I think most standard jazz chords were the product of some drug-addicted improving musician from the mid-forties playing in New York clubs at 2am, but that's just my glib opinion.
"ii-V7-I" is a chord progression that jazz players use almost all the time--in the shower, on their Cheeri-O's, driving to work, you name it. Seriously though, if you number the eight notes of a scale, at least those that have eight notes, and then make chords by adding a third and fifth to those root notes, you get the chords of that scale, numbered 1 to 8--e.g. C=1 and the C chord=1,3,5, or C, E, G, D=2 and the D chord=2,4,6, or D, F, A, E=3, etc.
Furthermore, some of those chords will be major, others minor, based on the way that the half-notes and whole-notes stack up in the scale: the chords with major thirds in them get a capital Roman numeral, e.g. I and V7 in the example above, and minor chords get lower case numberals, such as ii above.
Consequently, you get a major scale of chords looking like this: I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, vii, VIII. The sevenths (as well as 9ths, 11ths, etc.) can be added to all of these, so you get V7, ii7, Imaj7, etc.
Somebody stop me before I kill the whole website with boredom!
-g
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If you find yourself lacking finesse, a big rock will usually make a sufficient substitute.
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