Joy Spring Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt

Section: A1 · Bars 1–6

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

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Harmonic analysis

Key

F major

Tonal center

F

Confidence

High

Chords analysed

10

Chord	Roman numeral	Function	What it is doing	Confidence
Fmaj7	I	Tonic	Fmaj7 is the tonic of F. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Gm7	ii	Predominant	Gm7 is the ii chord of F: the classic predominant. It prepares the dominant and almost always moves to it.	High
C7	V7	Dominant	C7 is the dominant of F. Its third and seventh form a tritone, and that tritone is what makes the tonic feel due.	High
Fmaj7	I	Tonic	Fmaj7 is the tonic of F. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Bbm7	iv	Predominant	Bbm7 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
Eb7	bVII7	Modal interchange	Eb7 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.	Medium
Am7	iii	Tonic	Am7 is the iii chord. It shares three notes with the tonic, so it often works as a softer stand-in for it.	Medium
Ab7	subV7/ii	Dominant	Ab7 is a tritone substitute — subV7/ii. It carries the same tritone as D7, the real dominant of G, but resolves down a semitone instead of down a fifth.	High
Gm7	ii	Predominant	Gm7 is the ii chord of F: the classic predominant. It prepares the dominant and almost always moves to it.	High
C7	V7	Dominant	C7 is the dominant of F. 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 - IGm7 - C7 - Fmaj7

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

iv - bVII7Bbm7 - Eb7

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

iii - subV7/ii - iiAm7 - Ab7 - Gm7

A ii-V-I where the dominant has been replaced by its tritone substitute: Ab7 in place of D7. The bass walks down by semitone into Gm7.

ii - V7Gm7 - C7

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

half cadenceC7

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

modal interchangeEb7

Modal interchange: Eb7 come from the parallel mode of F, 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 Joy Spring — 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 F major the excerpt reads I – ii – V7 – iv – bVII7 – iii – subV7/ii. Inside those 10 chords there is a complete ii-V-I, a tritone substitute and a chord borrowed from the parallel mode. Play it slowly with only two voices — the third and seventh of each chord. In C7 those are E and Bb, 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 Joy Spring goes

Thirty-two bars, AABA with a twist: the second A is the first transposed up a half step, to G♭, and the bridge moves again before the last A returns to F. A player who learns the A section has to learn it in two keys a semitone apart, which is exactly the exercise the tune was admired for. The melody is a continuous bebop line that outlines every chord change.

Joy Spring on record

Clifford Brown wrote it for his wife, LaRue, and recorded it with the Clifford Brown–Max Roach Quintet in 1954. Brown died two years later in a car accident at twenty-five; with Daahoud and Sandu it is among the compositions he left, and it became a standard test of a trumpet player’s fluency.

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Joy Spring — Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

The books behind this page

Jazz Harmony

The Jazz Guitar Shortcut

Harmonic Narrative

The Jazz Roadmap Lite

Play Joy Spring in JamShed

Harmonic analysis

What the analyzer found in it

Why this example matters

How the rest of Joy Spring goes

Joy Spring on record

Analyze this progression

Related

Modal interchange

ii-V-I

Tritone substitution

Backdoor progression

Misty

’Round Midnight

Just Friends

Jazz chord progressions