Help with chord progression

[camircase]

Hi, folks. I have this chord progression which goes like:

Amaj7 | Dmaj7 | C#m7 | C#m7b5 F#7 | Bm7 | Bm7b5 E7 | Amaj7

The problem is that i don't know exactly what to play in bm7b5 because, according to the main scale of the song, that chord was supposed to substitute IIm7... Can you help me with this? Thanks in advance ^^

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

You need to play over the chords, not over the song's key (main scale) because most jazz tunes modulate from that main key.

The previous 2-5-1 is the typical use of m7b5 because the 1 is a minor chord:

C#m7b5 F#7 Bm7

Often the 5 chord is altered with your choice of b5, #5, b9, #9 to make it sound more minor-ish:

C#m7b5 F#7#5b9 Bm7

The progression you gave has more basic chords in it, so that's why we're not seeing altered chords written in.

Anyhowdy, the final 2-5-1:

Bm7b5 E7 Amaj7

I view the Amaj7 as a _surprise_ because we are expecting the 2-5 to go to a A minor. Here are some scales that work over the 2-5 chords:

Bm7b5 : B locrian (C major), A harmonic minor.
E7: E mixo (A major), A harmonic minor, F jazz minor (E alt scale)

The easiest thing to do is go from A harmonic minor over Bm7b5 & E7 to A major over Amaj7.

[RunningBeagle]

Two things. I disagree that b5 on a dominant chord makes it sound more minor-ish. b9, #9, b13 yes, but b5/#11 no.

Second, the surprise is not the Amaj resolution. The entire first half of the tune is in Amaj and despite the minor II V you're still expecting it to resolve to major. Just play the progression and resolve it to A minor. It sounds wrong. In fact you can play A B C# D E F G# (harmonic major) over that part and it will sound great. Just lay off the A. If you change the G# to a G, you have D melodic minor, which also sounds great over the B-7b5. I would stick a G# in there for the E7 (and again would artfully handle the A on the V chord)

But yes, you're not going to play a single scale over the entire progression and sound convincing. You need to learn to play over those chords. I would start with chord tones and then fill in the blanks with the diatonic pitches of A major. Use your ears.

[chrisg]

A Major7 (A Major) D Maj7 (D Lydian) C# min 7 (C#dorian) C#min7b5 (C# Aeoleon b5) F#7 (F# super locrean or half whole diminished) Bmin7 (B aeoleon) Bmin7b5 (B aeoleon b5) E7 (E super locrean) A Maj7 (A Major)

That is probably what I would play over it but there are many options. Also practice playing the arpeggios and guide tones over it.

[Reg]

To keep it simple; Amaj.
Imaj7 / IVmaj7/ III-7 / VI-7 / II-7 / V7 / Imaj7,( VI7 / II-7, V7 / )
[ that's where it's from, which is all diatonic to Amaj. The IV chord was probable a II-7 chord, same set of notes and function. When you start to re-harmonize, add subs, use modal interchange, add passing or approach chords, you start on weak beats of any strong -weak pattern. Your example took bar 4, ( weak beat) and inserted a II-V of III-( C#-7b5 - F#7 / B-7 ) Did same thing on bar 5, again weak beat, B-7b5-E7 / Amaj7 .
There are lots of options of choices of notes... but more important is to keep the strong weak pattern in your use of creating tension and release. Kind of a BS way of saying; Whatever you want to use as your tonic, could be as simple as Amaj, keep implied on bars 1,3 and 5. Use your dissonant solo ideas on bars 2,4 and 6, If you made it a 8 bar phrase, as I did above by adding I-VI-II-V, you would use bars 7 and 8 to finish or set up next time through. I would make both the F#7 and the E7 altered chords, usually
#9 versions from MM. And when I play through altered II-V's I play from for example; C#-7b5 to F#7#9, I would use notes from G Melodic Min., the F# or 7th degree altered scale and C or 4th degree Lydian b7 scale, same set of notes, different root. I'm spelling out the notes just for reference. When I play over Dom7th chords , I always hear both versions of the tri-tone. I have to take off for gig, I'll finish later...Reg

[RunningBeagle]

The 4th bar is a II V of II not III.

B harmonic minor there is your safest bet, but you need to convincingly voice lead the non-diatonic pitches back to the II- chord of A major, B-7.