If you analyze standards and you know that it is in a minor key. Should you analyze it with that "minor diatonic" harmony instead of the major ? Or do you always analyze it compared to the major tonality? Btw. Do you have some good recommendations for books about analyzing tunes? Regards!
Cycle of fourths at the end of form is also often played with tritone substitutes which leads to chromatic descending of the chords. Gmin7-Gb7-Fmin7-Fb7 (I think Fb is correct way of notation but might be wrong).
A teacher once told me I should also notice that while Cmin7-F7-Bbmaj7 is a 2-5-1 and you just call Ebmaj7 after that a IV that is just there for no reason, there is actually another 2-5-1 there if you take the F7 (which was the 5 of the 2-5-1 to Bbmaj7) as 2, so you have F7-Bbmaj7-Ebmaj7 as another 2-5-1. So you have 2-5-1 extending the first 2-5-1. At that moment, the IV has a reason to be there. The piece is full of those.
Autumn Leaves is the first song I learned when I began learning about Jazz. I was so excited the moment I learned about those Major/minor 251 in the song began seeing them everywhere.
Why are the first four bars analyzed in the relative major? Why isnt it just the iv - VII - III - VI of G minor? Especially since the third bar doesnt feel like any sort of tonic resolution is happening. To me it feels like there is no resolution until bars 7 - 8.
It aint straightforward and simple lol but I’m very grateful that somebody has finally explained it in a brilliant way. It’s taken me YEARS to get to this point. In order to understand this you have to understand the diatonic triads in each major key and then how to build 7th chords from them. You then have to understand how all the different seventh chords are constructed.....maj7th, min7th, dom7th, min7b5. Ideally, u would learn the different inversions of each chord in each key but that’s 12 keys x 4 chord types x 4 inversions.....that’s 192 chord shapes on piano. Hehehe. Maybe just sart with root voicings!! It came as a bit of a shock to me that the series of minor diatonic triads are different to the major ones and that they borrow from the melodic and harmonic minor scales. I thought it would follow the major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, half diminished pattern but shifted.....but low and behold.....it doesn’t. My understanding was that all the chords in this song are taken from the major and that the chords go 2514736.....with a dom7 III chord. I guess they are but now I’m looking at things a different way. Now I am trying to get my head around the diatonic series of minor chords and how they borrow from the harmonic and melodic minor scales. Please see the explanation on this chaps webpage for this. It has completely blown my mind.....
Wow sounds like you're doing a lot of great work! Indeed there is so much to learn. I personally find holes in my playing all of the time, and the fun part is getting to continually make new discoveries and enjoy working on them.
Hello Brent, Your chord analysis of Autumn Leaves is in my opinion by far the best and didactically wonderful prepared analysis in the web. It helped me a lot to understand faster and easier your explanations in the ebook The Jazz Standards Playbook Bass Clef. Great work for the jazz fans around the world!
Good analysis, I agree with pretty much everything. I would add that in bar 25 you can also play EbMaj7, that way bar 24 is a ii V I for Eb, and then bar 26 would be a 1 bar ii V i to Gmin. That's the way I usually play it but as Brent said 7:46, people add things all the time.
My ear picks up most of what I know, but now I can see what is happening because of technology and your explanation. Thank you for making this easier for me to see! I had jazz theory classes in the early nineties so it was all hand written and quite a process to see, study and hear simultaneously (especially while struggling to learn piano and alto sax main inst.) You're the best. Thank you!
This is a great explanation and the color coding really helps! So which part is the head that one would repeat for solos, and how can that be discerned? It isn’t obvious to me in the Real Books.
Great video- thanks for the content. You've earned a subscriber. Just a couple of things: for the cycle of fourths bit, im curious as to why you labelled the last two chords 'ii V to relative IV'' and not just 'ii V to VI''? Is there a reason? (I'm pretty new to this!) Also, is it legit to see the Blfat7 to Am as subV7/ii , preceded by its related ii and the V7 of that related ii? In terms of linking this green section back to a key, would you call it all F minor? although i suppose the last chords technically come from E flat major? sorry to bombard- im pretty knew to this level of analysis! any help gratefully received!
This is very helpful, but I think I'm missing one thing. In this analysis, the D7 is V of Gmin, but there is no F# in the Bb/Gm scale. You show the 8 chords of the Bb scale, but the D chord is minor, with F natural. I'm expecting that when we play in Bb/Gm, the key signature determines which notes "fit", so this F# is a puzzle. Thanks for your help!
Hey David, great question! Yes these are relative keys, but it's important to understand minor harmony is more complicated than major harmony because there are three minor scales that can be harmonized. This video will help: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4KF-hZjzTLU.html&t=
Hi, what you saw in the video is part of the video post-production. But we do give out the color-coded chords analysis to our members in our Monthly Jazz Standard Studies.
