What's so Fancy About a ii -V-I?

Going deep into jazzland to uncover the secrets of the 2-5-1 chord progression and why it's so fancy! Rockin out the D'angelico Deluxe Atlantic through a Fender Mustang to showcase it. If you haven't thought much about talking chord progressions with numbers, watch this video first:

If you want to get down on the circle of 5ths, look here:

And if secondary dominants are your pleasure, check this one:

Listen to the new album:

A little about me:

Sean Daniel is a man. A man of simple needs and desires. And the one desire, no, the one NEED, that stands above all is to spread the challenges, joy and intellectual stimulus of music to people of Earth and beyond.
Born on the mean streets of upper middle class suburban Chicago, Sean learned the ways of the world through the dizzying heights of success to the lonesome depths of failure and emerged with the promise of a better tomorrow reflecting in his eyes and fiery passion in his belly.
He plays and teaches guitar on his YouTube channel where he regularly releases original music and projects to the adulation of legions of fans, who often compare him to Chris Pratt and one time Ryan Reynolds. He’s currently in the market for a nice leather jacket.

[Saibo]

The section from 12:05 and until the end took me from having little to no understanding of what in the hell jazz is ( and why it sounds so good ) to having an understanding as to why the progressions are what they are, like holy moly. Once you know the 1234567 stuff this section just absolutely blew my mind. I've played for 10 years now and I've learnt some Bossa nova stuff and autumn leaves years ago and now they fricking make sense on how they came up with this stuff (and how everyone is doing the same damn thing!xD) anyways thanks a lot Sean this video is priceless! Truly grateful, liked and subscribed. Peace.

[donindri]

Aww, children, it’s just a note away! Amazing the effect of flatting a third or seventh, or sharping a fourth. You explain these things very well. Thanks for posting

[onelapmaster]

Great nugget in the last 2 minutes. Change the I major to a I minor then that I minor becomes the II minor of a 2-5-1 a whole tone down. Think I'll write a song with that progression. You have an uncanny ability to make theory videos interesting. Well done!

[clawhammer]

I completely understand it. Great lesson. I thought for a bit it was too advanced but it all came together towards the end.

[EstebanTalero]

Hey Sean!!!
*Man, I've learned a ton with your videos and I'm happy that, after watching thousands of them, I accidentally came across with your self description on the "A little about me:" section on this video's info. Your desire is indeed to teach. And to teach in your own way. Keep it up, bro!*








If you can, it'd be awesome if you could start a Jazz series. In my case, it'd be extremely helpful. To step up my musical understanding and performance in general, one teacher recommended me to start reading some jazz. I've been studying Jazz Standards and the ii-V-I is definitely all over the place. _(I get the basics and I understand that an uppercase Roman numeral represents a major chord while a lowercase Roman numeral represents a minor chord)._

I also notice every time that Jazz never uses simple, 3-note chords! They're always extended chords. So I've seen a lot of of _V7's, a lot of IΔ's (which are 1major7 chords, correct?), ALT's, -'s etc._ Plus they also add _#11's, #9's, b13's, etc._ in parentheses to all the chords.
Some of these symbols and stuff, of course, go over my head since I'm a beginner. But I recently saw a familiar chord that I learned a while back from you: a minor 7 flat 5 chord. It was written as ii7b5, and "the minor" was implied by the lowercase "ii". However, then I saw a normal minor 7 chord written as iim7 (followed by V7, IΔ). This time "the minor" was not implied and it was expressed with the letter "m". Anyway... a lot of this stuff is complicated and I know it's probably not worth your time to try and make a video explaining it But for now, if you're in the key of C, for example, *should you write Dm7 as iim7 or ii7?*

I know it was an awful lot of context for a simple question! But if you can give me some insight into all this new world, it'd be amazing as I'm just starting out with Jazz.
Thanks a lot again,
Follower from Colombia! :)

[ACP]

Best explanation of the II V I that I’ve ever heard!

[sbingham]

God those major 7th chords sounded so good when you got going on the demonstration -- really beautiful tone!! Really good lesson also.

[seanenglish]

This is such a great video. I love your serious theory explanations. Can't wait to play around with this. Thank you. Just finished Emerald Ryders. Great album. You should be really proud of it.

[buddhadevmukherjee]

Beautiful explanation... Thank you, Sean.

[iancheckley]

Fantastic explanation Sean can make progressions so interesting thanks.

[joriszsz]

Intersting video! Especially the part from 10:30.

[niconico]

You can also mix it up: D7 Dm7 G7 CMaj7. Or if you're super lazy (I mean fancy): Dm7 Db7 CMaj7. Db7 works, because it also has that B and F tritone of the G7 in it, making it a V in disguise.

[jamestone]

Great explanation Sean.Really enjoyed this.

[EstebanTalero]

Sean, thanks for your reply on my first comment. Saw some really old *John Mehegan* (yeah, "Nashville #'s" is just for church and doesn't really do justice to the art of assigning numbers to chord functions) *writings* and the most logical conclusion seems to be that even though lowercase Roman numerals do indicate a minor chord, *you still write the letter "m".* So, in the key of C, Dm7 would be iim7 and II7 would be D7.
If there's any jazzist reading this, he'll think this is stupid lol.



(BTW: I will back out of Jazz for a while and learn some of the other great stuff in your channel for now...)

[voronOsphere]

Thanks, Sean! I asked and you answered!

[alfredturner]

Interesting it's like a jazz for starter players 😁 I have been playing a few things starting on the 2 lately and this video was helpful with the idea of 2 5 1 on single chord oh yes I was not way off mark when I fell upon the idea about Christmas time
Thank you

[robertshapley]

I’m here because there is a 2-5-1 progression in the song We are the Champions at “-face and I’ve come through” and I wanna know how to use more jazz progressions in rock songs

[benjaminkiggundu]

great vid once again realised a bunch of things

[darrylem]

Rule of thumb. Everytime I encounter a new technique/subject, usually the person explaining the subject blows me away w all these intricate terms and jargons! 😮 Whenever this happens I search up the same topic by Sean Daniel, who explains the same thing w sooo much simplicity. Like u just threw in a 2m7 to a v9 to a 1maj7. No big deal eh?! Thanks for the down to earth method sean...
Guys when ur teaching stuff the simpler the better!

[jeanenviedapprendre]

An important part of the V I resolution is the tritone between the major 3 and the 7th. Even without context that interval wants to move.