Chord progressions in early jazz  part I

Listening to Louis Armstrong s music will get you in a mood of the early jazz, good for the feeling of the chord progressions that are discussed below. You might want to apply them in your own music.

 The usual chord progression that you come across when listening to the dawn of jazz is the progression of fifths. Starting with the root chord (I major), the progression continues with dominant seventh chords, VI7-II7-V7, and ends with the root chord (I major). In C major that could look like:

  Cmaj  A7  D7  G7  Cmaj

 Sometimes, an extra chord, III7, appears in front of the VI7. In our example that would make:

  Cmaj  E7  A7  D7  G7  Cmaj

 If you are familiar with the circle of fifths, you may notice the steady relation between the seventh chords, and also between the last seventh chord and the root chord of the progression. The chords are going counter-clockwise around the circle of fifths, each one acting as a dominant to the following chord, thus creating an impression of forward motion.

 Instead of using the III7 chord, as described above, the VI7 chord could be prepared by another type of progression: Fmaj  F#dim  C/G. This would be followed by the rest, i.e. A7  D7  G7  Cmaj. The whole progression would go as follows:

 Cmaj  Fmaj  F#dim  C/G  A7  D7  G7  Cmaj

In part II we discuss added notes that make chords more colourful.

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