Ja-Da Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt

Section: A · Bars 1–8

C | A7 | Dm7 | G7 | C | A7 | Dm7 | G7

This is a short excerpt, not the full chart. The composition dates from 1918 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

C major

Tonal center

C

Confidence

High

Chords analysed

8

Chord	Roman numeral	Function	What it is doing	Confidence
C	I	Tonic	C is the tonic of C. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
A7	V7/ii	Dominant	A7 is functioning as V7/ii: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of D, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at ii instead.	High
Dm7	ii	Predominant	Dm7 is the ii chord of C: the classic predominant. It prepares the dominant and almost always moves to it.	High
G7	V7	Dominant	G7 is the dominant of C. Its third and seventh form a tritone, and that tritone is what makes the tonic feel due.	High
C	I	Tonic	C is the tonic of C. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
A7	V7/ii	Dominant	A7 is functioning as V7/ii: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of D, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at ii instead.	High
Dm7	ii	Predominant	Dm7 is the ii chord of C: the classic predominant. It prepares the dominant and almost always moves to it.	High
G7	V7	Dominant	G7 is the dominant of C. Its third and seventh form a tritone, and that tritone is what makes the tonic feel due.	High

What the analyzer found in it

ii - V7 - IDm7 - G7 - C

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

ii - V7Dm7 - G7

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

half cadenceG7

The progression stops on the dominant of C — a half cadence. It is unfinished on purpose.

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

Read in C major, these bars come out as I – V7/ii – ii – V7. Inside those 8 chords there is a complete ii-V-I and at least one secondary dominant. The shortest way in is a two-voice reduction: third and seventh only, slowly. A7 contributes Db and G, and where that pair resolves is the whole story of the passage. You will meet the same move again in Autumn Leaves, All The Things You Are and Tune Up, transposed and at a different pace.

How the rest of Ja-Da goes

Sixteen bars, four chords, and one of the simplest forms that ever became a standard — the harmony is essentially a repeated turnaround. That is precisely why it is useful: the same four-chord cycle that appears at the end of hundreds of tunes is here extended into an entire piece, so it can be heard as a form rather than as a transition. Anything you can play over this you can play over the last four bars of most standards.

Ja-Da on record

Bob Carleton published it in 1918 and it was an immediate popular success, helped by a lyric that is mostly nonsense syllables and therefore easy to remember. It has stayed in the traditional jazz repertoire ever since and is often the first tune taught to a beginning jazz ensemble, on the grounds that a group can play it competently within a single rehearsal.

Analyze this progression

The excerpt is loaded and editable. Swap a chord for its tritone substitute, delete the preparation, borrow one from the parallel minor, and watch which numerals change and which do not.

Open in Jazz Harmony Analyzer →

Ja-Da — 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 Ja-Da goes

Ja-Da on record

Analyze this progression

Related

ii-V-I

Secondary dominants

Autumn Leaves

All The Things You Are

Tune Up

Jazz chord progressions