Members thamiam Posted November 4, 2002 Members Share Posted November 4, 2002 Part One of what I hope will be a series, if there is enough interest. I will take a song, and dissect and analyze the chord progression from a theory standpoint, hopefully illuminating a few concepts along the way. I will mainly do songs from the Real Book, but if you have a request and can provide an image of the sheet music or a chord structure, I'd be happy to give it a whirl. I also hope that some of the more knowledgable folks will feel free to contribute. There is a lot more that I don't know than I do know, so corrections/additions are welcome. Without further ado, let's begin. There Will Never Be Another You by Harry Warren (Sometimes called "Another You") A GIF of the chart I'm working from is attached. First of all, let's determine what key we are in. The key signature shows 3 flats (Bb Eb Ab), so we are most likely in either Eb major or C minor. How do you tell? Well, most songs end on the Tonic (I), so let's look at the last bar. The last chord is an Eb. This is a great indicator that we are in Eb major, because not only does the song end there, but the chord has no extensions, so it is assumed that it is a major 7th. In major scale harmony, the tonic is a major 7th chord (or a 6/9 in older, Tin Pan Alley era songs). That still leaves the possibility that the song is in C minor, and ends strangely on the III. But look at the 2nd to last bar. The chords are F-7 and Bb7, which makes the last two bars a ii-V-I. 99 out of 100 times, that is going to happen. Very rarely will a song end on iv-VII-III, which is what the progression would be in C minor. So after all that work, we know the song is in Eb major. OK, now we know what key we are in, let's start analyzing the chords. Bar 1 - Ebmaj7. Well, that makes things easy. The song starts on the I.Same thing in the 2nd Bar, and all of the melody notes are from the Eb major scale. How pleasant. Bars 3/4/5/6 - Looking just at bar 3, D-7b5, the chord is the Locrian, or seventh degree of the Eb major scale. In fact, some people would write that chord as Db half-diminished, the Locrian scale. But there is a good reason why it isn't. Look ahead to bars 4 (G7b9) and 5 (C-7). That's a C minor ii-V-i! Just like a major ii-V-I is almost always minor 7th-dominant 7th-major 7th, the minor ii-V-i is almost always minor 7th flat 5-dominant 7th flat 9 (or 13)-minor 7th. So by just writing D-7b5 in bar 3, the transcriber tips off the player that a minor ii-V-i is in the works. And we have shifted tonalities to C minor instead of Eb major, which means bupkus since C minor is the relative minor of Eb major. Bars 7/8/9 - Again, we have ii-V-I. How convenient. This time we are resolving to Ab, the IV of Eb major. So the piece has temporarily modulated to Ab. Again, this doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot to our overall tonality or scale choices. The only difference between an Eb and Ab major scale is that the Ab major has a Db. But in the Ab major scale, the Db is the fourth degree, and it is customary to raise the fourth of a major scale anyways. Which gives us our Eb major scale again. Bars 10/11 - Ok, now we have something weird going on. The Real Book says F-7b5 Bb7 Ebmaj7. The F-7b5 indicates a minor ii-V-i, as noted above. But the Bb7 is not a b9 or 13, and it resolves to an Ebmaj7. In fact , it looks like a perfect ii-V-I back to the tonic, except for that b5. My guess, we have just encountered one of the many errors that makes the Real Book such a....challenge . 50-1 says this is a major ii-V-I with a typo. And voila, our temporary modulation is over and we are right back where we started. Bars 12/13/14 - Woohoo, another temporary modulation. This time we jump right from the Tonic to the relative minor of C-7. But there is something a little backdoor going on here. It looks to me like a 'sneaky' modulation. The C-7 is the 6th mode (relative minor) of Eb, but it is also the 2nd mode of Bbmaj7. And the F7 in the next bar is the dominant of Bbmaj7. That's the big tipoff that we have modulated, because if you see a dominant 7th chord, the first thing that comes to mind is a V chord. Notice how the key change is highlighted by the A natural in the melody on the fourth beat of bar 13. In Eb, that would be an Ab note, but in Bb major that is the very strong 7th. So we have a key modulation without ever going to the I of the new key (Bb), however this works nicely because the F7 goes straight to an F-7 in... Bars 15/16/17 - Just by changing one note (A natural in F7 to Ab in F-7) we have initiated the transition back to our Tonic via a ii-V-I. Pretty slick, eh? I'll take this monent to point out that the modulations in this piece all have either the same number of flats (C-) or one more or one less (Ab, Bb) than the key of the piece (Eb). There aren't any seismic shifts here, just little wiggles left or right. Bars 17 to 27 - Just repeating what was happening in bars 1-11. Bar 28 - Instead of going to the relative minor like we did in bar 12, we set up the conclusion of the piece by going to the iii (G-7). The iii has a greater degree of tension than the vi, which being the relative minor has a very Tonic-y sound. So something is gonna change. Bars 29/30 - Starting with the tonic, we then go into a very common sequence, almost as common as the ii-V-I. It's called the "Five of Five" (V of V) sequence, where dominant 7ths are played in a row, each one being the fifth of the one that follows. A really popular example of this is the bridge of "I Got Rhythm" and "Cherokee". Here we go from the I (Ebmaj7) to D7, which is the five of G. But instead of playing a V-I (where G would be a major 7), we go into G7, which is the five of C. If we were to continue this patternm we would go the the F7 next, but.... Bars 31/32 - ...instead we do the "change just one note" thing again (from bar 