Songs that use 2 5 1 chord progressions

this video is sponsored by floki a 2 5 1 refers to the second fifth and first chord of the key so for example right now i'm in c major so my two is d d minor my five the fifth chord of the key is g and the one we see our atomic chord now as you can hear two five one is a very satisfying sounding chord progression but the reason you hear people talk about them a lot is because they're incredibly good for changing key you can basically change key to any key you like using a 251 so for example as i said right now we're in the key of c if i wanted to move to a different key for example f all i have to do is play the two five one of that key of the destination key so i play the second fifth and first chord in the destination of f major and now we're in f major and i can move back to c by just playing the second fifth and first chords of c now i'm back in c so we just modulated from the key of c major to the key of f major using a 2 5 1. and this is actually exactly what happens in the beatles song from me to you during the verse from me to you we are in the key of c major however for the middle eight we get these chords g minor c and f 2 5 1 in the key of f so this 2 5 1 delivers us to the key of f however we don't actually stay in this new key of f major for very long almost immediately we get another 2 5 1 this time returning us to the original key of c major these three chords here d g and c are the two five and one of c major now you may have noticed that the two chord here the d chord is actually a dominant chord d seven the dominant seven rather than the minor chord we got in the original two five one that moved us to f with a two five one the two chord can actually be a major chord a dominant chord a minor chord or a diminished chord they will all serve the purpose of contributing to that modulation the one chord in fact can also be quite flexible it can be a major chord or a minor chord the only chord really that has to stay in a certain form is the five chord the five chord has to be major or preferably a dominant chord a dominant seven chord without that we don't get that sense of movement that leading tone that takes us to the new key [Music] we can see a 251 with a minor one chord here in carol king's you've got a friend this g minor c and f minor are a two five one moving us from the key of a flat major to its relative minor key of f minor [Music] another beatles song to change key via 251 is if i fail the intro of if i fail was in the key of d flat major but as we approach the opening verse of the song we get this 2 5 1 in the key of d major smoothly modulating us up a semitone [Music] [Applause] [Music] summer in the city by the loving spoonful also uses a 251 to modulate the chorus of summer in the city starts in f major [Music] however halfway through it starts to pivot back and forth between the chords of d minor [Music] on the fourth occasion that it does this these two chords wind up actually serving as the two and five chords for the versus key of c minor [Music] so this is like a dragged out two five one where we kept moving back and forth between two and five before finally modulating to the new key and this is the beauty of two five ones they are so good at creating smooth modulations because they effectively serve as pivot chords for example here when the d minor and g chords are first introduced we are squarely in the key of f major so we hear these two chords as the sixth chord of the key and the major second chord of the key but then when we jump to c minor here for the second verse these very same d minor and g chords are now also acting as the two and five chords in the new destination key so they're effectively serving two functions at once both in the current key and the destination key sunshine of my life by stevie wonder opens in the key of b major however shifts to the key of a flat major for the middle eight and it achieves this by surprise surprise a two five one [Music] then at the end of the middle eight we modulate back to the original key of b major with once again a two five one [Music] is a great way to improve your skills at the piano floki is an interactive app that guides you through learning songs and developing new skills they offer a regularly updated selection of over 1 000 songs including classical pieces jazz standards recent pop hits and classic rock tracks by bands such as the beatles queen and pink floyd whether you've been playing piano for years or you're just getting started why not try out flokie for free with a one week free trial to get started today follow the link down below now two five ones are closely associated with jazz many jazz tunes navigate through a variety of keys using a variety of two five ones satin doll's a section explores the key of c major [Applause] but then when the b section arrives we get this 2 5 1 progression in the key of f major shifting us temporarily away from the key of c major and to the key of f major this makes the music feel like it's ventured off into a new realm it gives the b section its own distinct character and the both legendary and infamous jazz standard giant steps by john coltrane uses a torrent of two five ones in different keys to take us on a dizzying journey around various key centers [Music] you'll also often see two five ones used as turnarounds a turnaround is a short chord change used to prepare us to return to the beginning of the form the beginning of a section you'll see them a lot on jazz charts a few chords at the end of the form in brackets this is the turnaround a optional chord change which you can use if you want to go back to the top of the form that's why they're in brackets because it's optional if you were actually going to end the tune there you wouldn't play the 251 but if you do want to go back to the top the 251 will