This example brings us back to a more traditional interpretation of our sequence, one that relies heavily on the percussive character of the piano. Here we have an arpeggio whose center of gravity is the sixth of the tonic (in this case D, marked by X), which is played six times. In the II chord, Gmn7, it is the fifth; and in the dominant, C7, iis the ninth, making it in effect a C9. In many ways, this reminds us of those fantastic riffs improvised by saxophone sections of the big band era, particularly in songs using the blues form backing up a swinging solo, In fact, this almost obsessive repetitiousness is often used behind percussion solos. As in Brazilian music, traditional Afro-Cuban guitar playing has the tendency to avoid big jumps in the position of the hand, thereby keeping the notes as close as possible from one chord to the next. This, on top of the need to accentuate the percussive nature of the music, has led to the kind of pattern described above, where one specific note keeps being repeated almost obsessively. Oddly enough, what gives this music, and many others like it, its energy and drive is this kind of trance-like monotony, a repetitiousness that, paraphrasing Dizzy Gillespie, makes “swing” possible. Minor keys ‘There are no major differences when it comes to II-V-1 in minor keys, except for a slightly different harmonic rhythm. After the tonic, the possibility exists of adding an extra IV chord, instead of staying on the tonic for two bars or adding a turnaround to go back to the I. If not the arranger, it is the bass player who could decide to stay in F minor in the fourth bar of this next example. In such a case, the D of the third bar simply becomes the thirteenth (add6) of F minor instead of the third of BP7. -v-1 @ Minor Rt mtb: Gis 25