www.mikehall.co.uk
home weddings teaching gigs recordings compositions about Mike gallery INSET Canford Jazz Breaks reviews education listening contact links

 


Jazz Harmony Lecture Notes

 

 

 

Objectives of harmonic analysis

·      to understand how a chord progression functions

·      how chords interact

·      to recognise important harmonic building blocks

·      leads to simplification/reduction of a chord progression

·      aids the process of improvisation (including scale choice)

 

Diatonic Harmony: Major Key

Study and listen to the diatonic chords formed from the major scale

·      ID intuitively sounds to be the ‘home’ chord

·      Is called the tonic

·      the V7 chord reinforces the tonic and establishes a ‘tonal system’

·      V7 has the greatest tendency to ‘want to go somewhere’

·      called the dominant

·      V7→ IΔ creates a perfect cadence

 

The strength of V7 → ID progression is due to two factors

·      P5 downwards root motion (and melodic movement) is strongest

·      Importance of P5 in the harmonic series

·      internal voice movements

·      ‘leading note rises’ in classical speak

·      but in jazz can remain static  to become ID hence 3→7

·      7→3

 

 

 

Now extend the progression by preceding with another diatonic chord

·      add IIm7 because it is a P5 above V7

·      again, consider the internal voice movements

·      third (of IIm7) remains to become the seventh of V7 3→7

·      seventh (of IIm7) falls down to become third of V7 7→3

·      try delaying this part of the voice movement to gauge its strength

 

 

 

 

The complete unit is referred to as a  ‘two five one’

·      IIm7 V7 ID 

·      It is a very important harmonic building block in jazz (‘75% of all chords’)

·      sometimes referred to as a cadence or double cadence

·      it contains two occurrences of ‘harmonic pull’

·      harmonic pull created by 3s and 7s

·      3 and 7 are considered the essential notes in a chord

·      5 adds colour but does not change the pull

·      usually there are two bars of  ID for balance (i.e. to  make a 4 bar unit)

·      often the 2nd bar of ID is replaced by another chord (e.g. VIm7)

·      note that in the above example the second bar of IΔ becomes C6

·      IIm7 to V7 will often occur without resolution to ID (a trait of bebop)

·      V7 to ID will often occur without the preceding IIm7 chord

 

The voicings (layout of the notes) shown above could effectively be used as left hand rootless voicings by a pianist.

 

For three chords to form a true ‘two five one’ they must have roots which move downwards by P5 and chord qualities…

 

· Minor seventh

· Dominant seventh

· Major seventh (or sixth)

 

 

When writing chords (either as absolute chords or Roman numerals) always state the root and chord quality!

 


Voice movements within IIm7 V7 IΔ

·      when the root movement is downwards by P5 the 3rds move to 7ths and 7ths move to 3rds within successive chord voicings

·      7 always drops a semitone to 3

·      3 stays on the same note to become 7

·      5th and 9th have similar movements

 

 

Voice movements:

major key

 

IIm7

V7

ID

3

7

3

7

3

7 (6)

5

9

5

9

(5) 13

9

 

 

Minor key

·      where the target chord is in a minor tonality we need to prepare the listener’s ear during the cadence by:

·      flattening the 5 of the IIm7 chord (hence the II chord in a minor tonality is IIm7b5 or Ø (half diminished))

AND

·      (adding then) flattening the 9 on the V7 chord

·      these notes come from the harmonic minor scale

·      they increase the ’urgency’ of the cadence (perceived need to resolve)

·      hence  IIØ  V7b9  ImD (or Im6)

·      e.g.,     DØ  G7b9  CmD

 

 

Voice movements:

minor key

Ø

V7b9

ImD

3

7

3

7

3

7 (6)

b5

b9

5

9

b13 (#5)

9

 


Exercise 1

Complete the following table of two five one progressions  

 

IIm7

Ø

V7

V7b9

ID

ImD

Cm7

 

BbD

F#m7

 

 

Abm7

 

 

 

 

DbD

F#Ø

B7

 

 

 

Bm6

 

F7b9

 