deliver you there neatly and smoothly so after all of this talk about how 251s are amazing for changing key you might be thinking well what actually is it about a 251 that makes it so good for changing key what is it about this progression of chords that means that the final chord the one sounds like our new tonic chord well most of the heavy lifting in a 251 is done by the v chord generally speaking the best way to resolve onto another chord is by using the chord that's built on the fifth degree of that destination chord in other words via a perfect cadence so for example if we were in the key of c major like this passage here this passage is in c major and then we wanted to modulate to e flat major the simplest and most direct way we could do that is by using the fifth degree chord of e flat major which is b flat and particularly if we put a dominant seventh on that b flat chord it's going to be a very efficient way to move from c major to e flat you can hear now that the e flat chord sounds like the tonic chord it sounds like it could be our new point of rest the dominant chord built on the fifth degree of our destination key is such a good chord for resolving onto that destination because it contains a unstable tritone interval between these two notes which naturally wants to resolve onto that destination chord it's this tritone which collapses into the newtonic chord which is effectively the engine that drives a perfect cadence so moving five to one moving in a perfect cadence is a great way to move our tonal focus onto the destination chord making that chord that we land on in this case e flat sound like our new tonic chord so what's the two doing here why do we need a two five one well the two is here effectively to smooth out this change although b flat seven here moving to e flat is all we technically need to make the modulation happen it can be a fairly stark jump it's quite sudden [Music] so the presence of the ii chord eases us in to this key change the two chord introduces some of the notes of the new destination key before the perfect hiddens happens so the modulation sort of begins here with the two chord and then it's hit home by the v chord resolving to the one also as we discussed in my recent video on the circle of fifths because our two chord is a fifth away from the five chord and the five chord is a fifth away from the one chord all three of these chords fold into each other in a very effective efficient way because the perfect fifth as we discussed in that video is the smoothest and most pleasing interval we can have [Music] now 251s are most commonly used for changing key but you could use a 251 without actually changing key one usage of two five ones that doesn't really change our key center is when the 251 are used just to reaffirm the key that we're currently in we might do this to provide a nice clear conclusion to a chord progression making it abundantly clear where the key center is for example at the end of the verse of you never give me your money by the beatles we get this 251 in the key of a minor the song is already in the key of a minor but by using a a minor two five one at the end it provides a nice clean satisfying resolution to the chord progression [Music] and another usage of two five ones which isn't a modulation is when a two five one is just used as a chord loop like any other chord progression for example with the verse of sunday morning by maroon five just loops around a repeating two 251 in the key of c major it just treats it as a standard chord loop [Music] this 251 along with the nice chord extensions here gives the song a jazzy sound but without the various modulations that you would typically find in a jazz tune as i mentioned at the beginning the reason that people talk about 251 so much the reason they're so interesting is that a super efficient way of changing key it doesn't matter which key we're currently in or which key we want to arrive in all we have to do is play those three chords two five and one and we've now arrived in that new key so to wrap this video up what i want to do is i'm going to improvise here at the keyboard starting in the key of c and then i'm going to use two five ones to travel through all 12 key centers arriving again at the end in the key of c and hopefully what you'll find is as we travel through each key it's fairly seamless where one key ends and the next begins because two five ones just bridge that gap between the two let's get started so as i said starting in the key of c traveling through all 12 key centers [Music] do do [Music] do [Music] and that's just back in the key of c so some changes are starker some changes aren't but that really just came down to which two keys i moved between some keys will sound smoother some keys won't depending on how distant they are to each other how unrelated they are but regardless the 251 is always going to provide the smoothest way to change key [Music] and thank you as always to all of the patrons who make my videos possible including the names you see on screen right now and andre science fiance andy deakin andrew andrew sussman austin barrett austin russell bob mckinstry boomer dale britney parker cameron villa colin aiken charles fenn rusker bell david bennett's heart david rivers donald howard dr darren wicks korchenko eugene leroy fd hodor greg kobowski guilderton hugo miller ivan pang jeff fisher john joseph [Music] sean kennedy steve daly tim beaker tim payne victor levy video flowers vladimir kotakov volte the washington shakespearean festival island fairbanks [Music] you

Channel: David Bennett Piano

Views: 329,487

Keywords: 2 5 1, ii V I, chord progression, turnaround, music theory, songs, examples of, explained, how to, analysis, jazz, pop, rock

Id: 6y-LoytFckI

Length: 17min 40sec (1060 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 17 2022