Donna Lee Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt Valid harmonic variant

Section: A · Bars 1–8

Ab | Ab | Ab7 | Ab7 | Db | Dbm | Ab | F7

The excerpt follows Indiana, the tune Donna Lee is built on. Bebop charts commonly bebop-ise bar 2 into E♭m7 A♭7 instead of holding the tonic.

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

Harmonic analysis

Key

Ab major

Tonal center

Ab

Confidence

High

Chords analysed

8

Chord	Roman numeral	Function	What it is doing	Confidence
Ab	I	Tonic	Ab is the tonic of Ab. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Ab	I	Tonic	Ab is the tonic of Ab. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Ab7	I7	Tonic	Ab7 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.	High
Ab7	I7	Tonic	Ab7 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
Db	IV	Predominant	Db is the IV chord of Ab: subdominant. It moves away from the tonic without creating the pull of a dominant.	High
Dbm	iv	Predominant	Dbm 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
Ab	I	Tonic	Ab is the tonic of Ab. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
F7	V7/ii	Dominant	F7 is functioning as V7/ii: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of Bb, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at ii instead.	Medium

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 Ab major the passage numbers as I – I7 – IV – iv – V7/ii. Inside those 8 chords there is at least one secondary dominant. Strip it to two notes per chord, the third and the seventh, and play it under tempo. Ab7 gives you C and Gb; 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 Stella by Starlight, How High the Moon and Ornithology.

How the rest of Donna Lee goes

A contrafact on Back Home Again in Indiana, taken considerably faster than the source and written as a continuous stream of eighth notes with almost no rests for thirty-two bars. The harmony adds ii chords in front of the original’s dominants, which gives the line more places to turn, but the real difficulty is physical rather than harmonic: it is one long phrase, and the standard test of having learned it is being able to play it without breathing in the wrong place.

Donna Lee on record

Recorded in 1947 at a Charlie Parker session and credited to Miles Davis, who was on the date — the attribution has been questioned for decades, with several participants recalling it differently. It is a standard audition piece for bass players since Jaco Pastorius recorded it on electric bass in 1976, a version that changed expectations of the instrument permanently.

Analyze this progression

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Donna Lee — Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

The books behind this page

Jazz Harmony

Harmonic Narrative

Jazz Guitar Comping

Harmonic analysis

Why this example matters

How the rest of Donna Lee goes

Donna Lee on record

Analyze this progression

Related

Secondary dominants

Stella by Starlight

How High the Moon

Ornithology

Jazz chord progressions