STELLA BY STARLIGHT Reed: For example consider the tune "Stella By Starlight". The original key for the tune was G but it's pretty much universally played in Bb today. A modern player would probably play something like: Emi7b5 | A7 | Cmi7 |F7 Fmi7 | Bb7 | Ebmaj7 |Ab7 Bbmaj7 | .... If you look at these changes they look pretty strange harmonically. I mean you have a ii/V in Emi7b5/A7 which looks like it should go to Dmi or Dmaj7 in the beginning and instead it goes to a Cmi7. Later you have an Ab7 would normally would seem to want to resolve to a Dbma7 or Dbmi and instead goes to a Bbmaj7. Well the original sheet music changes (transformed to Bb) yield alot of insight harmonically into what is going on here and in fact explain why alot of people really goof when they improvise on the Ab7 chord because they don't understand how this works. In the original changes, the first chord is really a Bbdim7 chord which can also be thought of as Dbdim7/Bb. It is a common device to begin songs with Idim to Imaj7. For example "Star Eyes" is often played that way. The reason why I think of it as Dbdim7/Bb will become obvious when you realize that it is going to a Cmin7 chord. This is a common move, iiibdim7 going to iim7 as in the beginning of "Embraceable You". So how do we get from Dbdim7/Bb to Emi7b5. Well Dbdim7 is the same as Edim7. Someone along time back just tried substituing Emi7b5 for Edim7 in this case (not an uncommon substitution try) since they only differ by one note and found it worked. Next one can always try a V after a mi7 or mi7b5 and in this case it works. So really the A7 chord is just a kind of color chord that doesnt really have any real impact on the harmnonic moevement. In fact despite all this, the Emi7b7 to A7 still functions as a Dbdim7 chord which naturally can move to Cmi7, which is the next chord. Looking further along we see the Ebmaj7 going to Ab7 going to Bbmaj7. Clearly a strange looking progression. Here the sheet music doesnt really help us out too much (however the sheet music from other tunes of this period do regarding this harmonic move) but in reality the Ab7 chord is just an Ebm6/Ab . Now what we really have is a plagal cadence (for those that didnt sleep through classical harmony I). It's Eb, Ebm to Bb. So its IV, ivm to I. The Eb is from a major plagal cadence and Ebm from a minor plagal cadence (okay to do). The reason why this is important to know is that the "improvisation" scale so to speak would be an Eb melodic minor scale . (Mark Levines Books on Jazz Piano and his new Harmony Book explain melodic minor harmony quite well). The point here is realize is that the available tension tones would be 9, #11, 13. Many people try other approaches to the dominant chord here and they don't work at all. Similarly for chordal instruments, the chord becomes Ab13#11. So in summary, I see the first 8 bars of stella as kind of a long version of idim7 to I. In this case bbdim7 to Bb though it was surely a long way there. An interesting side point to me is why that progression of idim7 to Imaj works so well. To me it's just an appogitura. In other words, in the model key of C, we have cdim7 going to C. Really I think of this as cdim7 going to C6. (For these purposes the cdim7 [c eb gb a] needs to be really spelled as [c d# f# a] which make it technically a d# dim 7 chord in 3rd inversion). So we have [c d# f# a] going to [c e g a]. So it's just a double appogitura with d# going to e and f# going to g. I don't feel this is overly theoretical because if you play the chords it sounds that way at least to my ears. I see the next bars as essentially the following: Bb | ??? | Dmi | ??? | F | This is a fairly common progression, even in classical music. Each chord has two common tones with the previous chord. So we have [bb d f] going to [d f a] going to [f a c]. Now if we fill in the approach chords, we get Bb | Emi7b5 A7 | Dmi | Bbmi7 Eb7 | F Em7b5/A7 to dmi is just a ii/V in minor. The Bbmi7/Eb7 to F is just a fancy version of Bbmi to F or ivm to I which is just a minor plagal cadence. The Bbmi being the essential chord and the common jazz try of turning it into a mi7 and then seeing if we can add the V. Once again though you have to be careful improvising. Essentially we have Bbmi here and the eb7 thus will have 9, #11 and 13 as the most natural tensions. Ear players always do the right thing here but some more modern schooled players try some other dominant approaches based on incorrect harmonic analysis which usually don't work too well. Some players will play a Gmi7b5 to C7 (ii/V) to F. Interestingly enough here, Bbmi6 which is enhamonically the same as Gmi7b5. These chord move variations appear in other tunes. For example most people play Gmi7b5 to C7 to F in the beginning of "I Love You" but some players start with Bbmi6. For example Bill Evans used Bbmi6 on that tune on his "New Jazz Conceptions" recording. The next twelve bars are essentially F | ??? | Am7b5 | D7 | G7 | | Cmi7 | | Ab7 | | Bb | | Essentially we are just modulating back to Bb from F and doing this by heading towards the ii (Cmi7) chord of Bb. The bar after F is played almost two different ways fairly equally. Either Em7b5 to A7 which gives us a fairly common move where where sequences of ii/V going to ii/V with the second ii being the minor version of the first V. Or some people