We're back to our series on 5-string chords. We remind you since we're focusing on the 3-note voicings in the lower three strings, these still work great for the mandola, tenor banjo or CGDA tenor guitar tuning. We gave you a PDF of chord pairs, the 'ii7b5 V7' combination for minor keys, and last time around we want extended into a full cadence, the 'ii7b5 V7 I' progression.

The minor keys were a little more of a challenge for many, that awkward ii7b5 chord a bit foreign to the folk ear. This time we'll finish the series with a plain major progression, the 'ii7 V7 I,' perhaps the most important harmonic "sentence" in western European music, let alone jazz.

We'll give these to you in four different grips, your chore is to transpose these to all 12 keys. Simple to expand out, drop down a fret or two, move up a fret or two, and you instantly have 1/3 of the keys covered.

Here's the first:

Again, move this down two frets, you have the blocks for Bb (Cm7 F7 BbMaj7), up two frets for D (Em7 A7 DMaj7). Frets in between give you the less chromatically friendly B and Db Major.

Next:

Down two frets for Eb (Fm7 Bb7 EbMaj7), up two for G (Am7 D7 GMaj7).

Mix up the next two similarly for further variations and you've pretty thoroughly covered all possibilities:

Here's a handy PDF for your library to download:
Print PDF: 5-string Mandolin Chord Major 'ii7 V7 I'

Be sure to go back an review the minor variations and the accompanying free PDFs of these from our archive! Download the chord template and start documenting a library of your own.

Free 5-string chord template PDF
5-string Mandolin Chord Sets: Minor 'ii7b5 V7 i"
5-string chord pairs: 'm7b5 V7'