Related ii chord: a ii(7) chord that occurs before a secondary dominant and is in the key being tonicized. The inclusion of this chord creates a (ii-V)/x progression.
The bebop jazz standard Confirmation, written by jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker in 1945, contains many examples of related ii chords.
Confirmation (1945) – Charlie Parker
A chords only version of the piece Confirmation is presented in the example below. Listen to the piece and follow along with the chords.
Confirmation – mm. 25-end
Our analysis will concentrate on mm. 25 to the end of the piece – the final A section of the AABA form. These measures are isolated below.
Only a few of these chords are actually diatonic in the key of the piece (F major). These chords are analyzed below. The non-diatonic chords are indicated in the purple boxes.
If we look at the chords in the purple boxes, we notice that each pair of chords can be analyzed as a ii7-V7 or iiø7-V7 chords in some key.
The excerpt is analyzed fully below. The ii-V progressions are in parentheses
It is important to consider the keys that these ii7-V7 progressions are suggesting.
The following example has indicators of what keys the ii-V progression are in. If the key is in the piece, the arrow points to that chord. If the chord/key is not overtly in the piece but is only implied by the ii-V progression, the chord is noted in parentheses after the arrow.
Taking the implied keys/chords into consideration, the following example shows the true harmonic progression of the piece in the circles.
This true progression is shown clearly in the chord reduction below. Note that the progression uses a fairly normal functional progression. I-vi-IV is a down a third root progression and a T-T-PD progression. IV then moves to bVII, a backdoor progression, and a PD-D. The final three chords are a normal ii7-V7-I progression.
Summary
A Related ii chord is a ii(7) chord that occurs before a secondary dominant and is in the key being tonicized. The inclusion of this chord creates a (ii-V)/x progression.
Related ii chords act as a extension of a secondary dominant chord.
It is important to find the related ii-V progressions in a piece. It is also important to look at the underlying progression to understand the background progression.
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