Bluesette Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis | Niels Dalgaard
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Toots Thielemans · 1962 · B♭ major · 24 bars in 3/4

Bluesette — Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

A waltz built entirely from ii-V pairs walking down the cycle. Nothing in it is unusual on its own; what is unusual is that a tune this diatonic sustains thirty-two bars without repeating a cadence.

ii-V-I

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt

Form: 24 bars in 3/4 · Bars 1–8

Bbmaj7 | Am7b5 D7 | Gm7 | Gm7 | Cm7 F7 | Bbmaj7

This is a short excerpt quoted for analysis, not the full chart, and this composition is very likely still in copyright. Published versions and recordings disagree with each other about the rest of the tune, and often about these bars too.

The books behind this page

Every one of these tunes is assembled out of the same handful of harmonic resources. Jazz Harmony is those resources, explained in the order in which they build on each other.

Start here Project 03 · Harmony

Jazz Harmony

From tradition to the expectation framework · For any instrument Project 05 · Harmony

Harmonic Narrative

A practical method for creating and understanding harmonic progressions through expectation Project 04 · Jazz guitar

Jazz Guitar Comping

Creating direction through harmony, rhythm and the expectation framework

Harmonic analysis

Key
Bb major
Tonal center
Bb
Confidence
High
Chords analysed
8
ChordRoman numeralFunctionWhat it is doingConfidence
Bbmaj7bIIITonicBbmaj7 is bIII — the relative major of Gm. It is a tonic-side chord, and it is the usual door between the two keys.High
Am7b5iiøPredominantAm7b5 is the iiø7 of Gm: the predominant of a minor key.High
D7V7DominantD7 is the dominant of Gm. In a minor key it borrows its major third from harmonic minor — that raised note is the leading tone.High
Gm7iTonicGm7 is the tonic of Gm. It is where the progression is at rest.High
Gm7iTonicGm7 is the tonic of Gm. It is where the progression is at rest.High
Cm7iiPredominantCm7 is the ii chord of Bb: the classic predominant. It prepares the dominant and almost always moves to it.High
F7V7DominantF7 is the dominant of Bb. Its third and seventh form a tritone, and that tritone is what makes the tonic feel due.High
Bbmaj7ITonicBbmaj7 is the tonic of Bb. It is where the progression is at rest.High

What the analyzer found in it

Relative keyG minor

Bars 1-4 are in G minor, the relative key. The notes are the same; the center is not.

iiø - V7 - iAm7b5 - D7 - Gm7

A complete minor ii-V-i in Gm, with the half-diminished ii and a dominant that borrows its leading tone from harmonic minor.

ii - V7 - ICm7 - F7 - Bbmaj7

A complete ii-V-I in Bb. Predominant, dominant, tonic: the sentence jazz harmony is built out of.

V - IF7 - Bbmaj7

The progression closes with an authentic cadence in Bb.

High, medium and low next to each numeral are judgements about musical context, not probabilities. A low rating marks a bar that can honestly be read more than one way. How the ratings are decided →

Why this example matters

Against a tonic of Bb major the passage numbers as bIII – iiø – V7 – i – ii – I. Inside those 8 chords there is a complete ii-V-I. Strip it to two notes per chord, the third and the seventh, and play it under tempo. D7 gives you Gb and C; follow that pair from chord to chord and the voice leading becomes audible in a way the root motion never makes it. Once you can hear it here, it is hard to miss in Autumn Leaves, All The Things You Are and Tune Up.

How the rest of Bluesette goes

A jazz waltz whose harmony is a long descending chain of ii-V pairs running most of the way around the cycle of fifths, which is the opposite of what the title suggests — there is very little blues in it. The three-four metre changes how the cadences land: each ii-V occupies a full bar plus, so the harmonic rhythm is slower relative to the beat than the chord count implies, and the piece feels more spacious than its chart looks.

Bluesette on record

Toots Thielemans wrote and recorded it in 1962, playing it on both harmonica and whistled guitar — a combination that was his signature and that no one has successfully imitated. A lyric was added later by Norman Gimbel. It is one of very few jazz standards written by a Belgian musician and one of even fewer whose composer was best known for the harmonica.

Analyze this progression

Load the progression and start altering it. Every edit is re-read from scratch, so you can test a hunch about one chord without rewriting the rest.

Open in Jazz Harmony Analyzer →

Related

ii-V-I

What this device is, and the other standards in the library that use it.

Read →

Autumn Leaves

Joseph Kosma · 1945 · B♭ major / G minor

Chord progression →

All The Things You Are

Jerome Kern · 1939 · A♭ major

Chord progression →

Tune Up

Miles Davis · 1953 · D major

Chord progression →

Jazz chord progressions

The families every standard is assembled from, with examples from the library.

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