Skylark Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt

Section: A1 · Bars 1–5

Ebmaj7 Fm7 | Ebmaj7 Abmaj7 | Ebmaj7 A7 | Abmaj7 Gm7 C7 | F7

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

Play Skylark in JamShed

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

High

Chords analysed

10

Chord	Roman numeral	Function	What it is doing	Confidence
Ebmaj7	I	Tonic	Ebmaj7 is the tonic of Eb. It is where the progression is at rest.	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
Ebmaj7	I	Tonic	Ebmaj7 is the tonic of Eb. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Abmaj7	IV	Predominant	Abmaj7 is the IV chord of Eb: subdominant. It moves away from the tonic without creating the pull of a dominant.	High
Ebmaj7	I	Tonic	Ebmaj7 is the tonic of Eb. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
A7	subV7/IV	Dominant	A7 is a tritone substitute — subV7/IV. It carries the same tritone as Eb7, the real dominant of Ab, but resolves down a semitone instead of down a fifth.	High
Abmaj7	IV	Predominant	Abmaj7 is the IV chord of Eb: subdominant. It moves away from the tonic without creating the pull of a dominant.	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
F7	V7/IV	Dominant	F7 is functioning as V7/IV: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of Bb, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at IV instead. Also readable as I7.	Medium

What the analyzer found in it

ModulationF major

Bars 4-5 are heard in F major: the harmony cadences there and stays long enough to become a key.

ii - V7 - V7/IVGm7 - C7 - F7

A complete ii-V-I in F. 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 →

The complete analysis of Skylark — 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

Read in E♭ major, these bars come out as I – ii – IV – subV7/IV – V7 – V7/IV. Inside those 10 chords there is a complete ii-V-I, at least one secondary dominant and a tritone substitute. 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 Blues for Alice, All Blues and So What, transposed and at a different pace.

How the rest of Skylark goes

Thirty-two bars, AABA. The A sections stay close to E♭ but colour it with the tritone-substitute A7 and a II7 that holds for a whole bar; the bridge modulates up a minor third and then through G major before returning, a long arc that the melody rises to meet. It is a singer’s ballad first, and instrumental versions tend to follow the lyric’s phrasing.

Skylark on record

Hoagy Carmichael wrote the music and Johnny Mercer the lyric; it was published in 1941 and became a hit the following year in several versions at once. It has been a staple of jazz singers ever since.

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 →

Skylark — Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

The books behind this page

Jazz Harmony

The Jazz Guitar Shortcut

Harmonic Narrative

The Jazz Roadmap Lite

Play Skylark in JamShed

Harmonic analysis

What the analyzer found in it

Why this example matters

How the rest of Skylark goes

Skylark on record

Analyze this progression

Related

ii-V-I

Secondary dominants

Tritone substitution

Blues for Alice

All Blues

So What

Jazz chord progressions