Dominant 7 chords from above or dim7 from below. These are all the common types mentioned at the start. Going into and leaving bar 4 Evans uses passing chords at every opportunity: See below where B7 is inserted before Bb7 leading to A-7. Of course, C-6 and F9 contain the same notes, so inserting the C-7 in addition makes a chain of passing chords and allows for more voice leading. And Peterson also used it on one of his recordings of Georgia in My Mind. This same sequence can be seen in Cole Porter’s Just One of Those Things. Like a II V I cadence in Bb with a surprise ending. This is interesting because it is a semitone above, as expected, but it is not the more usual dominant 7 used for passing chords from above.Īs an aside, there is one chorus where Evans plays C-7 F7 Bø at this point. By contrast, a passing chord of C-6 is inserted before the Bø. How are these chords approached? Well, Db7 is a semitone away from the preceding D-7, so there is no passing chord needed. Db7, making the melody the more interesting #11th.Evans finds two alternative solutions throughout the choruses in this recording: But the problem is that the melody is G, so G7 does not sound interesting. Chords II and IV being diatonic subs for the each other, ie G-7 and Bb6 sound the same, though their roots are different.īar 3 starts with some sort of II7 (G7) chord, a secondary dominant, V7/V. instead he plays I II III VI or I IV III VI. The first two bars of the A section are not the traditional descending bass line. Below we analyse what Evans played in each 8-bar section. Here is the recording again if you want to listen. I have deliberately simplified the rhythm of the way the melody is played because it is different each chorus and it is the passing chords we are focussing on. I’m sticking in the key of F for all the discussions below. The transcriptions below are only sketches of the melody and chords. Other are sometimes used, especially if they allow for better voice leading. These two represent the vast majority of approach chords. Db7 is the tritone sub of G7 and Bdim7 represents G7b9. The two common approach chords would be Db7 and Bdim7.

Imagine the target is any chord with a C root. Interestingly these both represent the same functional harmony. The most common passing chords we see are dominant 7 a semitone above the next chord, and diminished 7 a semitone below the next chord. But what is interesting is how Evans adds interest by inserting passing chords to the chords you would expect to see on the lead sheet. Each section has four rows in the table above:Īs you would expect, the analysis shows that the chords are mostly functionally the same between the two keys. In later recordings, Evans changes key every half chorus, but he does not do that here.

If you are new to harmonic analysis, read my overview article which explains the techniques and gives a further reading list.Īs the image shows, it is a song of two halves the form is ABAC (8-8-8-8). I took down his changes and analysed them, collapsing all the options into the form of one chorus: There are transcriptions out there that change the time signature frequently, but I think they are missing the point.Įvans starts out playing choruses in F and finishes by modulating to Ab. This is solo piano and so there is a lot of rubato playing. In this blog I’m looking at the recording on the album Time Remembered which was made in 1963 but not released until 1983. He recorded the song eight or more times ➡️I made a playlist⬅️. That got me listening to Bill Evans again. The song was written by Jimmy van Heusen in 1944. They are the same thing and can be used to provide interest and motion at any time including when comping.Ī friend was talking about the chords to Like Someone In Love and how to simplify them. When up tempo, a bar of one chord is tolerable, but for ballads, what ya gonna do, just sit there? Not an option.ĭave Berkman calls them passing chords, others call them approach chords. The slower the song, the more movements we need to add such as ➡️ passing chords⬅️. When making arrangements for big band some years ago, I realised that is not how it works. Have you ever wondered why ballads are harder to play than up tempo numbers? At first glance, they should be easier because we have more time to think and need less dazzling technique.

Chord substitution georgia on my mind