Corcovado Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt

Section: A1 · Bars 1–7

D7 | D7 | Abdim7 | Abdim7 | Gm7 | C7 | Fmaj7

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.

See all the books

Start here Project 03 · Harmony

Play Corcovado in JamShed

The whole form, not just these bars: JamShed’s trio — double bass, drums and piano — plays it with you at the tempo and in the key you choose. Loop the bars that trip you up, mute the instrument you play, share the link.

▶ Open in JamShed

Harmonic analysis

Key

C major

Tonal center

C

Confidence

Low

Chords analysed

7

Read in C major, the key of the tune. Taken on its own, with nothing around it, this excerpt is just as easy to hear in F major — a few bars are often not enough to fix a tonic, and that ambiguity is a real property of the music rather than a gap in the analysis.

Chord	Roman numeral	Function	What it is doing	Confidence
D7	V7/V	Dominant	D7 is functioning as V7/V: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of G, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at V instead.	Low
D7	V7/V	Dominant	D7 is functioning as V7/V: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of G, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at V instead.	Low
Abdim7	bvi°7	Other	Abdim7 does not take a functional role in C. It sits on bVI and is best heard as colour, or as a sign that the tonal center has moved.	Low
Abdim7	bvi°7	Other	Abdim7 does not take a functional role in C. It sits on bVI and is best heard as colour, or as a sign that the tonal center has moved.	Low
Gm7	ii/IV	Predominant	Gm7 is the ii of a secondary ii-V. Together with C7 it prepares F, so the pair tonicizes IV without leaving the key.	High
C7	I7	Tonic	C7 is the tonic, but built as a dominant seventh — the sound that defines the blues. The tonic keeps a b7 and stays at home anyway. Also readable as V7/IV.	Medium
Fmaj7	IV	Predominant	Fmaj7 is the IV chord of C: subdominant. It moves away from the tonic without creating the pull of a dominant.	High

What the analyzer found in it

ii/IV - I7 - IVGm7 - C7 - Fmaj7

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

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 →

The complete analysis of Corcovado — every chord of the whole form, with its Roman numeral and its ii–V–Is marked on the chart — is in JamShed with the Practice Pass, ready to print. Open it in JamShed →

Why this example matters

Numbered against C major, the excerpt is V7/V – bvi°7 – ii/IV – I7 – IV. Inside those 7 chords there is a complete ii-V-I and at least one secondary dominant. Take the roots away and keep the third and seventh. In D7 that is Gb and C. Those two notes decide where the progression is going, and hearing them move is worth more than naming the chords. Stella by Starlight, How High the Moon and Ornithology use the same device, which is the argument for learning it once properly rather than three times by accident.

How the rest of Corcovado goes

Thirty-two bars plus a short ending, ABAC. It opens on D7 over A — the dominant of the dominant, with the fifth in the bass — and spends most of its length drifting through diminished chords and ii–Vs that point toward F and back without stating C. The home key only becomes clear near the end, which is why the tune feels like it is floating.

Corcovado on record

Jobim wrote it around 1960, and João Gilberto recorded it that year. The version on Getz/Gilberto (1964), sung in English by Astrud Gilberto with Stan Getz, made it known outside Brazil; the English lyric, “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars”, is by Gene Lees.

Analyze this progression

Open these chords in the analyzer and change them. Move one chord, substitute a dominant, take the ii away — the reading updates and tells you what you just did.

Open in Jazz Harmony Analyzer →

Corcovado — Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

The books behind this page

Jazz Harmony

The Jazz Guitar Shortcut

Harmonic Narrative

The Jazz Roadmap Lite

Play Corcovado in JamShed

Harmonic analysis

What the analyzer found in it

Why this example matters

How the rest of Corcovado goes

Corcovado on record

Analyze this progression

Related

ii-V-I

Secondary dominants

Stella by Starlight

How High the Moon

Ornithology

Jazz chord progressions