Some Good Drop 2 Voicings for Minor II-V-I's

Edward Nakayama

Here are some useful voicings for minor II-V-I's in the key of A. They are mostly based on the substitution technique in Bret's book -
these are voicings that have found their way into my playing because I find them very useful. I hope you will too. I have harmonized
every chord tone and extension for each of the three chords here and arranged them in ascending order. A useful way to practice this
would be to play 2 or 3 or 4 of the voicings on one system and then jump down to the next and do the same thing, but try to start
on a voicing that connects to the previous one played. And then jump down to the next.


B-7b5
     
 
            

 
 
   
 

 
   
  
    
5 5 7 7 9 9


3 5 6 6 6 8 5 3 6 6 10 6
2 2 4 4 6 6 4 6 9 6 10 7
3 3 7 7 7 7 3 3 7 7 9 7
2 2 4 5 5 8

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

The numbers below the staves move higher as the chords move higher. The ' and '' marks simply denote the groups of chords
according to function (II-7, V7, or I-7). Try to come up with exercises and use the numbers to write them down.

Ex. 1, 2, 3, 4', 5', 7 ', 8'', 9'', 10'' or 10, 9, 8', 7 ', 7 '', 6'' Use your ears to decide which voicings sound good together.



        
E7alt
      
12
        
      

 


             
 
4 4 4 6 6 7 7 8 8 8 10


3 5 5 6 8 9 1 3 5 5 5 6 8 9 5 8 8
1 3 5 5 5 5 3 4 4 5 7 7 7 9 7 7 9
3 6 6 6 6 8 2 3 3 6 6 6 6 8 6 6 6
3 3 5 5 5 7

1' 2' 3' 4' 5' 6' 7' 8' 9' 10'

These A-7 voicings all generally work well for Cmaj7 too.



A-7
     
    
22
   
  
     
 




     
     
   
5 7 8 8 8 10 12


3 3 5 5 7 8 8 8 5 5 8 5 8 8 12
0 4 4 5 7 7 5 7 5 5 7 7 9 9 12
2 2 5 5 10 7 9 10 5 5 7 5 7 10 10
0 3 3 5 7 7 7 7

1'' 2'' 3'' 4'' 5'' 6'' 7'' 8'' 9'' 10'' 11''

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