Latin Jazz Chord Notation

We will be sometimes using this type of notation:

II – V – I

The Roman numerals refer to the degree of the scale the chord sits in. We use numbers so that we can interchange between keys. To follow this notation you need to know the chord in the scale we are in. Lets take a brief look at how we derive the chords in the majorkeys.

The major key chords are derived for creating chords built on each scale degree. So starting on C we can derive C maj 7 by building 3rds over C: C E G B

We can do this on all scale degrees and we get the following chords:

So we have the following chord degrees: