Song for My Father Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt

Section: A1 · Bars 1–8

Fm7 | Fm7 | Eb7 | Eb7 | Db7 | C7 | Fm7 | Fm7

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

8

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
Fm7	i	Tonic	Fm7 is the tonic of Fm. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Eb7	bVII7	Other	Eb7 is bVII7: the subtonic as a dominant seventh. It usually moves to bIII or steps down to the tonic. Also readable as V7/bIII.	Medium
Eb7	bVII7	Other	Eb7 is bVII7: the subtonic as a dominant seventh. It usually moves to bIII or steps down to the tonic. Also readable as V7/bIII.	Medium
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
Fm7	i	Tonic	Fm7 is the tonic of Fm. It is where the progression is at rest.	High

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

Against a tonic of F minor the passage numbers as i – bVII7 – subV7/V – V7. Inside those 8 chords there is a tritone substitute. Strip it to two notes per chord, the third and the seventh, and play it under tempo. Eb7 gives you G and Db; 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 Blues for Alice, All Blues and So What.

How the rest of Song for My Father goes

A sixteen-bar minor form over a bossa-derived bass figure, and the harmony is deliberately sparse — long stretches on one chord, then a cadence. The one device worth naming is the approach to the tonic from a semitone above, a tritone substitution used at the end of the form, which supplies the piece’s only real harmonic surprise and does it in the same place every chorus. Everything else is texture and groove.

Song for My Father on record

Horace Silver recorded it in 1965; the album cover shows his father, and the rhythm came from a trip Silver made to Brazil combined with the Cape Verdean music he grew up with. Its bass figure was borrowed by Steely Dan for “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” in 1974, a lift Silver acknowledged without complaint and which brought the tune a second audience.

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Song for My Father — Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

The books behind this page

Jazz Harmony

Harmonic Narrative

Jazz Guitar Comping

Harmonic analysis

Why this example matters

How the rest of Song for My Father goes

Song for My Father on record

Analyze this progression

Related

Tritone substitution

Blues for Alice

All Blues

So What

Jazz chord progressions