Turnaround (music)

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In jazz, a turnaround is a passage at the end of a section which leads to the next section. This next section is most often the repetition of the previous section or the entire piece or song. The turnaround may lead back to this section either harmonically, as a chord progression, or melodically. Turnarounds are based off of the Plagal Cadence in which a musical phrase ends in a dominant chord, usually a Major Fifth.(Randel 2002, p.693)

Typical turnarounds are:

• vi - ii - V - (I)
• V/ii - ii - V - (I)
• bIII^o7 - ii - V - (I)
• vi - bVI^7#11 - V - (I)

When used in a twelve bar blues pattern, the twelfth bar may end on the dominant (ibid) rather than the more conventional tonic.

[edit] References

• Randel, Don Michael (2002). The Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians. ISBN 0-674-00978-9.