Turnarounds & Circular Progressions
A turnaround is a short progression whose last chords create motion that pulls the music back to the beginning — it "turns the progression around" to start over. The trick behind a huge number of hit songs: very often the ENTIRE song is one short turnaround looping forever. It all runs on one idea — the V chord wants to go home to I, and putting the ii in front of it (the ii–V) is the most common wind-up in all of Western music.
Concepts
The whole engine: the V chord leans hard toward I, and ii → V → I moves by descending fifths — most turnarounds are just short fragments of the circle of fifths.
Deceptive resolution: when a V lands somewhere other than the expected I (Mr. Jones landing back on vi), the loop keeps spinning instead of resting.
Secondary dominants: in a I–VI–ii–V turnaround the VI is usually a dominant 7 (a "V of ii"), borrowing pull from outside the key.
The Dorian sound: a minor home chord with a MAJOR IV (All for You’s Am–D) — a friendly gateway into modes.
Decorate with color: turnarounds shine with the add9 and sus voicings from Level 9 (Run-Around’s Cadd9 shimmer).
Graduation
Play Run-Around’s I–IV–ii–V in G, then move the starting point to get Mr. Jones’ vi–IV–ii–V in C — same chords, different home. Then play one loop two ways: resolving to I, and refusing to.