Post 458: MUSICAL TUNE 'GOING DOWN THE LADDER'

I'm going to be a bit technical today, so you will have to excuse me. I want to point out something about a particular chord sequence I find interesting. It's the sort of thing that for me makes our music a constantly fascinating study.

I have written before about the JaDa Chord Progression. You find it at the start of such tunes as these:

It Had To Be You

Ja Da

I'm Alone Because I Love You

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Nobody's Sweetheart Now

The JaDa Progression goes from the tonic to the 6th and then follows the Circle of Fifths. So, in the key of G, for example, the first few bars could be:

G

G

E7

E7

A7

A7

D7

Etc.

Now consider that 1931 classic song entitled Need a Little Sugar in my Bowl, composed by Dally Small, J. Tim Brymn, and Clarence Williams, and made famous by Bessie Smith.

Its Chorus consists of 18 bars (basically 16 bars plus a tag); and it could be said to use the JaDa Progression from Bars 1 to 8, and then again from Bar 9.

But there is a subtle difference from the standard JaDa Progression. Using the key of G again for my example, you will see that - to get from the opening tonic G chord down to the second chord of the progression (E7), it 'goes down the ladder' - passing in half-bars through the chords of F#7 and F7.

G:F#7

F7:E7

A7

A7

D7

D7

G

Etc.

That's what helps to give this song its special flavour. Can you think of any other similar tunes? I can offer Blue Turning Grey; but then I'm stumped.

By the way, if you listen to Bessie Smith performing the song by clicking on here, remember that the chord sequence does not occur immediately at the start (which is the Verse). It comes where the Chorus begins (with the words 'I need a little sugar....').

One other point I can add about this business of 'going down the ladder' concerns the tune I'm Beginning To See The Light. The Middle Eight begins on the chord of III7 and works its way through to the chord of V7. That is normal enough. But it gets there in a most unusual way, which also involves going down a ladder.

The sequence of chords in the eight bars is:
III7 - III7 - IIIb7 - IIIb7 -  II7  -  II7 -  VIb7 - V7.

It produces a very interesting and unusual effect. I think the technique going on here is what is known as Tritone Substitution - but now I am becoming so technical that I'm out of my depth!

Post 290: MINOR 7ths AND FLATTENED 5ths

Don't get me wrong: I think the Minor 7th with Flattened Fifth is one of the loveliest and most luscious in the entire lexicon of chords. If you doubt me, try playing it on your keyboard.

C minor 7th with flattened fifth, for example, comprises these notes:

C   -   Eb   -  Gb  - Bb

But I always find it awkward to play. I am a poor keyboard player, so when I am trying to play a tune from a fake book or busker's book and I come across a minor 7th with flattened fifth, I'm stumped. I have to work out what the notes are; and I can't get my fingers into position before it's too late and I'm on to the next bar. It's the flattened fifth that throws me.

However, I discovered that if - instead of playing a minor 7th with flattened 5th - you play the minor 6th of the chord 3 semitones above it, you achieve virtually the same effect. You are using the same notes, but in a different inversion.

So, for example, play the Cm7(-5) above as Eb Minor 6th:

Eb  -  Gb  -  Bb  -  C

It works.

So now, when I'm asked to play Dm7(-5), I actually play Fm6; when I'm asked to play Em7(-5), I actually play Gm6; and so on.

It's a simple little trick that I stumbled on recently. If you know much about music, you may be surprised that I was unaware of something so 'basic'.

But it has been a helpful discovery to me; and I hope it may benefit some readers.

For an example of this chord in action, think of the opening line of that lovely old song from 1913 'If I had my way, dear, forever there'd be a garden of roses for you and for me....'. The word way is sung with the chord of the minor 7th with flattened fifth.

Since I wrote the above, Allen Robnett has kindly added to my musical education by sending me this very helpful comment and tip:

Are you aware that another name for the  x7-5  is  x half dim  or  xf. (The x represents any minor chord here).  That means that if you are conversant with a dim7 chord, all you have to do is raise the 7 a half step and you have the minor 7 flat 5.

And still further thoughts have been sent to me by my old friend John Burns:

My experience of the m7b5 chord is very limited; it does not feature very often in the chords given for the majority of the jazz tunes that I am familiar with. However, in any of the chord sequences in which I have come across it I think it is extremely effective, though generally not essential. It can therefore be used as a embellishment, an example being at the start of Georgia on my Mind (often played in F) where

F /A7    /Dm can be rendered as F        /Em7b5  A7 /Dm

which I think sounds really great.

