Poseur to Composer

Thinking aloud here...

I'm trying to apply the 2-5-1 chord progression to the Cm Pentatonic Blues scale (the notes are the exact same as Peter shows in his informative video How to Play Jazz With One Easy Scale). I want to use the 2-5-1 chords for left hand comping instead of the chords Peter Martin uses. As I said yesterday, the chords Peter makes with his left hand are too much of a stretch for my hands.

The notes of the Cm Pentatonic Blues scale are C (root), Eb (minor third), F (fourth), F# (flattened fifth), G (fifth), Bb (dominant seventh) and C (root). Peter says to add in a major 3rd. That would be E. So the revised “secret version” is C, Eb, E, F, F#, G, Bb and C.

Back to the 2-5-1 chord progression. The 2 of the 2-5-1 is the second note of the secret version (and the first chord of the chord progression – a Minor Seventh chord). In this case it's Fb or E because Fb and E are the same. With that second note I'm to make a Minor Seventh chord. The formula for the a Minor Seventh chord is 1 (root) – b3 – 5 – b7.

The first chord of the 2-5-1 chord progression is Eb, E, G, Cb. Amirite?

The 5 of 2-5-1 is the fifth note of the secret version Pentatonic Blues scale in Cm: F#. This chord is a Dominant Seventh and the formula is 1- 3 – 5 – b7. So the second chord of the 2-5-1 chord progression is F#, Bb, Eb, Fb.

The 1 in the 2-5-1 is, you guessed it, the first note of the scale: C. We make a Major Seventh chord out of that C, so the third chord is C, E, F#, Bb.

That's all I have time to figure out today. Hope it's not just psychobabble and I've lost my marbles like John Nash of A Beautiful Mind.

Meditation Time bookstanding today: 0 minutes... yes, again Quality of meditation (out of 10): 0

Practice Minutes on the keyboard today (out of 40): 10 minutes Quality of practice (out of 10): 3... Totally consumed by this 2-5-1 thing

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