Just You, Just Me Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt

Section: A1 · Bars 1–8

C | C | D7 | D7 | Dm7 | G7 | C | C

This is a short excerpt, not the full chart. The composition dates from 1929 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
C	I	Tonic	C is the tonic of C. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
D7	V7/V	Dominant	D7 is functioning as V7/V: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of G, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at V instead.	Low
D7	V7/V	Dominant	D7 is functioning as V7/V: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of G, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at V instead.	Low
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
C	I	Tonic	C is the tonic of C. It is where the progression is at rest.	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.

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 C major the excerpt reads I – V7/V – ii – V7. Inside those 8 chords there is a complete ii-V-I and at least one secondary dominant. Play it slowly with only two voices — the third and seventh of each chord. In D7 those are Gb and C, and watching where that pair goes next tells you more about the progression than the root movement does. The same device turns up in Stella by Starlight, How High the Moon and Ornithology, in other keys and at other tempos.

How the rest of Just You, Just Me goes

A thirty-two-bar form whose A sections are driven by secondary dominants at a brisk harmonic rate, with a bridge that steps briefly to a related key. It is compact and moves well, and it is one of the tunes bebop players kept because the harmony gives a soloist a new target every two bars without ever becoming difficult to track.

Just You, Just Me on record

Jesse Greer wrote it in 1929 with lyricist Raymond Klages for a film. Thelonious Monk wrote “Evidence” over these changes, and that contrafact is among the most extreme in the repertoire — Monk kept the harmony and removed almost all of the melody, leaving isolated stabs. Hearing the source first makes Evidence intelligible; hearing Evidence first makes the source sound oddly crowded.

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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Just You, Just Me — 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 Just You, Just Me goes

Just You, Just Me on record

Analyze this progression

Related

ii-V-I

Secondary dominants

Stella by Starlight

How High the Moon

Ornithology

Jazz chord progressions