reed kotler ( (no email) )
Thu, 12 Sep 1996 20:59:09 -0700
<<snip>>
Well Giant Steps is important for the interesting chord
changes it used, for all the other tunes written using the
same idea, and for providing a reharmonization technique that
has been applied to lots of other tunes.
First of all though it is generally thought that Giant Steps
is derived from the bridge to the tune "Have You Met Miss Jones"
by Richard Rodgers.
When the tune is played in F, the bridge starts in Bb and goes:
Bbmaj7 | Abmi7 Db7 | Gbmaj7 | Emi7 A7 |
Dmaj7 | Abmi7 Db7 | Gbmaj7 | ...
So we see the key change from Bb to Gb to D to Gb. In other
words the key centers are changing in major thirds. To my knowledge
this was the first tune to do this.
If we rewrite the bridge in B we get;
Bmaj7 | Ami7 D7 | Gmaj7 | Fmi7 Bb7 |
Ebmaj7 | Ami7 D7 | Gmaj7 | ...
So the key changes from B to G to Eb to G .
Now lets look at the changes for giant steps.
Bmaj7 D7 | Gmaj7 Bb7 | Ebmaj7 | Ami7 D7 |
Gmaj7 Bb7 | Ebmaj7 F#7 | Bmaj7 | Fmi7 Bb7 |
Ebmaj7 | Ami7 D7 | Gmaj7 | C#mi7 F#7|
Bmaj7 | Fmi7 Bb7 | Ebmaj7 | C#mi7 F#7|
So the key also changes in major thirds:
B to G to Eb to G to Eb to B to Eb to G to B to
Eb and turnaround back to B.
You should read the chapter on "Coltrane Changes" in Mark
Levine's "Jazz Theory Book". He gives alot of examples and talks
about the history and importance of those changes. His jazz
piano book discusses this too.
I haven't personally studied all the ramifications of that
reharmonization because the players I have studied (Bill Evans,
Wes Montgomery, Chet Baker, etc) never got into that. Although
writing this post has piqued my interest.
I think the basic idea is that it provides another
way to get to a major chord without the need for ii/V I or
iii/VI ii/V I or whatever.
For example in place of |Dmi7 G7 | Cmaj7| you could try.
Emaj7 G7 | Cmaj7. So the key center goes from E to C.
Or say if you had |Dmi7 | G7 | Cmaj7 | you might try
Abmaj7 B7 | Emaj7 G7 | Cmaj7 |
Here the key goes Ab to E to C. In major thirds again.
What Coltrane did in fact was to write tunes that were based
on reharmonizations of other tunes using this technique.
For example, Countdown (also from the Giant Steps album) is based
on the Miles Davis tune Tuneup.
The Changes to Tuneup are:
Emi7 | A7 | Dmaj7 | |
Dmi7 | G7 | Cmaj7 | |
Cmi7 | F7 | Bbmaj7 | Ebmaj7 |
Emi7 | F7 | Bbmaj7 | A7 |
So what Coltrane saw was four bars starting with Emi7 and
ending with Dmaj7, four bars starting with Dmi7 and ending
with Cmaj7 and four bars starting with Cmi7 and ending with
Bbmaj7. He left the last four bars alone and even duplicated
the melody from tuneup.
So he just backed up from the target chords, i.e Dmaj7 for
the first four, Cmaj7 for the second four and Bbmaj7 for the
first four.
Emi7 ?? | ????? | ????? | Dmaj7 |
Dmi7 ?? | ????? | ????? | Cmaj7 |
Cmi7 ?? | ????? | ???? | Bbmaj7 |
Emi7 | F7 | Bbmaj7 | A7 |
So the first line will first go from F#(Gb) key center to D.
Emi7 ?? | ????? | Gbmaj7 A7 | Dmaj7 |
Then we get to Gb key center from Bb.
Emi7 ?? | Bbmaj7 Db7 | Gbmaj7 A7 | Dmaj7 |
Now we just add a V chord into Bb.
Emi7 F7 | Bbmaj7 Db7 | Gbmaj7 A7 | Dmaj7 |
The second two lines are reharmonized in the same manner,
yielding the changes in total:
EMi7 F7 | Bbmaj7 Db7 | Gbmaj7 A7 | Dmaj7 |
Dmi7 Eb7 | Abmaj7 B7 | Emaj7 G7 | Cmaj7 |
Cmi7 Db7 | Gbmaj7 A7 | Dmaj7 F7 | Bbmaj7 |
Emi7 | F7 | Bbmaj7 | A7 |
Coltrane wrote several other tunes in this manner.
In addition he reharmonized parts of existing tunes
like Body and Soul (the bridge, see New Real Book vol 2),
and Everytime We Say Goodbye just to name a few. Sometimes
he modified the melody slightly to accomodate the
reharmonization.
Although I enjoy playing Giant Steps. One thing that I've always
felt is that it should really be a ballad. It has been interesting
to see how many musicians in the last few years have discovered
the same thing and begun recording it that way.
I hope this helps. I sure learned alot from writing it.
reed
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Reed Kotler
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