Subs for Easy to Love

reed:

"Easy to Love" by Cole Porter is very interesting tune.

Harmonically I was first interested in the tune because in the key of G
major, I saw in a fake book that it's chords went from Ami to Dmi. I
incorrectly tried to analyze the Dmi as some kind of V in G without
realizing that the tune really started in Ami and Dmi was just the iv
chord.

Anyway, I'm going to look at the tune in Bb today because G, the
original key, is a fairly miserable key for solo piano for this tune.

The first four in the original sheet music is essentially:

Cmi   |  Fmi   | Cmi   | F7   |
Bbma7 |  

The first thing is to realize that the Cmi chords are really from the
key of C minor. Thus the Fm is a iv and hence we can replace it with a
stronger ii/V. I prefer to use Dmi7 here though throughout this tune
there is alot of interchangeability between mi7 and mi7b5.

Cmi   |  Dm7 G7   | Cmi   | F7   |

Because its a real Cmi, we can go to the vimi7b5.

Cmi Ami7b5  |  Dm7 G7   | Cmi   | F7   |
Bbmaj7

The ii/V will work going to Bb but there is something better here. For
those keeping score, the most common ways to the I are with a V or a
minor plagal cadence. However, there is another technique I explained in
the tune "I Remember You". In this case the I is approached by a idim7
which then gets transformed. In this case the idim7 is a little awkward
but you can hear that it would work.

Cmi Ami7b5  |  Dm7 G7   | Cmi   | Bbdim7   |
Bbmaj7

We use instaed Emi7/A7. (See my explanation of "I Remember You" for why this
works.) This technique is sometimes called going in the back door.

Cmi Ami7b5  |  Dm7 G7   | Cmi   | Emi7 A7  |
Bbmaj7

The next four in the sheet music is:

Bbmaj7 | Cmi   | Bbmaj7  |      |
Cmi7

A fairly standard jazz cadence works here. We've seen this before. Look
at previous posts if this isnt clear.

Bbmaj7 | Eb7   | Dmi7  | G7      |
Cmi7

The next four in the original sheet music is:

Cmi7 | F7   | Bbmaj7   |       |
Cmi7

There are a number of possibilities here:

Cmi7  | F7sus F7  | Bbmaj7 Ebmaj7 | Dmi7 G7  |
Cmi7

I like:

Cmi7  | F7sus F7   | Ami7b5 D7   | Gmi7  C7  |
Cmi7

The next four in the sheet music are:

Cmi7   | F7   | Dmi   |  Dbdim   |
Cmi

The Dbdim is a little clumsy. Common is:

Cmi7   | F7   | Dmi7   |  G7   |
Cmi

I like:

Cmi7b5   | F7   | Emi7 A7  |  Dmi7 G7   |
Cmi

Then we're back to the first eight so I have:

Cmi Ami7b5  |  Dm7 G7   | Cmi   | Emi7 A7  |
Bbmaj7      |  Eb7      | Dmi7  | G7      |

The next four in the sheet music are:

Cmi  | Ebmi6  | Bbmaj7   | D7   |
Cmi7

The Ebmi6 is our old friend the minor plagal cadence and the D7 just
sounds wrong to me.  We want something like:

Cmi7  | Ebmi7  Ab7 | Bbmaj7   | G7   |
Cmi7

There are a number of possibilities:

Cmi7  | Ebmi7  Ab7 | Bbmaj7  A7 | Dmi G7   |
Cmi7

or 

Cmi7  | Ebmi7  Ab7 | Bbmaj7 Am7b5,D7 | Dmi7 G7   |
Cmi7

or

Cmi7  | Ebmi7  Ab7 | Dmi7 ,Ebmi7 | Dmi7 G7   |
Cmi7

The last four in the sheet music are:

Cmi7  | F7  | Bbmaj7 |      |

We just add a jazz turnaound back to the Cm.

Cmi7  | F7  | Bbmaj7 A7| Dmi7 G7 |

I get in total:

Cmi Ami7b5  |  Dm7 G7    | Cmi7       | Emi7 A7  |
Bbmaj7      |  Eb7       | Dmi7       | G7       |
Cmi7        | F7sus F7   | Ami7b5 D7  | Gmi7  C7 |
Cmi7b5      | F7         | Emi7 A7    |  Dmi7 G7 |
Cmi Ami7b5  |  Dm7 G7    | Cmi7       | Emi7 A7  |
Bbmaj7      |  Eb7       | Dmi7       | G7       |
Cmi7        | Ebmi7  Ab7 | Bbmaj7  A7 | Dmi G7   |
Cmi7        | F7         | Bbmaj7 A7  | Dmi7 G7  |

There are also some additional passing chords that are diminished and
sometimes chromatic that can liven up particular melody notes. Those
will be left as an excercise for the reader.

[end]