Exercises

Here are some exercises that can be performed with iRealPro backings.

You can open the PDF links as often as you like. They will introduce you to the respective exercise. However, you only need to load the backing HTML files into your iRealPro app once and then launch them repeatedly from the iRealPro app. You can increase the tempo slightly each time. The names of the iRealPro exercises are always indicated in the PDF.

The iRealPro exercises marked (short) only cover half of the circle of fifths. To practice all keys, you must also transpose these exercises from C to Db and then practice everything a semitone higher. 🙂

The first five exercises (Package 1: major II-V-I patterns from the root note) allow you to create a longer phrase using a major II-V-I connection. Exercises 1.4 and 1.5 implement the major 2nd-V-I connection once in a whole bar and once with half-bar chord changes. The selected pattern begins on the root note of the 2nd degree.

The next three exercises (Package 2: Simple Blues Patterns) provide an initial feel for the blues by repeating a one-bar pattern (phrase) across all three levels of the blues (I, IV, V). We already know the first pattern from Exercise Pack 1. The three patterns are each performed over three different blues forms (simple, quick change, and bebop variation). In the bebop variation, the one-bar patterns don’t fit exactly over the full- and half-bar II-V-I connections starting at bar 9 of the blues, and therefore the last four bars are written out for the bebop variation of the blues. The iRealPro backings for the three blues forms should be practiced in all possible (and impossible) keys (transpose iRealPro backings!).

The next exercises include half-bar major 2nd-V-I patterns starting from different intervals of the 2nd-m7 chord (Package 3).

The next four exercises are whole- and half-bar patterns over minor 2nd-V-I progressions (Package 4). The whole-bar patterns always resolve to Im69, while the half-bar patterns resolve to both Im69 and Im7. The patterns begin on different degrees of 2nd-m7b5. The dominant can be realized as V7b9 or V7b9b13. In particular, the b5 of degree II (equal to the b9 of degree V) is an important identifying feature of a minor 2nd-V-I progression. The four patterns each begin on different intervals (1, b3, b5, 7) of degree II (i.e., the IIm7b5 chord): (Note: the interval b7 can always be written simply as 7; this can also apply to b3 in minor; however, we always refer to the 3 as the major third here)

  • Exercise 4.1: Pattern starting on II7 (full bar): pdf backing1
  • Exercise 4.2: Pattern1 starting on II1 (half bar): pdf backing1
  • Exercise 4.2: Pattern2 starting on II1 (half bar): pdf backing1
  • Exercise 4.3: Pattern starting on IIb3 (half bar): pdf backing1
  • Exercise 4.4: Pattern starting on IIb5 (half bar): pdf backing1

Happy practicing; Viel Spass! 🙂

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