Bird changes

Bird Blues progression in B♭  Play .

The Blues for Alice changes, Bird changes, Bird Blues, or New York Blues changes, is a chord progression, often named after Charlie Parker ("Bird"), which is a variation of the twelve-bar blues.

The progression uses a series of sequential ii–V or secondary ii–V progressions, and has been used in pieces such as Parker's "Blues for Alice". Toots Thielemans's "Bluesette"[1] and Parker's "Confirmation"[2] also have similar progressions.

Structure

A simple blues progression, in C, is as follows:

| C| C| C| C|
| F| F| C| C|
| G| F| C| C|

A typical blues progression in jazz, in C, is as follows:[3]

| C7| F7| C7| C7|
| F7| F7| C7| Em7A7|
| Dm7| G7| C7A7| D7G7|

The Bird Blues progression, in C, is as follows:[4]

Popular music symbols

| CM7| Bm7♭5E7| Am7D7| Gm7C7|
| F7| Fm7B♭7| Em7A7| E♭m7A♭7|
| Dm7| G7| CM7A7| Dm7G7|

Roman numerals

| I| viiøIII7| viII7| v|
| IV7| iv♭VII7| iiiVI7| ♭iii♭VI7|
| ii| V7| IVI7| iiV7|

This can be viewed as a cycle of ii–V progressions leading to the IV chord (F7 in the key of C major), and the tritone substitution of the dominant chords leading by half-step to the V chord (G7 in C).[4]

C:Am:G(m):F:
| I| iiV| iiV| ii|
F:E♭:D:D♭(m):
| I7| subiisubV| subiisubV| subiisubV|
C:
| ii| V| IVI| iiV|
Different notations
ChordFunctionNumericalRoman
numeral
Tonic T1I
Subdominant S4IV
Dominant D5V

Sources

  1. ↑ Hatfield, Ken (2005). Jazz and the Classical Guitar Theory and Applications, p.182. ISBN 0-7866-7236-6.
  2. ↑ Umble, Jay (2011). Mbgu Jazz Curriculum: Payin Your Dues with the Blues, p.62. ISBN 9781610653145.
  3. ↑ Jacobs, Sid (2011). The Changes, p.12. ISBN 9781610651684.
  4. 1 2 Baerman, Noah (1998). Complete Jazz Keyboard Method: Intermediate Jazz Keyboard, p.63. ISBN 0-88284-911-5.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.