Bye Bye Blackbird Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt Valid harmonic variant

Section: A1

Sources agree the opening moves between I and ii and disagree about almost everything else. The borrowed minor iv here is a widely played substitution rather than a fixed bar, which is why no bar numbers are given.

This is a short excerpt, not the full chart. The composition dates from 1926 and is old enough that it is very likely in the public domain in the United States, which is why the excerpt runs longer here — but copyright status varies by territory and by edition, so treat that as context, not as legal advice.

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

Harmonic analysis

Key

F major

Tonal center

F

Confidence

High

Chords analysed

7

Chord	Roman numeral	Function	What it is doing	Confidence
Fmaj7	I	Tonic	Fmaj7 is the tonic of F. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Fmaj7	I	Tonic	Fmaj7 is the tonic of F. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Gm7	ii	Predominant	Gm7 is the ii chord of F: the classic predominant. It prepares the dominant and almost always moves to it.	High
C7	V7	Dominant	C7 is the dominant of F. Its third and seventh form a tritone, and that tritone is what makes the tonic feel due.	High
Fmaj7	I	Tonic	Fmaj7 is the tonic of F. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Bbm6	iv	Predominant	Bbm6 is a minor iv in a major key, borrowed from the parallel minor. Its b6 pulls down into the third of the tonic — one of the most recognisable sounds in the repertoire.	Medium
Fmaj7	I	Tonic	Fmaj7 is the tonic of F. It is where the progression is at rest.	High

What the analyzer found in it

ii - V7 - IGm7 - C7 - Fmaj7

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

IV - IBbm6 - Fmaj7

A plagal cadence in F: IV to I, arriving without a leading tone.

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

In F major the excerpt reads I – ii – V7 – iv. Inside those 7 chords there is a complete ii-V-I and a chord borrowed from the parallel mode. Play it slowly with only two voices — the third and seventh of each chord. In C7 those are E and Bb, and watching where that pair goes next tells you more about the progression than the root movement does. The same device turns up in Blues for Alice, All Blues and So What, in other keys and at other tempos.

How the rest of Bye Bye Blackbird goes

A thirty-two-bar song that stays in one key throughout and gets its variety from borrowed chords — minor-quality harmony appearing briefly inside a major key and resolving back — rather than from going anywhere. The melody is built from short phrases with rests between them, which leaves a great deal of room, and the tune is consequently a favourite for arrangements that reshape the rhythm entirely while leaving the harmony alone.

Bye Bye Blackbird on record

Published in 1926, music by Ray Henderson and lyric by Mort Dixon. Miles Davis recorded it in 1957 on ’Round About Midnight, and that version — medium tempo, understated, with the melody stated almost without ornament — is the one modern players work from. It is also the tune that opens the 1986 film Round Midnight, which introduced it to a wider audience.

Analyze this progression

Take these bars into the analyzer and interfere with them. The fastest way to learn what a chord was doing is to remove it and read what the analysis says instead.

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Bye Bye Blackbird — Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

The books behind this page

Jazz Harmony

Harmonic Narrative

Jazz Guitar Comping

Harmonic analysis

What the analyzer found in it

Why this example matters

How the rest of Bye Bye Blackbird goes

Bye Bye Blackbird on record

Analyze this progression

Related

ii-V-I

Modal interchange

Blues for Alice

All Blues

So What

Jazz chord progressions