15) to F-7, which, voila!, starts the ii-V-I back to the tonic, and the end of the piece. It's important to point out the form of this piece, which is two 16 bar choruses, with the second one being only slightly different from the first. There is no bridge. Recommended recordings: Donald Byrd - The Jazz Message of Donald Byrd. Hank Mobley takes a killer, all-time great solo on this piece. Highly recommended. Lenny Breau - Live at Bourbon Street. What can you say about Lenny? Obviously great. Lester Young with The Oscar Peterson Trio - Lester Young with The Oscar Peterson Trio. Barney Kessel on guitar, and two unparalleled geniuses on sax and piano. That's all. Hope you found this interesting. If so, let me know and we'll do it again. If not, let me know and I'll quit wasting server space Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members evan_02 Posted November 4, 2002 Members Share Posted November 4, 2002 nice work thamiam, i'm gonna print this out and sit down with my guitar for a while. i'll get back to you if i find anything cool to add Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 335clone Posted November 4, 2002 Members Share Posted November 4, 2002 Great concept. Too bad I am unfamiliar with the song. Please do not let that stop you. Either you will get to songs I know, or I will catch up on what I have been missing. Can we make requests? (from the real book) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members evan_02 Posted November 4, 2002 Members Share Posted November 4, 2002 hey thamiam, i'd be interested in comparing how you and i approach soloing over giant steps...maybe tomarrow? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members thamiam Posted November 4, 2002 Author Members Share Posted November 4, 2002 Originally posted by 335clone Can we make requests? (from the real book) Please do. Doesn't have to be from the Real book if you can provide chords and maybe melody. evan - My approach to Giant Steps is very basic. Just about everything I know came from Joe Diorio's book about Giant Steps. Frankly, that one still frightens me. I understand the concept of circular ii-V's, but when it comes to practical applications, I just ain't got it. Feel free to put all of your wisdom out there. I for one will definitely appreciate it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Norsegod Posted November 5, 2002 Members Share Posted November 5, 2002 Printing it out. Hopefully I'll find the time to mess with it.You can rest assured that any of these that you feel like putting the effort into will be scrutinized by me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 335clone Posted November 5, 2002 Members Share Posted November 5, 2002 Requests?Well I'm very new to Jazz, and am most comfortable with bluesy jazz stuff kept as close to a 12 bar format as possible. Stormy Monday, All Blues, So what, the girl from Ipanema.......Thats what I am starting off with. If you have tips for any of these, or similar stuff, that would be great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members babybatter Posted November 5, 2002 Members Share Posted November 5, 2002 Thumbs up, Thamiam! I think its a great idea. Dont know the song youve selected, but I'm gonna have a peek at what youve weaned, regardless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members thamiam Posted November 5, 2002 Author Members Share Posted November 5, 2002 Originally posted by 335clone Requests?Well I'm very new to Jazz, and am most comfortable with bluesy jazz stuff kept as close to a 12 bar format as possible. Stormy Monday, All Blues, So what, the girl from Ipanema.......Thats what I am starting off with. If you have tips for any of these, or similar stuff, that would be great. Request noted. I will do a Jazz Blues next, when I have the time. In the meanwhile, I highly recommend a book called All Blues for Jazz Guitar by Jim Ferguson. I've been working on it to learn and improve my comping, and it's got a great approach and really good concepts. Some of the more advanced folks might consider it too simplistic, but for those (like me) who haven't played in a whole bunch of groups it might be useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members evan_02 Posted November 5, 2002 Members Share Posted November 5, 2002 thamiam, is it okay if i use your analysis of this song as the basis for the next few chords of the day? there seems to be a serious interest in more applications of chords and not just raw knowledge... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members thamiam Posted November 5, 2002 Author Members Share Posted November 5, 2002 I think that would be great. I'd love to see somebody move this out of the theoretical realm (where I tend to dwell) into the actual playing of the guitar (where I could sure use some help ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cat Posted November 6, 2002 Members Share Posted November 6, 2002 Thamiam, thanks. This is exactly the kind of thing I'm working on.You spent a great deal of time on writing your post and I appreciate it. The other contributors as well on this new forum..great stuff. What caught my attention was "Another You". I took lessons from a talented jazz player for awhile and this was one of the first songs he had me learn. He gave me a Real Book and I still use it. cat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Wayrockin1 Posted November 6, 2002 Members Share Posted November 6, 2002 Thanks, Thamiam! Good lesson! When I saw that we had a Lessons Forum, I immediately thought of you (and SJ, of course)! I've always enjoyed your input over in Vets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Robben Cain Posted November 7, 2002 Members Share Posted November 7, 2002 Great Thread!!! how about the song Nardis or Red Clay....both from Real Book 5th edition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.