Every substitution I know for the ii-V-I 🎹

Reader,

Have you ever heard of the Pareto Principle? It suggests that 80% of results come from 20% of efforts. As jazz pianists, this prompts an interesting question: What 20% of our practice has the most impact on our playing?

After reflection, I’ve narrowed it down to two areas:

1. Rhythmic vocabulary: Rhythm is the heart of everything we play. It was called Rhythm & Blues for a reason. Every tune we play swings harder when our rhythm is solid.
2. ii-V-I mastery: Nearly every standard we play is full of both major and minor ii-V-Is. If I could learn more things to play over them, I’d automatically have more to play over every tune.

Exploring the ii-V-I, I challenged myself to list every substitution I knew. I came up with 24 concepts including secondary dominants, tritone substitutions, modal modulation, backdoors, Barry Harris movements and more.

I’ve been woodshedding these ideas in my playing this week and found new sounds that I love. So, I made a video breaking them all down in detail to share with you.

After watching, I’d appreciate it if you liked it and left a comment. I’m proud of this video, but sometimes the YouTube algorithm gets confused and holds videos back. A little boost from you could make a big difference.

Quick Updates

1. I’m now teaching at Open Studio as well. Join my Saturday morning jazz piano workshop if you’re a OS Pro member.
2. I’ve just completed shooting a brand new course on Jazz Piano Comping. It was a huge effort, with over 27 video lessons, play-along practice sessions, and a workbook. If you are already an All Access Pass member, you’ll get early access to that course in just a few days and it will be available to the public later this month.

Keep swinging!

Josh
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PS. Have you joined the Jazz Lounge community yet?