II - V Lines for Jazz Guitar
Andrew Wasson of Creative Guitar Studio answers questions from off of his Guitar Blog website... http://www.andrewwasson.com/
Q). I ended up developing an interest in Jazz after watching your videos on Jazz Guitar at the Creative Guitar Studio website. I purchased a few books from Amazon, and now I've started to feel kind of stuck! The area that these jazz guitar books harps on quite a lot is something called, "II-V Jazz Lines." Can you explain what a II-V line is, and maybe demonstrate this? The books don't really do a very good job explaining exactly what they are. Thank you.
Monty - Pittsburgh, PA, USA
A). The II-V Line in jazz is pretty much a musical fragment that can cover the second and fifth chords of a keys' harmony. The musical line most commonly (but not always) resolves into the home-chord of the key. For example, if I was in the key of "C Major," the two-chord would be the "D Mi7," and the five would be the, "G dom. 7." And, as you might have guessed, the one-chord would of course be the, "C Major 7th." In jazz music the lines we tend to hear most often are fragmented combinations of notes from scales and arpeggios. These fragments can fall anywhere in the line, or anywhere in the bar. The jazz musician's ultimate goal is to select notes that are carefully chosen to color the chords. In the video, I zoom in on the neck and run through a few Jazz 2, 5, 1 lines that I've composed for this lesson.
Q). I ended up developing an interest in Jazz after watching your videos on Jazz Guitar at the Creative Guitar Studio website. I purchased a few books from Amazon, and now I've started to feel kind of stuck! The area that these jazz guitar books harps on quite a lot is something called, "II-V Jazz Lines." Can you explain what a II-V line is, and maybe demonstrate this? The books don't really do a very good job explaining exactly what they are. Thank you.
Monty - Pittsburgh, PA, USA
A). The II-V Line in jazz is pretty much a musical fragment that can cover the second and fifth chords of a keys' harmony. The musical line most commonly (but not always) resolves into the home-chord of the key. For example, if I was in the key of "C Major," the two-chord would be the "D Mi7," and the five would be the, "G dom. 7." And, as you might have guessed, the one-chord would of course be the, "C Major 7th." In jazz music the lines we tend to hear most often are fragmented combinations of notes from scales and arpeggios. These fragments can fall anywhere in the line, or anywhere in the bar. The jazz musician's ultimate goal is to select notes that are carefully chosen to color the chords. In the video, I zoom in on the neck and run through a few Jazz 2, 5, 1 lines that I've composed for this lesson.
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