Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out – Dominant Seventh Chords Progression
Jazz players like to play over dominant seven chords. Now, there’s only one seventh chord in a key, the V (5) chord. But, who says you can’t change keys and play over the V7 chord each time? Well, which keys go good together? What if you take the intervals from the major scale and play each of them as a dominant seven chord? The key of C would become:
C7 D7 E7 F7 G7 A7 B7
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
So this chord sequence is actually a series of key changes. Each seventh chord is a V chord from a different key. But we used the C major scale structure as a guide to determine which keys to combine. If you want to solo over these chords, you’ll have to switch the parent major scale for every chord. Yikes, that’s a lot to keep track of! But jazz players love it.
Progressions in this new sequence are the same as the diatonic scale but now everything is a 7th chord. For example:
I IV V
I7 IV7 V7 (Most blues songs are based on this.)
I vi ii V
I7 VI7 II7 V7 (A foundational jazz progression.)
You can hop around however you want. You can even switch back and forth between 7th chords and the diatonic chords (I ii ii, etc.).
The F#diminished chord is basically an F7 chord with the root raised. This chromatic passing tone bridges the gap between the F7′s root and the C7‘s fifth (hence the C7/G).
This song is based on an advanced concept that stems from guitar chord progressions and playing by numbers. Just be sure to master the basic concepts before venturing into advanced areas like this. Guitar theory is a process, after all.
