Today we're talking about the classic ballad Misty by Errol Garner we'll take a look at the chords so
we can figure out how to most efficiently learn it and find out what harmonic secrets we can discover
in the process let's do this thing so Misty is a classic Jazz ballad everybody needs to know this
tune but there are a lot of harmonic twists and turns in it that can make it a little bit
difficult to memorize the chords so let's simplify it but first those are what it sounds like
foreign
so the most important thing of course when learning the chord changes to any tune is to make
sure that you know the melody really well and the best way to learn the melody is by ear and if that
sounds like something completely intimidating like you have no idea how to go about doing it I've
never done that before then definitely follow my list process for learning Jazz standards which is
listen internalize sing and transfer and I talk a lot more about that in my free guide called learn
jazz standards the smart way which I'll leave a link to in the description as well as in the show
notes but taking a look at Misty the first chord that we have here is E flat major and we know
that that is actually the key of the tune because there are three Flats here in the key signature so
E flat major all right so first chord is E flat major so easier remember it is the one chord in
the key of the song E flat major now whenever I'm trying to memorize chords I like to make things
easy to understand by categorizing them and as we start going through this we'll start seeing how I
do that so for example I want to look forward here and I see that we have an A flat major 7 coming up
and the way we get there is through a B flat minor seven and an E flat major seven so we start with
flat major 7 going to B flat minor seven to E flat seven to a flat major seven now the a flat
major is actually the four chord of E flat major so that a flat is the IV chord and we
get there through a two five one and that's B flat minor seven to E flat seven going to
a flat major seven so I'm always looking for in jazz different key centers that we're going to
and how they arrive there and oftentimes we're arriving there by two five ones but at the same
time I'm also looking at how do these chords these new key centers relate to the parent key
Center so really when we're talking about this transition from E flat major to a flat major
a flat major is still the IV chord in E Flat Major so really important to understand your
Roman numeral analysis of chord changes but already this is going to help me out quite a
bit because I can already just understand that the first three bars is a one two a four chord
but of course we're going to ton of size that four chord with a B flat minor seven to an E
flat seven now moving on we have an A flat minor seven to a d flat seven so we just got to that
a flat major seven then we're going to the a flat minor seven d flat seven in the melody that's the
which is also another really important point when trying to memorize chord changes is always make
sure you're able to relate the melody back to the chord changes you're learning so whether you're a
saxophone player piano player guitar player really doesn't matter make sure that Melody is locked
in to your understanding of where you're actually at with the chords and by doing that you're going
to get lost a lot less often as well now again whenever I'm studying chords and I'm analyzing
them I always want to make sure I understand what chords came before in this case it was an A flat
major seven and what chord comes afterwards and what chord comes afterwards is an E flat major
seven because initially when I look at this a flat minor and d flat seven I think to myself
that's a 2-5 in G flat major however if we look ahead to the chord it resolves to E flat major
it actually does not resolve to a g flat major so what's really actually going on here well yes it's
what we could call a deceptive Cadence uh Cadence that does not resolve where you think it's going
to go however really all we're trying to do is get from a flat major over here back to E flat major
again the way we're doing that is something called a backdoor dominant and that backdoor dominant is
this right here the d flat seven right so we go a flat minor seven d flat seven to E flat major
seven okay now the d flat seven we call this a back door dominant a normal dominant seventh chord
like how we're going to get back to the one chord would be like any kind of B flat seven chord going
to E flat major right so a five to one chord right but we called a back door dominant when
we're going a whole step below the chord we're arriving to so d flat seven d flat is a whole
step below E flat major right but we're using a dominant seventh chord and arriving back at that E
flat major seven we really analyze this you know we can kind of see that there are some altered
tones within that d flat seven that would be altar tones within the B flat seven so it gives us this
sense of tension that would be in that B flat seven even though it's a d flat seven right and
so there's still this tension and release feeling we go a flat minor seven d flat seven E flat
but regardless of whether you fully understand the theory behind all of that isn't quite as important
as understanding that all this happens all the time in jazz standards you're going to see this
whole step relationship from a dominant seventh chord arriving back to a tonic or a one chord
right and when you see that you can at least name it a backdoor dominant and that's going to help
you categorize the tune a little bit better help you memorize it a little bit easier okay so the
next four bars what we call a classic turnaround we have an E flat major seven C minor seven F
minor seven B flat seven and that is a classic one six two and five chord progression okay so this is
one of the most common chord progressions in jazz good that you get to know this chord progression
and every single key right not just d flat major but every single key now it's pretty common by the
way in jazz when we're doing a turnaround that's going to go back around to a second a section in
this case this is a one and down over here is A2 so we're trying to do that we're gonna go one six
two five and then a three instead of a one again so three six two five so G minor seven C seven
F minor seven B flat seven and the reason why that works is because the three and the one are
interchangeable I have these chords in parentheses which is G7 and F7 because you can also turn
really any minor seventh chord in a diatonic series into a dominant seventh chord as well
and it turns them into what we call secondary Dom dominance and a secondary dominant is when we are
