So let me ask you something.. If i put something like this, in front of you, what would you do
with it? Could you play through an entire song with just this? Do you see harmony from this
perspective? And more importantly, should you? So today, I want to talk about jazz harmony,
and how to use it to play, improvise, arrange or even write music. Harmony is the best tool that
we have for songwriting and yet, it's often neglected by many songwriters and musicians.
The best way to learn harmony is by analyzing great songs. So in this video, let's take a look
at the harmony in Misty. We'll learn how to look at the progression harmonically, and study the
different techniques used in this song. I promise you that, by the end of this video,
you'll have learned a bunch of new concepts that you can apply to your own process.
So, let's take a completely different approach. Instead of looking at the chord changes and
analyzing the progression functionally, we're going to start with the harmonic analysis - no chords. So
here, I have Misty with harmonic functions and arrows and brackets, using the Berklee College
of Music's method, without any chord symbols. I'll show you how to study the harmony in Misty
from this perspective. Trust me, it's so cool and useful, you won't believe how much you can learn
by using this approach. Before we go any further, just a friendly reminder to like subscribe and
share our content with all your friends, it really helps us out, and we really appreciate
it. Alright... So, we're in the key of Eb major. As expected, the first chord is a Imaj7,
so Ebmaj7. Here we see a IVmaj7 chord. In Eb, that's Abmaj7.
Notice how this Abmaj7 is a target chord. We're approaching it by a way of it's 2-5.
This is what makes the Berklee arrows and brackets so incredibly useful. You can clearly
see that this is a 2-5-1. Granted, it's a secondary 2-5-1, because the target is not the I of the key.
This is why we write ii/IV V7/IV and then IV. The ii/IV and the V7/IV
are called secondary functions, because they target a primary function. So, every time we see a
solid bracket followed by a solid arrow, we know it's representing a 2-5-1 - secondary or primary.
Look how many there are in Misty! That's why every time you hear someone talking about jazz,
they mention the 2-5-1. An important aspect of the 2-5-1, is that harmony follows the expected
path of resolution towards a target. The ii prepares the target by positioning the listener
in the subdominant of that target, which then goes to the V in the dominant region which in turn,
desperately wants to resolve to the target. Also, the 2-5-1 creates the strongest bass movement of
two consecutive perfect fifths. So, if I cover these two functions and I show you that the target is
the ii chord, what are these two functions? Based on the bracket and arrow you can now tell that we
have a ii/ii V/ii progression in this measure, even without seeing any actual chords or
functional analysis. So in the case of Eb, the ii is Fm7. This would make our progression
Gm7 to C7 to Fm7. Let's do another blind analysis. What do you think is happening here?
Our target is the I (Eb.) So, according to the arrow in the bracket we should have Fm7
Bb7 to Eb. A primary 2-5-1. Easy peasy! Let's go back and fill in all of the
two five ones that we can find according to our bracket and arrow method. Keep in mind that this
method of contextual deduction only applies with a 2-5-1, not a 2-5 like we'll see in measure 4 later.
In other words, we need both the bracket and the arrow to have a 2-5-1. A single bracket is
just a 2-5 without a clear target, thus making it impossible for us to work our way backwards.
You've heard us time and again talk about how important it is to consider the target, when
dealing with harmony. And today's video is no exception. Always consider your target, and work
backwards from there. Okay. So I see this arrow targeting this IV chord. In our key that's Ab.
When I work backwards from Ab, considering Ab's 2-5, we get Bbm7
to Eb7 to Abmaj7. The next one (here) is targeting the ii
Fm7. Our 2-5 of Fm7 is Gm7 to C7. Here we have another
2-5 of IV, like we had earlier. So that's just gonna be Bbm7 to Eb7
to Abmaj7 again. Down here another 2-5 of ii. So, Gm7 to C7 to
Fm7 here as well. The cool thing about this one though, is how it leads us directly into
another 2-5-1. Our target here, the ii chord, becomes the first chord
of another2-5-1 in the following measures hence, another set of brackets and arrows.
These measures would then be Fm7 to Bb7 to Ebmaj7 a primary 2 5 1.
These two five ones are so essential, so crucial when it comes to understanding and playing jazz.
I can't stress enough, how important it is to see them, and to recognize them quickly. The
methods found in this book, have completely changed the way that I look at harmony,
songwriting, how I play, and just music in general. On the next video, I'll show you the meaning of
other symbols found within the book, backdoor two fives, and the I vi ii V progression. We'll
then take these techniques, and apply them to an awesome reharmonization of "There Will Never Be
Another You". And all of this without any chord symbols just harmony