Charlie's Swing
Fri, 05/09/2014 - 09:36
Charlie's Swing is one of my favourite jam tracks from Play-Along Trax. It motors along nicely at 210 bpm in Bb and it's got a ii V I instead of the more usual V IV I. My question concerns bars 7 and 8 where we've got I ii iii and biii seventh chords. Standard stuff on guitar but not sure about harp. Is the concept here to just blow through the chord changes using the I chord's root/b7 (G/F) dyad then moving to its 5/5 (D/D) octave with the change to the octave intended to be a nod to the iii to biii even though the I chord's fifth (D) doesn't really work over the biii's m3 (Db)? Thanks!
Good morning SmokeJS. This is what's commonly known in the blues world as "Stormy Monday Changes," or at least it's the most famous example of it. Take a look at Music Theory Study 6, I walk through this chord progression and show the student how I approach tackling it.