The 2-5-1 Chord Progression | A Beginners Guide (2024)

Unless you’re a complete novice to popular music theory, you’ve probably heard of the 2-5-1 chord progression. But even if you’re not, I’m going to give you a simple formula to study this common chord pattern in popular music.

The 2-5-1 chord progression is very indicative of jazz music. It’s not only jazz but also in gospel where you’ll find these changes.

A 2-5-1 is in reference to the number system. Without it, it would be meaningless. If you’re familiar with the number system, you know that each tone in a key of music has a corresponding number.

Key of C Major Number Sequence

Each tone also has a corresponding chord. This is referred to as diatonic harmony. These are just chords that exist in the key. Diatonic chords don’t contain any notes that aren’t in the key.

Diatonic Harmony in the Key of C

Notice the 1st, 2nd and 5th tones. This is what the 2-5-1 chord progression is referring to. Of course, they’re in the order of the progression.

2 Chord

5 Chord

1 Chord

Notice that the 2 chord is minor. The 5 chord is Major and the 1 chord is Major. I also want to point out that roman numerals are used to denote these (as well any chords) in a progression. Upper case roman numerals represent Major chords while lower case roman numerals represent minor chords.

ii=2 chord

V=5 chord

I=1 chord

A 2-5-1 progression doesn’t only have to be in the key of C Major. I can be in any key.

Diatonic Harmony in the Key of F

The 1st, 2nd and 5th tones are in a different order in the key of F Major. Again they’re in the order 2, 5, 1.

ii Chord

V Chord

I Chord

Take the time to learn diatonic harmony in all 12 Major keys. This will take your chord vocabulary to a new level and open up your harmonic possibilities.

ii-V-I in C Major

These are the basic chord voicings and they sound that way. So let’s look at opening up the chord voicing and adding some seventh tones to make these chords sound more jazzy.

First of all, we can move the root (the bottom note of the chord) down an octave. This spreads out the chord and creates an open voicing.Next, we’ll add the flatted 7th tone. Without getting into too much theory, we’ll just define the flattered 7th tone as being a whole step below the root. But we’ll play it an octave higher.

The ii chord D minor 7

We’ll also move the root down with the V chord. And we’ll add the flatted 7th but keep in proximity to the root before we moved it down an octave.

The V chord G7

In keeping with the same voicing, we’ll move the root an octave down in the I chord. We’ll add the Major 7. The Major 7th tone is a half step below the root. We’ll sort of flip the I chord around and play the 5th, Major 7th and 3rd on top in that order.

The I chord CM7

Altogether the ii-V-I progression looks like this.

ii-V-I Progression in C Major

ii D minor 7

V G7

I CM7

If we add extended chords beyond the 7ths, we can even have an even jazzier sound with our ii-V-I.

We’ll re-voice the I chord just by adding the 9th tone. The easiest way to define the 9th is to just find the tone that’s a whole step above the root. With this D minor chord it’s E. We'll omit the 5th to open up the voicing more.

The ii chord D minor 9

We’ll add the 13th tone to the V chord. The easiest way to define the 13th is to just find the tone that’s a whole step above the 5th. The rest of the chord tones are underneath it as shown.

The V chord G13

On the I chord, we’ll add jazzy sounding voicing that often is used to resolve a I chord. It’s a 6/9 chord. It’s simply a Major chord with a 9th tone as you saw earlier and it has a 6th tone. You’ve already seen a 6th and probably without knowing it. The 6th and 13th are the same exact tone but have different names in a different context. We won’t worry about covering it here.

The I chord CM7

One notable distinction about the ii-V-I chord is that it’s really a substituted IV-V-I chord. The ii is a substitute for the IV chord. If you’re familiar with primary chords, you know that the I-IV-V chords are the primary (or most used chords) in every Major key.

When the IV chord is substituted for the ii chord, it adds another type of chord to what would simply be three Major chords. But instead, you have a minor 7th chord, a dominant 7th chord and a Major 7th chord. This makes a very big stylistic difference of the chord changes.

This is what gives jazz music its distinct sound. Learn this progression and then transpose it to other keys. Revoice the chords and play altered tones with them to give them a even more interesting sound.

Until next time, Go Play!