This great tune contains musical principles which are essential knowledge when it comes to understanding Jazz harmony.
So I'm starting off by making some notes here simply looking at the information I have: I'm looking at the lead sheet and I can see that the key signature has one # (F#) which means that this piece is in the key of Gmajor / Relative Eminor.
The form of the song is AABC. I can also see the chord changes in each section are arranged by the cycle and move in fourths, eg, Am7, D7, G∆, C∆, F#ø, B7, Em
The first six bars are diatonic to the Gmaj scale. The very first bar/intro starts on an E and walks up to the Am7 followed by D7, G∆, C∆ and F#half dim are all in G major. Key of G maj ?
In the first few bars I can spot the popular jazz chord progression the major II-V-I with the Am7 acting as the II, the D7 as the V and the G as the I. However when we get to the 7th bar something happens. The B7 is not within the key of Gmaj. Now I can see that the B7 as opposed to Bmin7 is acting as a dominant V chord. If that's a V then you have to ask yourself what is II ? The F#half dim which is diatonic to Gmaj is now acting as the II which makes Em the I.
At this stage it would be useful to know the harmonic minor chord sequence:
(i)minmaj7 / (ii)min7b5 / (III)maj7#5 / (iv)m7 / (V)7 / (VI)maj7 / (VII)dim7
And also we need to know the E harmonic minor scale:
E F# G A B C D# E
So in the first four bars excluding the intro are in the key of Gmajor and in the next four bars we are in the key of Eminor. The 'B' section is made up of a minor ii-V-i (Em) and a major II-V-I (Gmaj).
- Any dominant 7th chord (B7 or D7 above) is always a V7 chord. But which one ?
- When preceded by a minor 7th chord (a 5th higher) the dominant chord is the V7 chord of a IIm7-V7 scale-tone chord segment of a major scale.
- When preceded by a half diminished chord (a 5th higher) the dominant chord is the V7 chord of a IIø-V7 scale-tone chord segment of a harmonic minor scale.
to be continued...
This is a epic song.
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