The Two-Five-One, Deeper
Jazz's favourite sentence, Dm7 - G7 - Cmaj7, hides two quiet lines inside its chords. Follow the guide tones, the thirds and sevenths that stay put or slip down a half step, hear the tritone inside G7 resolve home, voice the progression smoothly with two hands, then take it to F and B flat, chain it like Satin Doll, and turn it minor with a half-diminished two chord.
In this lesson you'll
- Find the guide tones (3rd and 7th) of Dm7, G7 and Cmaj7 and play the two lines F - F - E and C - B - B over the roots.
- Voice the ii-V-I smoothly: left hand on the roots, right hand on the guide tones or a four-note voicing where every note stays or moves by a step.
- Play the ii-V-I in F (Gm7 C7 Fmaj7) and B flat (Cm7 F7 Bbmaj7), a ii-V chain, and the minor ii-V-i (Bm7b5 E7 Am).
Music in this lesson
- Satin Doll (chord changes only)Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn · 1953
Remember
The guide tones carry the progression: each seventh falls a half step into the next third (C to B, F to E), so two lines barely move.
Inside G7, B and F are a tritone apart; B rises to C and F falls to E, and the tension resolves home.
The ii-V-I is a building block: it works in every key, chains together (Satin Doll's second ii-V is a step higher), and in minor the two chord is half diminished.