minor. (soft piano music) Now in B flat minor, we can
do the same pattern again. (soft piano music) Go up a half step, build
a major chord, B major, (soft piano music) up a major third, (soft piano music)
build a minor chord. Then we can play all these (soft piano music)
as seventh chords. So now let me test you on
this chord progression. Let's say we're on a D minor 7 chord, which two chords would I play next to play this chord progression? (soft piano music) Well, I'd go up a half step, (soft piano music) to E flat, and I build
a E flat major 7 chord, (soft piano music) root fifth, (soft piano music)
third seventh if I use this voicing,
which you don't have to. (soft piano music) And then I'd go up a major third, (soft piano music) which is two whole steps, and I build a minor 7 chord,
which would be G minor 7 like this.
(soft piano music) But I can voice it root
fifth, third, seventh. Now I'm in the key of G minor, which two chords would I play next? (soft piano music) If I wanted to continue the pattern, I'd go up a half step (soft piano music) build a major 7 chord, A flat major 7, (soft piano music) looks like this, and
then up a major third, (soft piano music) to C, and I'll build a minor 7 chord, (soft piano music)
which would be C minor 7. If you want to use my voicing, it'd root fifth,
(soft piano music) third,
(soft piano music) seventh. (soft piano music) You can do this forever. When you get too high, you can just bring it down an octave. So instead of (soft piano music) playing to A major, I'm
getting a bit high here, I'll bring it down an octave. (soft piano music) Gettin' more fancy with
the chord voicings. (soft piano music) which is the sheet music for each of these three chord progressions, but then with another three of my equally favorite chord progressions. So to download that sheet music, just click the link
below, enter your email, and you'll receive an email from me with the sheet music,
you can print it out,
