- Bird changes
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The Blues for Alice changes, Bird changes, Bird Blues, or New York Blues changes, is a chord progression, often named after Charlie Parker ("Bird"), which is a variation of the twelve-bar blues.
The progression uses a series of sequential II-V or secondary II-V progressions, and has been used in pieces such as Parker's "Blues for Alice" and Toots Thielemans's "Bluesette"[1].
Structure
The blues progression, in B♭, is as follows:
| Bb | Bb | Bb | Bb | | Eb | Eb | Bb | Bb | | F | Eb | Bb | Bb ||
Different notations Chord Function Numerical Roman
NumeralTonic T 1 I Sub-dominant S 4 IV Dominant D 5 V The Bird Blues progression, in B♭, is as follows[2]:
| BbMaj7 | Amin7b5 / D7 | Gmin7 / C7 | Fmin7 / Bb7 | | Eb7 | Ebmin7 / Ab7 | Dmin7 / G7 | C#min7 / F#7 | | Cmin7 | F7 | BbMaj7 / G7 | Cmin7 / F7 ||
Bb: Gmin: F(min): Eb: | I | ii / V | ii / V | ii / V | Eb: G: F#(min): F(min): | I7 | subii / subV | subii / subV | subii / subV | Bb: | ii | V | I7 / VI7 | ii / V ||
Note the cycle of ii-V progressions leading to the IV chord (E♭7), and the tritone substitution of the dominant chords leading by half-step to the V chord (F7)[2].
Sources
- ^ Hatfield, Ken (2005). Jazz and the Classical Guitar Theory and Applications, p.182. ISBN 0786672366.
- ^ a b Baerman, Noah (1998). Complete Jazz Keyboard Method: Intermediate Jazz Keyboard, p.63. ISBN 0882849115.
Chord progressions Three-chord ii-V-I turnaround · V-IV-I turnaround · Eight-bar blues · Twelve-bar blues · Sixteen-bar blues · Passamezzo moderno
Four-chord 50s progression · Andalusian cadence · Folia · Montgomery-Ward bridge · Passamezzo antico · Pop-Punk · Romanesca
More Circle progression · Omnibus progression · Pachelbel's Canon · Ragtime progression · Rhythm changes · Bird changes · Stomp progression
Other Categories:- Chord progressions
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