A is Major+Minor B is Minor+Major C is Minor plus Minor
Take each dominant and jump back one step in the cycle of fifths (ie D7 becomes Am7b5/D7, F7 becomes Cm F7).
When the progression follows along the cycle of fifths add chords to it from the cycle to fill the gaps if they fit. If they don't fit then use the dominant of the chord which follows the gap to fill the gap and give you an even one chord per bar stucture.
Minor, Am7b5 D7b5 Gm6 (G7b9)
Major, Cm7 F7 BbMaj7 EbMaj7
Thats nearly all but there is one other thing. In the C section which repeats the minor to get back to the Am7b5 from the Gm a chromatic move is often used (Gm,Gb7,Fm,E7)
.So what is really happening ? Well we want to get to Am7b5 from Gm and the chord which does that is E7, he Gbb7 is a tritone substitution for C7 which is the dominant of Fm which is the tritone of Bm7b5 which is the minor half of the dominant pair of Bm7b5/E7.
So here are those moves mapped out.
Gm to Am7b5
Gm E7 to .... Gm Bm7b5 E7...... Gm C7 Bm7b5 E7..... Gm7 Gb6 Bb7b5 E7... Gm7 Gb6 Fm E7....
THE TRULY WONDERFUL AND AMAZING THING (LOOKING AT THAT LAST SET OF SEEMINGLY COMPLICATED TRANSFORMATIONS) IS YOUR BRAIN GETS THIS INTUITIVELY RIGHT AWAY WITHOUT A MOMENTS THOUGHT. When you play a solo you can take any of the routes from the six lines immediately above when choosing notes and SO LONG AS YOU PLAY MUSICALLY COHERENT PHRASES it will sound just great, in fact usually much better if you choose a different one from the rhythm section.
It would be a lot of work to sketch this out as it deserves so instead here is a youtube link to a playalong in the guitar friendly key of E minor
Here is a completely differnt way to come up with the A section.
Here is a minor blues typical of South American and Carribean tunes.
iv i V i
In the preferred key for Autumn Leaves Gm
Cm Gm D7 Gm
As the tune demonstrates the minor and relative major are pretty much interchangeable in jazz. So lets do that.
Cm Bb D7 Gm
Now at two bars per chord that might not give a soloist enough ear candy for inspiration so Put a chord from the cycle of fifths between each
Cm F7 Bb Eb Am7b5 D7 Gm (G7 to get back)
There are other ways to look at this.
A soloist in jazz is expected to choose alternative changes even when the band are playing completely differently in order to make his solo sound like Jazz and not classical music. In classical music the melodic material is always in agreement with the chord sequence NOT the case in jazz, only bad jazz books.
my approach to the chromatic move in your "c section" is, thinking modally, the relation between G dorian and F# phyrgian dom...the tritone location is the same, so one could exploit that (Bb-E relation) to cover both chords, then it's the same a whole step down. But tha's flamenco fusion for ya.
trying your examples, I am hearing some pretty nasty dissonances with things like implied modes of Bm7b5, C7 (still works as tritone sub), or Bb7b5 in that spot.
my approach to the chromatic move in your "c section" is, thinking modally, the relation between G dorian and F# phyrgian dom...the tritone location is the same, so one could exploit that (Bb-E relation) to cover both chords, then it's the same a whole step down. But tha's flamenco fusion for ya.
wow, you really did it, nice one GB!!! Thankyou!!!
It's my daughter's birthday today, so I'm wonderring how far the foro jazz men could go riping up Happy Birthday?
Melody as normal in C major (starts on pick up G note) jaleo type compas:
Happy Birthday to (C9#11.....x32332) you....happy (Bsus(b9)....x24500) birthday to (E7#9....076780) you....happy (Am9...575587) birthday dear (Ab+...4x6550) Dudnita, happy (Amaj7+/C#....x47664) birthday to (C9#11...same as before) you....(Bsus(b9)... same as before) and many more... (Ebmaj7#11...x67786 or x11233)
B7Happy E6,birth,E7day to F#13you F7#happy F# minor birth B7day to Emaj7 you D#7happy G#7(+9)birth G#+(5)day C#m9 Dud Cm7 nita C#7b13happy F#9 birth C7 day B7 to Fmaj7 Ema7(add6add9) (youooohoo)
Guitarbudda, how is G#+(5) different to G#? Do you mean to augment the 5th to a flat 6?
I agree that was a weird chord symbol...he could also mean you keep the natural 5 in the chord? In my head...because he is in "Alegria", the easier way to think of the chord (if there is or is not the natural 5th) is E+/G#....or Emaj7+....either way the B# is the thing.
Oh, and on my Amaj7+/C#...the extra cool thing is the vocal melody comes in on the B natural before going to A...so technically you can call it Amaj9+/C# for that first beat. Likewise the chord before it could be viewed as Abmaj7+...again because the voice goes up to G natural.