 

 

Exercise 2

Identify all the IIm7 V7 ID, IIm7 V7 and V7 ID groupings

                                                ┌────┐

·      label IIm7 V7 with a bracket    Cm7    F7

 

·      label root movements where a dominant 7th chord moves down by a P5 with an arrow e.g.,      

       

 

A7            DD

 

Blues for Alice

 

|FD                    |EØ           A7b9         |Dm7         G7            |Cm7         F7     |

 

 

|BbD                  |Bbm7       Eb7           |Am7         D7            |Abm7       Db7   |

 

 

|Gm7                 |C7                           |FD7          D7            |Gm7 C7             ||

 

 

Increasing the ‘urgency’ of ‘dominant to tonic’ resolution

In a minor ‘two five one’ we flattened the fifth of the IIm7 chord and added a b9 to the V7 chord (when compared to a major 251).

·      this…

·      prepares the ear for the oncoming minor tonality

·      increases the urgency of the resolution

 

The same approach (for the V7 chord at least) is used to increase the pull of the resolution into a major tonality.

 

The progression becomes        Dm7  G7b9  CD

 

 

 

It has become popular (more modern sounding) to do this using a V7 chord with a #9 (rather than a b9) and a  #5

 

Hence a common sequence is Dm7 G7#5#9 CD7

As this symbol is rather cumbersome it is often reduced to alt  e.g., G7alt

 

 

 

Voice movements:

major key with altered V

 

IIm7

V7alt

ID

3

7

3

7

3

7 (6)

5

#9

5

9

#5

9

 

 

 

Extending the cycle of fifths root movement through diatonic harmony

·      continuing the  P5 root motion would give:              

        ( F#?)                BØ    Em7  Am7  Dm7  G7    CD7   FD7   (Bb?)

        ( #VI?)      VIIØ  IIIm7 VIm7 IIm7  V7     ID7    IVD7  (bVII?)

 

·      all or parts of this are often used to form chord progressions

 

 

 

 

 

Exercise 3

 

Identify the key centres within the chord progressions below

·      label these chords with Roman Numerals

 

 

All the things you are

 

Key:

|Fm7         |Bbm7               |Eb7          |AbD          |

 

 

|DbD          |Dm7 G7    |CD7          |CD7          ||      

 

 

Autumn Leaves

 

Key:

|Cm7         |F7            |BbD          |EbD          |

 

 

|AØ           |D7b9                |Gm          |Gm          ||

 

 

Turnarounds

 

The IIm7 V7 IΔ starts ‘away’ from home and proceeds to move towards home… to resolve.

 

Take the 4 bar unit IIm7 V7 IΔ IΔ, cut it in half and swap the halves around…

 

IΔ     IΔ     IIm7  V7

 

This is a basic turnaround… the second essential harmonic building block

 

In function the turnaround starts ‘at home’ and finishes ‘pointing back at home’ (by way of a dominant chord). It is a way of harmonically ‘treading water’… of going nowhere but creating some harmonic interest where there might otherwise be a static chord e.g., at the end of an eight bar section of melody.

 

There are many variations to the basic form (see appendix) but the most common form is probably

 

IΔ     VIm7         IIm7 V7

 

or

 

IΔ     VI7   IIm7 V7

 

 

Dominant 7th Chord Harmony:

The tritone substitution

 

Every dominant 7th chord contains a tritone interval

  • three tones
  • augmented 4th
  • diminished 5th

 

It can be viewed as the 4th and 7th degrees of the major scale of resolution

 

This interval is unstable because (relative to scale of resolution)

·      4 wants to move to 3

·      7 (leading note) wants to move to the root

 

Thus the tritone indicates a tonality

·      e.g.,  F (4th) and B (7th)  indicate C major

 

As the tritone is a symmetrical interval we can consider reversing the functions of these notes

 

So now consider F as the 7th and B as the 4th

This indicates Gb major as the scale of resolution.

Therefore the dominant chord is Db7

 

 

 

Dominant 7th chords a tritone apart are essentially the same

·      they are referred to as related dominants