In today's exercise I'll show you how to use a sus2 perspective for improvising. A perspective
that will allow you to access the best tension on every chord. This will not only be a great
exercise for ear training, but it'll also shed light on where the 2-5s are within a song,
and what tensions to use to get those essential colors that you hear in jazz solos all of the time.
This is going to be a two-part exercise. First, we're going to practice over a consecutive 2-5s.
When you feel confident that you've got this first part down, you can start to practice
today's exercise over an entire Jazz standard. By the way, we're including an accompanying PDF,
for our "exclusive access" members, that includes all the possible 2-5s in major. I'll also
add the XML files for mapping tonal Harmony Pro in the download, for those of you using the app.
And be sure to stick around till the end of the video, where we'll show you how to use today's exercise with "Misty". Step 1: for every 2-5, we're going to turn the 2 into a sus2 chord, and
then use that same sus2 chord on top of the V. The cool thing, about this perspective, is that we
get the best tensions for each chord. On this Bbm7 we're playing the 9th, and on
the Eb7, we're playing the 9th and the 13th. A very important thing to notice here, is that, in
a 2-5 the 9th of the ii, is the 13th of the V. And the 5th of the ii, is the 9th of the V.
It's also worth noting that, when you use this static sus2 chord, you end up playing a sus2
chord on the 5th of that V chord. This perspective will come in handy later on.
Step 2: this step is about mapping where the tensions are in a 2-5, and altering dominant
chords. Remember, dominant chord alterations always sound great -- in the context of a 2-5.
So, we're going to play the same notes as in Step 1, except: on the dominant chords we're
going to move the sus2 up a half-step. So on Bbm7 we play a Bbsus2, and
we get the notes: 1, 9, and 5 (the 2 is the 9th). And on Eb7 we go up a half-step
and play a Bsus2. B is the #5. C# would serve as the b7 and
F# is the #9. Now we're turning every dominant chord into a #5, #9.
And it sounds great, because dominant chords have that property of wanting tension
A nice variation of this step, is to resolve the 2-5 to the 1.
Start mapping these notes out in your head. Looking at the V chord's tensions, from the perspective of
the ii chord, is essential. In the end, the ii chord in a 2-5 could be completely
replaced by the V chord, when you improvise. The ii chord is just there to create a nice
contour in the harmonic tension. Step 3: Now we're going to move in the other direction -- down
a half-step. Now, we get an altered chord, with a b5 (or #11), a b13, and a b9.
And again, a nice variation is to resolve the 2-5 to a one chord
Alright! So how'd you do? Of course, you can practice these first three steps every day. It's a great way
of learning all your tensions, and practicing 2-5 in all keys. Now it's time to do it
over a jazz standard. So let's use - like we said before - "Misty". Here's Step 4: we're just going
to replace every chord with a sus2 chord, and don't forget: on dominant chords we're playing a
sus2, built on the 5th degree of that dominant chord, which is exactly what we did in Step 1.
This is going to automatically show us where the 2-5s are within the song,
because, in a 2-5, the note grouping for our consecutive sus2 chords will be identical.
So here -- in this Ebmaj7 -- we're going to play an Ebsus2. On this Bbm7, we
play a Bbsus2, and on this Eb7, we also play a Bbsus2. This is definitely
a 2-5! By the way, if you want a nice book, to see where all the 2-5s are in a chart, check
out our "Jazz Standards Progressions Book". It has all the Jazz standards fully analyzed, so every
time you see a bracket, you'll know it's a 2-5, and you can just play the same notes for
both chords. It's a nice hack -- among many others in that book. If you see a b9 -- like in this Eb7b9
chord (here), you can move the sus2 either way -- up or down a half step.
As you can see, this also works great on maj7 chords (or 6 chords)
Step 5: Practice altering the dominant chords at will.
Remember not to make b9 chords natural 9 chords, like the Eb7b9 we talked
about on the previous step. If the dominant chord has altered tensions, keep it altered.
And don't forget: the sus2 chords are built on or around the 5 degree of your dominant chords.
Step 6: so this step is my favorite, because it highlights one of my favorite types of voicings
for jazz: the upper structure quartal. So, while we've been using upper structures this entire
time -- to introduce tensions and different colors to our chords -- the quartal takes it to another
level. A quartal is nothing more than a perfect fourth stacked on top of another perfect fourth.
And all we have to do -- to turn our sus2 chords into quartals -- is invert them. The
first inversion of any sus2 chord will give you a perfect quartal. The implementation of
these quartals will require a slight shift in perspective. To play these upper structure
quartals, we'll have to build them on the second degree -- the 9th of the non-dominant
chords -- and on the sixth degree of the dominant chords. Basically shift everything up a whole
step from the previous steps. And yes, you can still move this quartal up or down a
half step -- on top of the dominant chords -- to alter those dominant chords.
While these quartals are the same exact notes as our sus2 chords, they introduce an entirely new sound to our playing.
If you're not using upper structure quartals in
your playing, you definitely need to start doing so immediately.
And if you want to learn everything there is to know about upper structure quartals, check
out our piano course on these amazing voicings. Now it's time for free play. Never forget to
add free play at the end of every practice session. Play whatever you want. Improvise
over "Misty" without any restrictions. Don't overthink it. You'll see all these colors
and tensions -- that you've been practicing -- come out in your playing right away, automatically.
As always, thanks again for watching. For all of our current members: you guys will have access to
a PDF of today's exercise -- implementing all of these upper structures. If you're not a member,
and would like to become one, just click on the JOIN button -- or the link down below. YouTube seems
to think you're going to like this video here. So check that out! We'll catch you next time.