Moanin’ Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt

Section: A1 · Bars 1–4

Fm7 | Db7 C7 | Fm7 | Db7 C7

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

F minor

Tonal center

F

Confidence

High

Chords analysed

6

Chord	Roman numeral	Function	What it is doing	Confidence
Fm7	i	Tonic	Fm7 is the tonic of Fm. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Db7	subV7/V	Dominant	Db7 is a tritone substitute — subV7/V. It carries the same tritone as G7, the real dominant of C, but resolves down a semitone instead of down a fifth. Also readable as bVI7.	High
C7	V7	Dominant	C7 is the dominant of Fm. In a minor key it borrows its major third from harmonic minor — that raised note is the leading tone.	High
Fm7	i	Tonic	Fm7 is the tonic of Fm. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Db7	subV7/V	Dominant	Db7 is a tritone substitute — subV7/V. It carries the same tritone as G7, the real dominant of C, but resolves down a semitone instead of down a fifth. Also readable as bVI7.	High
C7	V7	Dominant	C7 is the dominant of Fm. In a minor key it borrows its major third from harmonic minor — that raised note is the leading tone.	High

What the analyzer found in it

half cadenceC7

The progression stops on the dominant of Fm — 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

Numbered against F minor, the excerpt is i – subV7/V – V7. Inside those 6 chords there is a tritone substitute and a chord borrowed from the parallel mode. Take the roots away and keep the third and seventh. In Db7 that is F and B. Those two notes decide where the progression is going, and hearing them move is worth more than naming the chords. Blues for Alice, All Blues and So What use the same device, which is the argument for learning it once properly rather than three times by accident.

How the rest of Moanin’ goes

The head is call and response — a short phrase answered by the rhythm section, repeated, which comes directly out of gospel and church practice rather than from the songbook tradition. The A sections are harmonically plain and the bridge supplies a chain of cadences that moves considerably more than anything around it. The tune is the standard example of hard bop’s deliberate turn back toward blues and gospel material after bebop’s harmonic complexity.

Moanin’ on record

Bobby Timmons wrote it and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers recorded it in 1958 as the title track of the album that made the group internationally known. Timmons wrote several pieces in this vein for Blakey and for Cannonball Adderley, and this is the most successful of them. A lyric was added later by Jon Hendricks.

Analyze this progression

Open these chords in the analyzer and change them. Move one chord, substitute a dominant, take the ii away — the reading updates and tells you what you just did.

Open in Jazz Harmony Analyzer →

Moanin’ — 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 Moanin’ goes

Moanin’ on record

Analyze this progression

Related

Tritone substitution

Modal interchange

Blues for Alice

All Blues

So What

Jazz chord progressions