'The Flat 2 Reharmonization' (Video Lesson)

Lesson Transcript

So in today's video we're going to do a reharmonization special.

Reharmonization's when you take an original jazz song and you change the chords. So this is gonna be a really good lesson if you're into reharmonization. We're gonna get straight in. Enjoy the video.

Okay, so let's take a look at a really nice reharmonization which I like to use a lot in my compositions, particularly at endings. Now, I'm going to call this the flat two reharm. You'll see why in a minute. And we can apply this to any major two-five-one.

So let's take a major two-five-one in C major. I have D minor 7, G dominant 7, and C major 7. Now instead of play C major 7 one chord, we're gonna transpose this chord up a half step to D flat major 7.

Let's hear how this sounds now. It's very nice. It's almost right. We're just a half step off. It's basically building off the flat 2 of the scale, so C major scale, find the flat 2, so you go up a half step, and then build a major 7 chord. And what I often do is, after playing, is reharmonize the chord. Then I often resolve back to the original one chord, which the ear is expecting. And another detail with this is that I consistently tend to use the same voicing, which is root, fifth, major third, major 7th. It's a nice open voicing, and then if I do resolve to the one chord afterwards, then I'll use the same voicing. So I'll transpose down a half step. So here's how it sounds in action.

Now you can apply this reharm to any jazz song. You just have to find a major two-five-one. There's no shortage of major two-five-ones in jazz. So let's take Misty as an example. So Misty ends with a major two-five-one in the home key, which is E flat major. So which chord am I going to play instead?

Instead of E flat major 7, I'm gonna go up a half step and play E major 7. I use my voicing, my open voicing. Let's see how this would sound. Nice.

Then I can resolve to the original. Let's try another song. Let's apply this to Cry Me A River. Cry Me A River ends with a two-five-one in the same key, E flat major. Here's the two-five-one, F minor 7. B flat dominant 7. Ends on a E flat major 7 chord. Which chord am I going to play instead, though?

That's right, up a half step is gonna be E major 7. Nice. Then we can do the same resolution. To E flat major 7.

Now, if you want more exotic jazz piano sounds, well, I've put together a free piece of sheet music which goes into even more exotic jazz piano sounds. You can download that for free at the link below. And apart from that, I'm gonna hand-pick the next jazz tutorial video here so you can continue learning more jazz piano sounds that you can walk away with and use at the piano today. My name's Julian Bradley, thank you for watching, and I'll see you in the next video.

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About the Author

Julian Bradley is a jazz pianist and music educator from the U.K. He has a masters degree in music from Bristol University, and has played with and composed for a variety of big bands.
Julian runs the popular Jazz Tutorial YouTube channel and writes educational jazz lessons at JazzTutorial.com