tonicizing any chord any diatonic chord within the series with a dominant seventh chord okay so over
here in Bar Nine we're back and essentially doing A2 so E flat major seven to B flat minor seven
E flat seven two a flat major seven a flat minor seven d flat seven that's that back door dominant
to the one six two five one now oftentimes again when we're talking about different a sections we
are thinking of them as similar right they're almost always similar to each other so A1 is
almost exactly the same as A2 in most Jazz standards usually it's the last two bars of
the a section that are different and usually the last a section the second a section it resolves to
a one chord where it kind of resolves versus the first it helps turn you around to the top again so
essentially what I'm saying is if you understand the first a really well if you learn the first a
that means you basically have the song actually it means you've learned the song 75 percent if it's
an a a b a form government like Misty is because you already know 1A now you know the second day
with one slight variation and that means you know the third a because the third a is almost always
the same as the second day we'll take a look at that in one second okay so now before we move
on by the way I just wanted to mention that we actually have a full study of Misti in our ljs
Inner Circle membership so we have obviously this chord analysis but improvisation exercises that
we do a training video a composed solo that you can learn from our in-house composer and
a really awesome community of other musicians who are all working and practicing That Tune together
and practice itineraries to help you learn in one month so if you're interested in checking that out
do check out the link in the description or in the show notes if you're interested in the full study
so with that being said it just means we now have to learn 25 of the song which is the bridge the
B section and we start the B section with a 2 5 1 to a flat major now I have this color-coded yellow
because blue means the parent key Center E flat major and yellow means tonicizing the IV chord A
flat major right so we have a lot of yellow here on the sheet so we have B flat minor seven E flat
seven a flat major seven now again important to relate the melody to what these chords are
oh
foreign
That's The Melody of that section right there so having The Melodies the context is really
important to helping you memorize the chords once again but again as long as we understand diatonic
Harmony we see that this is B flat minor seven is a two E flat seven is a five and a five major
seven is a four chord and then we have this brief E flat seven five going back to the A
flat major because it sits on that a flat major for two bars otherwise right so basically just a
two five one to the four chord so as long as we understand our diatonic series how it all works
then we can start categorizing this the bridge is essentially starting out by going to the IV chord
now it's really just the next four bars that's the hardest to memorize in Misti and that's because we
start going outside of diatonic land which we've mostly done to this point other than this backdoor
dominant sequence that deceptive Cadence that we talked about which I color coded in green okay so
now we have this transition from a flat major now we're going up a half step to a minor seven okay
so a minor seven to D7 the way I would remember that is just simply going okay all we have to do
is start playing a two chord a half step up from a flat major 7 which is a minor seven to D7 now
I like to think about this as a hybrid two five of three right because if you think about what
the three chord is of E flat major it's G minor so a minor seven flat five D seven would be a
two five of three of G minor but that's not what's happening because we have we have an A minor seven
meaning that it's almost like we're borrowing from G major I call that a hybrid two five again not so
important that you don't completely understand that theory there but more just to go all right
this is like a 2 5 to G minor or G major whichever one you like to think about it that doesn't
resolve then it goes to a two five one to B flat major so C minor seven F seven B flat major then
some blues harmony with this e diminished seventh which really is just chromatically moving from the
e to the F minor seven F minor seven is the two five that brings us back to the one for the last
a section so again let's go back to these last four bars of the bridge because again they're
kind of the trickiest we're going up a half step from a flat major to a minor seven d seven right
it's like a two five to G of some sort then we're going two five one of B4 flat major seven okay now
again B flat major seven it's not related to E flat major right so that's where it can get
a little bit confusing so how whatever works for you to help make that connection I like to think
of well B flat is the fifth tone of the E flat major scale so I'm basically just playing a 2 5
to the fifth before I go to E flat major again so this really is a section that is really going to
need some extra memorization right versus just categorizing things but still all this can be
helpful a minor seven D7 C7 F7 five major seven e diminished seven F minor 7 B flat seven back
to the top of the a section right now you'll often see in real books this kind of simplified version
right here A minor seven d seven G minor seven C seven and then F minor seven b five seven so Chris
goes that a minor seven for one bar the D7 for two bars and G minor seven C seven F minor seven
B flat seven so that's like a simplified version that you'll see in real books and lead sheets
sometimes for Misty but the original changes are a minor seven d seven seam Minor 7 F7 B flat major 7
e diminished seven F minor seven B flat seven okay so now we're back on to the last a section which
again is really just an exact copy of the second a section we have the one chord to a two five to
four to a flat minor to d flat seven that's that back door dominant two one six two five
so the next big question obviously is how do I start improvising over top of these chord
changes because some of these chord changes are simple like two five ones or they're more
complicated either way you need to learn how to improvise over chord progressions as Jazz
musicians so I have a video on the screen right now called how to go from amateur to Pro level
solos it's gonna help give you some strategies right away that you can start applying to some
of these common chord progressions and it's going to help you start sounding great on Misty so check
that video out on the screen right now hope you found this video helpful if you did make
sure you like it make sure you subscribe to the channel and we'll see you in the next one cheers