Impressions Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt

Modal AABA · A section (D dorian, bars 1–16) beside the bridge (E♭ dorian, bars 17–24) — two places, not four consecutive bars

Dm7 | Dm7 | Ebm7 | Ebm7

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

D# minor

Tonal center

D#

Confidence

High

Chords analysed

4

Chord	Roman numeral	Function	What it is doing	Confidence
Dm7	vii	Chromatic	Dm7 approaches Ebm7 chromatically from below, keeping the same chord shape. The motion is voice leading, not function.	Low
Dm7	vii	Chromatic	Dm7 approaches Ebm7 chromatically from below, keeping the same chord shape. The motion is voice leading, not function.	Low
Ebm7	i	Tonic	Ebm7 is the tonic of D#m. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Ebm7	i	Tonic	Ebm7 is the tonic of D#m. It is where the progression is at rest.	High

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 D# minor the excerpt reads vii – i. Inside those 4 chords there is a chord borrowed from the parallel mode. There is no dominant to lean on, so the phrase is carried by whichever note refuses to settle. Sustain each chord long enough to hear which one that is before moving on. The excerpt above is note for note the same as the one quoted on So What, so the reading below is identical on those pages too. That is not a shortcut: these tunes really are built on the same harmony, and what separates them is the melody written over it. 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 Impressions goes

The same thirty-two-bar shape as So What and the same two scales in the same places — this is a contrafact on a modal form rather than on a chord progression, which is a rarer thing. What differs is tempo and intent. Where the older piece is slow enough that a player can consider each phrase, this one is normally taken fast, and at speed the absence of chord changes stops being spacious and becomes a demand: sixteen bars is a very long time to stay interesting on one scale.

Impressions on record

John Coltrane had been playing it live for some time before the 1963 studio recording, and the long concert versions — some running well past a quarter of an hour — are where the piece did its work. The relationship to So What was obvious to everyone at the time and was never disguised; Coltrane had played on the original session. Both tunes are now taught together, and playing them back to back is the standard way of showing what tempo alone does to modal material.

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.

Open in Jazz Harmony Analyzer →

Impressions — 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 Impressions goes

Impressions on record

Analyze this progression

Related

Tritone substitution

Modal interchange

Blues for Alice

All Blues

So What

Jazz chord progressions