Someone wrote this song before, and I can tell you where it's from: the 4, 7, 3, 6, 2, 5, 1 to put your mind at ease. -- Mild High Club. I appreciate this analysis, and it does sound like it's moving back and forth from major to minor as it flows through the same key. That's part of the magic of the song. And, looking at the numbers above, you can see the lilt of the falling leaves. And listening to it, it's a beautiful, wistful feeling of autumn.
Hey, Thanks for the video, I finally found the courage to learn jazz and Autumn Leaves is probably one of my favorite tunes ever, so it helps a lot ! Beginner question tho, if someone can answer me : In measure 24, can the Fmin7 - Bb7 still be considered as a ii-V of Relative IV if the next chord in measure 25 is Amin7(b5) and not EbMaj7 ? I found it a bit hard to get what's going on here if the EbMaj7 is not present. Shall I consider it's "suggested" by the ii-V of measure 24 even if it's not played ? Thanks for your answer !
At 6:31 you say G7 is the V of ii, in this case V of Cmin7, but isn’t G7 the V of Cmaj (or Cmaj7) if I am not missing something? The cadence of V to Cmin sounds good as well but the resolution is stronger in Cmaj. If its supposed to be that then why does it still sound good with Cmin7? I know Cmaj isnt in the key but just found it interesting from the point of view of major diatonic harmony.
I had a lesson with a teacher who is a great player. In short, after an hour, he told me to learn this song. You have done his job for him and done it in a well, broken-down fashion that was super easy to follow. My only wish, and I told this to the teacher as well was, even though I love the colorful substitution chords that you played over the changes, it's easier for my beginner ear to hear the most vanilla versions of the voicings to follow along. In any case, thank you! You've earned a sub.
This transcription has the same chord errors I pointed out in this other "Learn Jazz Standards" video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5qm62741AEQ.html
Hi Pete! Whenever you turn a diatonic minor 7th chord into a dominant 7th, the first thing to ask is: is it a secondary dominant? The G7 now turns into a V of the Cmin7. If that doesn't make sense, check out this podcast episode where I talk about this concept: www.learnjazzstandards.com/blog/ljs-podcast/learn-jazz-theory/ljs-121-understanding-secondary-and-backdoor-dominant-7-chords/
Hi Brent, I just watched this awesome video and I wonder if there is another linked video where you give us some suggestions of possible things we can do within this progressions. I am a saxophone player and very new to this whole thing of improvisation so I am barely understanding the II V I progression, so now it would be helpful to know what I could do there. Thanks a lot!!
Dear sir, I have made my note as follows; G Natural minor: Gm7 Am7(♭5) B♭△7 Cm7 Dm7 E♭△7 F7 Relative Major : B♭△7 Cm7 Dm7 E♭△7 F7 Gm7 Am7(♭5) As you can see, I don't see D7 chord for mother minor chord.(instead I see Dm7). Could you help me out please?
The use of 251 and colors showing modulations, makes this one of the most enjoyable analysis I've found.It is so simple to understand.Congratulations on a perfect piece of analysis
thanks for the video, could I say that blue is parent Major and red os relative minor ? could this be just description name swapped , looks like it's doesn't matter
Hi - they say there are no stupid questions, I hope that is true ... my question is why do you refer to this piece as being in the key of Gm rather than Bb ? This is especially confusing to me since you refer to the 2-5-1 in the relative maj of Bb . Also I watched another Autumn Leaves study where the instructor referred to the song as being in the key of Bb. So please tell me ... have I asked the first stupid question? Thank you - Gary
Either answer could technically be correct but it's in the key of G minor (G being the tonal center of the tune). G minor and Bb Major have all the same notes (2 flats) but the notes are organized differently. The 6 note of any Major scale is where it's "relative" minor starts. Hopefully that helps ya!
luke labrie I know I’m a month late, but I think the answer is that is actually is in G minor and that Bb major is not correct. While both share the same key signature, you have to look at something called cadences (basically how musical phrases end). That’s why some sections are in the relative major, because the cadences in those section show that it is in the relative major key. The piece ends on an G-, and the melodic lead in also makes the most since as being in G-. An example of a cadence by the way is V-I, which is called an authentic cadence. I’m pretty new to music theory so if either of you feels confident that I am wrong, please tell me because I’m trying to learn lol
Hi Gavin, it's important to understand that the V chord is pretty much always a dominant 7 chord in diatonic harmony. You are probably thinking about harmonizing the natural minor scale, but minor harmony isn't that simple. Here's a video that will help with this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4KF-hZjzTLU.html
Hey Rob, yes and no! Minor Harmony is a bit more complicated than Major harmony. Check out this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4KF-hZjzTLU.html&t=
