In this guide, I’ll show you how to understand and write your own jazz-influenced chord progressions. The most frequently used progression in jazz composition is called the ii – V – I cadence. My last harmony article tackled Chromatic Chords, and I outlined how to use out-of-key chords to add some spice to your own writing, and in that tutorial, I mostly used roman numeral based chords to relate the chromatic chords to the root chord. In this article, I’ll look at chromatic chords that veer further away from the home chord, and journey through jazz-related harmonic territory. This type of cadence guided composition can sound refreshing in comparison to a lot of modern 4-chord pop songs.

“Someone wrote this song before

And I could tell you where it’s from

The 4736251 to put my mind at ease”

Homage (Mild High Club)

The V Chord

The V chord is an important building block in harmony; it creates a harmonic pull back to the root, or I chord. The 12-bar-blues progression used so often in blues and rock ’n’ roll relies on this V – I relationship to create tension at the end of every cycle. When the V chord is a dominant seventh chord (R 3 5 b7), the tension is even more pronounced.