play Gm7/C7 . This version is basically just ii/V going to iii/(V of iii) to II7. The G7 is just V of Cmi7 so we are on our way back to Bb. The Ab7 is just our old buddy Ebm6/Ab aptly disguised. So we just have really Ebm6 going to Bb or our minor plagal cadence ivm to I. The last 8 are essentially: Emi7b5 | A7 | Dmi7b5 | G7 | Cmi7b5 | F7 | Bb | | which is just a sequence of ii/V beginning on #iv which is a common device. There are some variations at the end here. I like to play: Dbmi7 Gb7 | Cm7 F7 | Bb sometimes. A common move of just applying chromatically descending ii/V chords in place of just a single ii/V. Some people like to play instead of Dmi7b5 to G7, |Ebmi7 Ab7 | Dmi7 G7 | Similarly some of these m7 chords will be tolerated as dominant seventh chords as is always a possibilty. For example, iim7/V7 becoming II7/V7. I like to get an overal harmonic understanding of a tune. It helps me to see what chords are fairly essential to the tune and therefore where the points of departure might be. It also helps when transposing to differnt keys. For this tune I therefore see as the basic harmonic structure. | ??? | ??? | Cmi7 | F7 | |Fmi7 | Bb7 | Eb | Ebmi6 | |Bb | ??? | Dmi | ??? | |F | ??? | Ami7b5 | D7 | |G7 | | Cmi7 | | |Ebmi6 | | Bb | | |Emi7b5 | A7 | ??? | ??? | |??? | ??? | Bb | ??? | The ??? part is just places not part of the overall structure of the harmony. Of course you can peel some of this away and still here the tune, but this is the essential structure as it is commonly played. reed ------------------------------ From: KRosser414@aol.com The Ab7 to Bbmaj7 can also be looked at this way - Ab7 as a substitute for F7. Remember, dominant chords can be substituted by any other dominant in a cycle of minor thirds, the tritone being the most commonly used. Putting the ii chord in front of this particular example does give the ear the feeling of a plagal cadence, probably why it works so well, but looking at it as really an F7 in disguise might yield some interesting dissonances when you're soloing. Using this technique, B7 and D7 could also be used here, and these may yield even more tart dissonances. The B7 wouldn't really work with the melody, unless you either more over to Herbie Hancock territory and put both sevenths in, or do like Coltrane did in Body and Soul and actually alter the melody to fit the reharmonization. Ken R ------------------------------ Ken, Yes, I tried superimposing the F7 over the Ab7 and I liked it. I want to explore some more consequences of your comments but I have some ideas already. The B7 and D7 did sound stranger but often it's a matter of accustoming onself to the sound which then allows you to use it to match the situation better. Like you said, using the whole set of seventh chords or even just triads make it more palatable and frankly very interesting. Thus Ab, C, Eb, Gb or Ab7, C7, Eb7, Gb7. To my ears it works in this case because the F7 is essentially an upper structure of Ab7 anyway, i.e. F7/Ab7 == Ab13b9 (so there is no clash), and the F7 is the V of Bb which is where the progression is going anyway so it creates an interesting feeling of forward motion towards the Bb chord. When the Ab7 is looked at as Ebmi6, we can use Eb jazz minor, or Eb F Gb Ab Bb C D Eb. Since this is melodic minor harmony (and there are no "avoid" notes ), any triad or seventh chord from that scale will superimpose nicely too. So Ebmi, Fmi, Gb+, Ab, Bb, Cdim, Ddim or Ebmi(maj7), Fm7, Gbmaj7+, Ab7, Bb7, Cmi7b5, Dmi7b5 Your point about superimposing dominants at minor thirds away is a good one. Clearly the tritone sub (b5) is always there. The others I assume are derived from the diminished chord. I.e. C#dim7 = C7b9 = Eb7b9 = Gb7b9 = A7b9. Thats a good reminder to always try those possibilities when looking for reharmonizations. I always think of the tritone but forget about the others alot. Since this song essentially starts on Bbdim7, then we can try starting on A7, C7, Eb7, or Gb7. I find the sound to be refreshing here, thus. Especially I think it would sound nice with strings or a string patch on a synth. A7 | | Cmi7 | F7 or C7 | | Cmi7 | F7 or Eb7 | | Cmi7 | F7 or Gb7 | | Cmi7 | F7 Thanks for pointing out those chord superimposition possibilities. reed ------------------------------ Marc: The system rejected my first attempt to send this; sorry if it's old news now, but I wanted to try again. > >>Looking further along we see the Ebmaj7 going to Ab7 going to > >>Bbmaj7. Clearly a strange looking progression. > The Ab7 to Bbmaj7 can also be looked at this way - Ab7 as a substitute > for > F7. This particular chord - bVII - is actually one of the canonical examples of what, in classical theory, is called a "borrowed" chord - it is diatonic to the parallel minor key of Bb minor. In that analysis, it would be seen as substituting for the ordinary vii(o) chord, which of course is itself just a substitution for the V. You might also expect the borrowed iv chord to precede the bVII - that is, Ebm7-Ab7. This would be similar to "Lady Bird" - I/I/iv/bVII/I... > Using this technique, B7 and D7 could also be used here I tend to use Eb7alt - D7alt a lot here, sometimes walking the alt chords down to Bb7alt which I would use in place of the expected Bbmaj7. The Bb7alt can actually be used as a pedal of sorts over the next several measures. --------------