Exploring Turnaround Endings in 12-Bar Progressions

Hello! Hopefully, you've familiarized yourself with the 12 bars' worth of cool chords I showed you in the previous lesson. What I want to do, just to finish off this round, is look at ways you can play the last two bars of this turnaround. Essentially, it's nice to know varying ways of finishing off a 12-bar progression. So, we're going to have a look at that.

Recap of Initial Chords

Our initial 12-bar progression was using the following chords:

• A7
• C9
• B minor 11
• B flat 7 flat 5

Additional Turnaround Variations

We are going to explore four more ways of treating the last two bars.

Variation 1: 13th Chords

1. A13 chord
2. F sharp 13 chord
3. B13 chord (a leap up)
4. B flat 13 chord

This creates a nice and easy ending using all 13th chords, allowing you to move your hand down easily.

Next Option: Instead of going down to the F sharp 13 that we did last time, go up to the C13. This gives you another option for your turnaround. Mysterious, right?

Variation 2: Quick Changes

1. A7
2. F sharp 7
3. F9 (with a C in the bass)
4. Quick change from E7 sharp 9 flat 13 to B flat 13 chord.

Note: The only difference in this chord sequence is the root note. It starts on E, then shifts to B flat, with all the same notes involved.

You'll start with:

• A7
• F sharp 7
• F9
• Back to a 13

I'll do that one more time for you.

Variation 3: Chromatic Movement

This time, for our second variation, we'll:

• Go down to the F sharp
• Come back up chromatically to A

What we've done so far has always been quite slow.

Speed it Up!: You can obviously do this at a swing pace, playing through these variations a little faster.

Variation 4: Utilizing Bass Notes

You can also explore playing these variations at speed, which sounds quite good when you use the bass note.

Summary of Approach

The best way to approach these variations is to:

• Learn the 12-bar progression with the chords.
• Practice adding those different endings each time you play through it.

This will help you become comfortable with having some variations in your coda.