The 140 trick jazzy

II-V-I trick or the 2-5-1 rule is one of the most used trick in Jazz. However, in the digital world, we count from 0. Thus, I called it the 140 rule.

I love this trick. It is simple, concise, and elegant. Furthermore, with about an hour of practice, one could master it on some basic major scale! By the way, it is pretty much the first thing I jam whenever I see some piano, or keyboard around!

For every major scale, we are able to divide it into 7 notes, for example, with C major (CM):

  CM :  C D E F G A B
        0 1 2 3 4 5 6

The 140 for CM denotes the following combination:

  1  : Dm
  4  : G7
  0  : CM

Notice the beauty of this trick. It went up from minor to normal to major! Behind the awesome concept lie the sick mathematic combination.

When you play Dm-G7-CM one after another, it would rhythm into something that sounds very, very, very interesting. For those who don’t know how to play these combinations (Which I will write up about very soon in the future), I recommend the following basic formation:

  Left   |  Right
  D      |  F B
  G      |  B D
  C      |  E A

Now you should be able to use this trick to play your own improvised song! Use the 7 notes for the major scale, and keep the swing rhythm (3-4). The more you play the combination (to formalize the rhythm), the more you will be swinging in no time.

By the way, cover picture for this post is my favorite jazz swinger Oscar Peterson. His fingers move by themselves, even when his brain couldn’t control them no more! My favorite improvisation from Mr. Peterson is the Sushi blue. Look it up on the single g!

Next time, we will discuss more on how simple it is to apply 140 to the DM scale! By the way, tutorial for scale and combinations will also be up soon, stay tune.