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On a II V I or similar progression, if you play the chords scales downward starting on certain chord tones, you will land on the same chord tones every time. Pretty convenient to practice your scales in a harmonic environment and to make sure your melodic lines are harmonically correct!
Look at this example from this lesson on JVL about The Christmas Song by Mel Tormé:
On the first II V I, I target the fifth of Bb-7, simply going down the scale I land on the third of Bb-7 and then again on the fifth of Eb7, the third of Eb7 and finally the fifth of Ab∆.
On the C-7 F7 I target the fifth of C-7 and then the seventh of F7 because I have only one beat per chord, but then I land on the third of Bb-7, the third of Eb7 and the third of Ab∆.
Pretty cool, huh? But you might be wondering “does it work with sixteenth notes?“
Yes, but obviously it’s going to be a little trickier:
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Let’s start on the seventh of Bb-7, we land on the third and then the third of Eb7. If I kept on going with sixteenths I would land on the 13th on Eb7 and Ab∆. While this is not fundamentally wrong, here we want to target chord tones, so I decided to change back to eighth notes so I could land on the third of Ab∆.
But there is another option you can see in the third bar: I go chromatically from G to Eb and then diatonically land on the root of Ab∆.
Another interesting point is how we target the fifth of C-7 and F7 and voice-lead to the seventh of Bb-7.
Try this at home, it’s a great way to practice your scales and be clear about the harmonic progression.
Comment below to share your thoughts or if you have any questions, I’ll be happy to answer!
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