The ‘B form’ voicing of the major ii-V-I prominently features the 9th degree of the minor 7th chord which functions as the ii. I find it a useful exercise to apply this voicing to tunes which both use major ii-V-I progressions repeatedly and feature the 9th of the minor 7th chord prominently in the melody, such as David Raksin’s ‘Laura’, Ray Noble’s ‘Cherokee’ and Sonny Rollins’ ‘Pent Up House’. The Sonny Rollins pattern shown here in step 5 is only one of many possible examples of melodic patterns that can be associated with and practiced with the ‘B form’ voicing of the major ii-V-I; another possible pattern is mentioned at the bottom of the sheet. (For those interested in practicing ii-V-I patterns contrapuntally, either with two hands or two players, the melodic pattern in step 5 of this sheet can be contrapuntally combined with the Clifford Brown melodic pattern in the post on ‘A form’ voicing of the major ii-V-I progression.)
