Home News Uke Chords Lessons Series Songs Books Pricing About Help
Sign In

Published:
2013-09-10
Updated:
2026-04-09

Learning Ukulele with Curt

Backdoor Chord Progressions

In jazz and jazz harmony, the chord progression from IV7 to bVII7 to I has been nicknamed the backdoor progression or the backdoor II-V. This name derives from an assumption that the normal progression to the tonic, the II-V-I turnaround (II-V7 to I, see also authentic cadence) is, by inference, the front door. It can be considered a minor plagal cadence in traditional theory.

Author(s): Curt Sheller Publisher: Curt Sheller Publications Code: UL59b

Main Category: Chords Main Instrument: Any

Subjects: Chords

2026-04-09

Show Series Lessons
Series Home
Remembering Songs Simple Progressions Three Chord Progressions The Pop Progression Pachebell’s Canon The Fifties Progression The Andalusian Chord Progression Mixolydian Progression The Blues Progression Backdoor Chord Progressions

Backdoor Chord Progressions

In jazz and jazz harmony, the chord progression from IV7 to bVII7 to I has been nicknamed the backdoor progression or the backdoor II-V. This name derives from an assumption that the normal progression to the tonic, the II-V-I turnaround (II-V7 to I, see also authentic cadence) is, by inference, the front door. It can be considered a minor plagal cadence in traditional theory.

Backdoor also refers to the unexpected modulation created through the substitution of the highly similar IMA9 for IImi7 (in C: EGBD and CEGBD) at the end of the II-V turnaround to III ( II/III=IV, V/III=bVII, III ), thus arriving at home (the tonic chord) through unexpected means, the back door instead of the front door ( IIIm7, EGBD, being entirely contained within Imaj9, CEGBD, and the seventh still resolving downward). If the II-V-I turnaround is an applied dominant, then the backdoor progression may be termed an applied subdominant.

The backdoor II-V is considered a 'bluesy cadence and IV bVII I is used repeatedly as a chord substitution, along with tritone substitution, in Lazy Bird, John Coltrane's arrangement of Tadd Dameron's Lady Bird.

The backdoor II-V is considered a 'bluesy cadence and IV-bVII-I is used repeatedly as a chord substitution, along with the tritone substitution, in Lazy Bird, John Coltrane's arrangement of Tadd Dameron's *Lady Bird*.

The Backdoor Progression can be found in popular jazz standards in such places as measures 7 and 8 of the A section of Cherokee, measures 9 and 11 of My Romance or measures 10 and 28 of There Will Never Be Another You, as well as Beatles songs like In My Life and If I Fell.

Songs

  • Bluesette
  • Cherokee
  • If I Fell
  • In My Life
  • Lady Bird
  • My Romance
  • There'll Never Be Another You