Sandu Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt

Form: 12-bar blues · Bars 8–12

Gm7 C7 | Fm7 | Bb7 | Eb7 C7 | Fm7 Bb7

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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The whole form, not just these bars: JamShed’s trio — double bass, drums and piano — plays it with you at the tempo and in the key you choose. Loop the bars that trip you up, mute the instrument you play, share the link.

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Harmonic analysis

Key

E♭ major

Tonal center

Eb

Confidence

Low

Chords analysed

8

Chord	Roman numeral	Function	What it is doing	Confidence
Gm7	ii/ii	Predominant	Gm7 is the ii of a secondary ii-V. Together with C7 it prepares F, so the pair tonicizes ii without leaving the key. Also readable as iii.	High
C7	V7/ii	Dominant	C7 is functioning as V7/ii: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of F, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at ii instead.	High
Fm7	ii	Predominant	Fm7 is the ii chord of Eb: the classic predominant. It prepares the dominant and almost always moves to it.	High
Bb7	V7	Dominant	Bb7 is the dominant of Eb. Its third and seventh form a tritone, and that tritone is what makes the tonic feel due.	High
Eb7	I7	Tonic	Eb7 is the tonic, but built as a dominant seventh — the sound that defines the blues. The tonic keeps a b7 and stays at home anyway.	High
C7	V7/ii	Dominant	C7 is functioning as V7/ii: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of F, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at ii instead.	High
Fm7	ii	Predominant	Fm7 is the ii chord of Eb: the classic predominant. It prepares the dominant and almost always moves to it.	High
Bb7	V7	Dominant	Bb7 is the dominant of Eb. 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/ii - V7/ii - iiGm7 - C7 - Fm7

A complete minor ii-V-i in Fm, with the half-diminished ii and a dominant that borrows its leading tone from harmonic minor.

ii - V7 - I7Fm7 - Bb7 - Eb7

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

ii - V7Fm7 - Bb7

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

half cadenceBb7

The progression stops on the dominant of Eb — 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 →

The complete analysis of Sandu — 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

Against a tonic of E♭ major the passage numbers as ii/ii – V7/ii – ii – V7 – I7. Inside those 8 chords there is a complete ii-V-I and at least one secondary dominant. Strip it to two notes per chord, the third and the seventh, and play it under tempo. C7 gives you E and Bb; follow that pair from chord to chord and the voice leading becomes audible in a way the root motion never makes it. Once you can hear it here, it is hard to miss in Stella by Starlight, How High the Moon and Ornithology.

How the rest of Sandu goes

A plain twelve-bar blues in E♭: the IV chord in bar 2 and again in bars 5 and 6, back to the tonic, then the iii–VI–ii–V and the turnaround of the excerpt to close. The head is a riff-built bebop line, and the form is short enough that sessions usually take it at a lively medium tempo, where the work is phrasing over E♭7 and A♭7 rather than following changes.

Sandu on record

Clifford Brown wrote it and recorded it with the Clifford Brown–Max Roach Quintet on Study in Brown, made in February 1955 with Harold Land on tenor, Richie Powell on piano and George Morrow on bass. Brown died in a car accident the following year, at twenty-five, and this is one of the blues through which his playing is still taught.

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Sandu — Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

The books behind this page

Jazz Harmony

The Jazz Guitar Shortcut

Harmonic Narrative

The Jazz Roadmap Lite

Play Sandu in JamShed

Harmonic analysis

What the analyzer found in it

Why this example matters

How the rest of Sandu goes

Sandu on record

Analyze this progression

Related

ii-V-I

Secondary dominants

Stella by Starlight

How High the Moon

Ornithology

Jazz chord progressions