Is This the Only Chord Progression You Need to Know?

Improvising musicians need to be able to solo over chord progressions with ease. But with so many different combinations of chords, how can we learn to do this easily? Well, there's only actually one chord progression you need to know, and then you'll be able to improvise over almost any song. It doesn't matter if you play jazz, pop, funk, Ibiza club classics, this chord progression will help you solo in any genre!
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[@johnhopper1979]

Must say Josh you are a goldmine of understandable jazz info.. cheers from Australia 😁

[@JavierTijuana]

Pretty cool explanation, thank you. Has a lot of sense.

[@leighwakeham4890]

That's the way to do it, keep it simple and try not to work too hard when you don't have to.

[@eric_james_music]

very much in the same vein, as a guitarist, i realized a long time ago you can use the major scale and minor blues pentatonic to solo off of anything, and make sure to add some tasteful chromatics. that's a skill you learn just from improvising repetitively. the b6 is for minor subdominants in major keys

[@joshwakeham]

Very true - you don't need to overcomplicate the notes!

[@francistaylor5097]

Wise words, Mr Wakeham.

[@joshwakeham]

Thanks, Francis!

[@Nestor_Fernandez]

Hi Josh! Just wondering if you will make some new videos or streams in the future. They are informative and fun!

[@joshwakeham]

Yeah it's definitely something I want to get back into doing. I've had to take a lot of time off for health and general life reasons, but once everything has settled down again I'll get back to it!

[@KievPietrowski]

​@@joshwakeham What happened to your Patreon page?

[@joshwakeham]

I've unpublished it while I take a break from content creation - it didn't feel fair to have people paying monthly while I'm not creating any videos

[@lawrencetaylor4101]

Merci

[@yamtssfa1]

What are some options for improvising over that progression?

[@joshwakeham]

Check out my video on mastering the ii V I progression if you're not sure how to solo over it

[@stevegandalf4739]

Are you telling everyone that they don't need to know the I-IV-I-V-IV-I blues progression any longer? 😀

[@pickinstone]

Great videos, as always. That said, you would have been more accurate to say I IV V. The ii and IV chord have so much in common. The IV chord is an important color of the V chord--the arpeggio build on the b7th of the V chord (in C major, the Fmajor chord is the b7 color of the G7). Barry Harris calls that the important chord... I think. Anyway, ii V I isn't as synonymous with all Western music forms as the I IV V. Look at Bach to the Beatles to Bruno Mars--all I IV V. The I to the IV by itself is SUCH an important movement that is often ignored by advanced musicians looking for "out of reach" substitutions into outness. We wouldn't have the blues without that I IV I progression--all the rest is movement to get back to the I.

[@joshwakeham]

You're right - IV V I is more common outside of the jazz world. I chose to make this a discussion about ii V Is simply because most improvisers will know about ii V I progressions, and those that have at least started to think about chord tones and voice leading etc. will probably have a few things they can play on ii V Is, even if they haven't explored other chord progressions yet.

[@paulrhodesquinn]

It’s the most common chord progression in Jazz standards though. I IV V is the staple of the Blues and I always recommend that students master that first, then progress to II V I and then IIm7b5 V I etc.

[@pickinstone]

@odesquinn I IV V is way more than the blues--but then again, everything we love comes from the blues. I IV V is from classical to pop and everything in between. Dr. Barry Harris once spoke of the ii as just part of the V--movement to the dominant. Most of the jazz standards we play are Tin Pan Alley Broadway. If you look at many of those original charts--they weren't ii V's. Barry Harris once said that the problem with jazz is how we try to force ii V's onto everything. The deeper I get into studying bebop, the more I agree with BH. A better use of time would be to study the relationship rhythm and pulse has with the lines we play. As a fellow rhythm section player, I know you know what I'm talking about ;)