It turns up as one of various possible chords in the curious downward chromatic motion in Blue Turning Grey Over You:  Bb     /A7      /Dm7b5     /G7

again with excellent effect, and a fine accompaniment to the “middle eight” of Sweet Sue is: (in F)

F    /Am   /Am7b5    /D7     /Gm     /Gm     /Gm7b5      /C7

When looking through the various chord books, I have noticed that usually, though not always, the m7b5 is followed by a dominant 7th chord with a root a fourth higher (fifth lower) than that of the m7b5 chord, as it does in all the examples above. The fingering of these chords on my banjo is not particularly easy with the tuning I use (CGBD). However one inversion (where the root is at the bottom) is infinitely easier than all the others and the move from that inversion to the dominant 7th as described is very simple, requiring the first finger to slide one fret backwards while the other fingers stay in position. The change to the new chord also sounds particularly smooth from this inversion. This simple move led me to notice that, as the first finger is actually covering two strings, the change between these two chords involves the lowering by one semitone of two of the notes of the m7b5 chord, these being the flattened 5th and the 7th , for example:

Cm7b5 to F7 consists of

C, Eb, Gb, Bb      going to   C, Eb, F, A   which is, in root position, F, A, C, Eb, in other words F7. Fascinating, isn’t it; at least, I think so!

(So do I  - ed.)

There is nothing particularly odd about this; there are many chord changes involving the movement of one or two notes by a semitone (the “Dragon chord” is an example) but it doesn’t alter the fact that I find it all very fascinating!

The other feature of the m7b5 chord, which has already been mentioned by you, is its having the same notes as a m6 chord with a root three semitones higher. This causes some confusion for me with the same “chord shapes” being involved but different inversions. A combination of that and the fact that I don’t use these chords all that often is a bit of a problem but, of course, also a challenge…………..! 

Post 206: 'BLUE TURNING GREY'

Blue Turning Grey Over You is a tune written in 1929 by the great Fats Waller. It achieves a memorable, haunting effect and yet in theory its structure could hardly be simpler.

In common with many popular songs of the time, it has a 32-bar chorus, with the structure:

A  A  B  A

- each letter representing eight bars.

The 'middle eight' (B) uses a fairly common chord sequence, but with a sad, descending melody spread over each chord.

Each of the three A sections begins like this:-

I have just noticed that Blue Turning Grey and Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl both begin with the same very unusual but effective chord sequence. But do we know any other tune in which the chords start on the tonic and then descend the stairs, a semitone at time, like this? In the Key of C, I mean:

C for one whole bar

B7 for one whole bar

Bb7 for one whole bar

A7 for one whole bar.

I can't think of others (though I believe the chorus of Jelly Roll Morton's Sweet Substitute comes very close). That is the trick that gives Blue Turning Grey its magic. That and the way the melody note in the second and fourth bars of this phrase are (unusually) the seventh of the chord being played. 

By the way, the alternative chord in red above doesn't make much difference: the notes are pretty much the same.

The chord changes bar by bar.

In the Chorus of Need a Little Sugar, the chord changes in half-bar intervals:

Since I wrote the above, Barrie Quilliam has e-mailed me to say he can suggest five more tunes that begin by going down exactly the same ladder.

The tunes are I Thought About You, Tain't No Sin To Take Off Your Skin and Dance Around in your Bones, Hard-Hearted Hannah, I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling and Rosetta.

Thanks, Barrie. I'll imagine all tunes in the key of C.

It certainly works well in I Thought About You, though the descent is over the first TWO bars rather than the first four:

C : B7 | Bb7 : A7 |   D7   |  Am7 : D7  |

In the case of Rosetta, I can't quite get the ladder to work for me. I would play:

C   |     B7    |   E7  |   A7

or as a possible alternative:

C  |   B7   |     C  : B7.Bb7 |   A7

(which gets closer to the ladder).

As for Tain't No Sin, I personally play:

C   |  B   |  E7   |  A7

and I can't get Bb7 to sound right in the third bar where I have the E7.

Hard-Hearted Hannah and I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling I find to be very close to Blue Turning Grey, though not exactly the same chords over the first four bars. 

I suppose it all goes to prove this: there are plenty of harmonic variations for so many songs.