Four Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt

Section: A · Bars 1–8

Ebmaj7 | Ebmaj7 | Ebm7 | Ab7 | Fm7 | Fm7 | Abm7 | Db7

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.

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Start here Project 03 · Harmony

Play Four 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.

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Harmonic analysis

Key

E♭ major

Tonal center

Eb

Confidence

Medium

Chords analysed

8

Chord	Roman numeral	Function	What it is doing	Confidence
Ebmaj7	I	Tonic	Ebmaj7 is the tonic of Eb. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Ebmaj7	I	Tonic	Ebmaj7 is the tonic of Eb. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Ebm7	ii/bVII	Predominant	Ebm7 is the ii of a secondary ii-V. Together with Ab7 it prepares Db, so the pair tonicizes bVII without leaving the key. Also readable as i.	Medium
Ab7	IV7	Predominant	Ab7 is the IV of a blues, built as a dominant seventh. In this context that is its normal quality, not a dominant of anything. Also readable as V7/bVII / subV7/iii.	Low
Fm7	ii	Predominant	Fm7 is the ii chord of Eb: the classic predominant. It prepares the dominant and almost always moves to it.	High
Fm7	ii	Predominant	Fm7 is the ii chord of Eb: the classic predominant. It prepares the dominant and almost always moves to it.	High
Abm7	iv	Predominant	Abm7 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. Also readable as ii/bIII.	Medium
Db7	bVII7	Modal interchange	Db7 is bVII7 — the backdoor dominant. It comes from the parallel minor and resolves up a whole tone to the tonic instead of down a fifth. Also readable as V7/bIII / subV7/vi.	Medium

What the analyzer found in it

ii/bVII - IV7Ebm7 - Ab7

A ii-V pointing at Db, which never arrives. The preparation is complete, the resolution is not.

iv - bVII7Abm7 - Db7

A ii-V pointing at Gb, which never arrives. The preparation is complete, the resolution is not.

modal interchangeDb7

Modal interchange: Db7 come from the parallel mode of Eb, not from the key itself.

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 Four — 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

In E♭ major the excerpt reads I – ii/bVII – IV7 – ii – iv – bVII7. Inside those 8 chords there is a ii-V that is left unresolved and a chord borrowed from the parallel mode. Play it slowly with only two voices — the third and seventh of each chord. In Ab7 those are C and Gb, and watching where that pair goes next tells you more about the progression than the root movement does. The same device turns up in Misty, ’Round Midnight and Just Friends, in other keys and at other tempos.

How the rest of Four goes

Thirty-two bars, ABAC. The A section is the excerpt: two ii–Vs that land somewhere unexpected, the second being the backdoor ii–V that returns to E♭ from below. The second half of each eight-bar phrase is a chromatic ii–V pair — F♯m7–B7 into Fm7–B♭7 — so the tune alternates between the backdoor and the side-slip, two different ways of approaching the same tonic.

Four on record

Credited to Miles Davis, who recorded it in 1954 and kept it in his repertoire for a decade; the live album Four & More (1964) takes its title from it. The composition is often attributed instead to the saxophonist Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, as is Tune Up.

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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Four — Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

The books behind this page

Jazz Harmony

The Jazz Guitar Shortcut

Harmonic Narrative

The Jazz Roadmap Lite

Play Four in JamShed

Harmonic analysis

What the analyzer found in it

Why this example matters

How the rest of Four goes

Four on record

Analyze this progression

Related

Modal interchange

ii-V-I

Secondary dominants

Backdoor progression

Misty

’Round Midnight

Just Friends

Jazz chord progressions