About Two Five One

What this is

Two Five One turns a chord chart into practice sheets: the changes, and one staff per chord with its scale or its arpeggio, written for your instrument. Pick a tune from the library or type your own changes, choose your instrument, and print.

It's built for practicing improvisation. Spell every scale from the same note to see exactly where the harmony moves. Put guide tone lines, from the 3rd and from the 7th, over the changes and follow them through a tune, or run a 7th chord arpeggio through every change. Play each chord's arpeggio on its own staff, from its four chord tones up through the 9th, 11th and 13th. Or pick a few notes from each scale and improvise with just those.

Thanks to Jazz Lab

This site started with a video from Jazz Lab Music. If you're learning jazz, their YouTube channel is a great place to spend time.

Jazz Lab Music, on YouTube. Two Five One is a thank-you, not affiliated with Jazz Lab.

Who made it

I'm Kevin Stevens, an engineer with a vibraphone habit. I built Two Five One for my own practice, and I hope it helps yours. Questions, ideas, or a tune you'd like in the library? Get in touch.

Support the site

Two Five One is free, with no ads and no accounts, and I'd like to keep it that way. If it's helped your practice and you'd like to chip in toward hosting (and the occasional new pair of mallets), a one-off coffee or a monthly bit on Patreon both help. Thank you, it means a lot.

Buy me a coffee on Ko-fiBecome a patron on Patreon

Credits

Two Five One is built with open-source software, with thanks to its authors.

  • VexFlow, music notation (MIT)
  • Bravura, the music font, by Steinberg (SIL Open Font License)
  • Petaluma and Petaluma Script, the Real Book notation’s handwritten music and text fonts, by Steinberg (SIL Open Font License)
  • Jost, the heading font, by indestructible type* (SIL Open Font License)
  • Headroom Piano, the piano you hear, a Yamaha C3 sampled by Bengt Nilsson; trimmed, mixed and resampled for this site (CC BY 4.0)
  • University of Iowa Musical Instrument Samples, the vibes, played by Andrew Thierauf and recorded by the University of Iowa Electronic Music Studios; trimmed and resampled for this site (freely available for any project)
  • VSCO 2 Community Edition, the click’s Stick, from Versilian Studios (CC0)
  • D. Smolken’s double bass, the bass you hear: a 1958 Otto Rubner, played and sampled by D. Smolken (CC0)
  • VCSL, the drum kit’s ride, hi-hat, cross-stick and kick, from Versilian Studios (CC0)
  • MeanRaccoon’s pandeiro, the Choro’s pandeiro, from “pandeiro A collection” on Freesound (CC0)
  • Vue, the interface framework (MIT)
  • Nuxt, the site framework (MIT)
  • Headless UI, accessible components, by Tailwind Labs (MIT)
  • Heroicons, icons, by Tailwind Labs (MIT)
  • Tailwind CSS, styling (MIT)
  • Catalyst, the interface kit, by Tailwind Labs (used under the Tailwind Plus license)

Chord charts list chord changes only, with no melodies or lyrics. Quotes are attributed to the people who said them. Song titles and names belong to their owners.