Stablemates Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt

Section: A1 · Bars 1–3

Em7 A7 | Ebm7 Ab7 | Dbmaj7

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.

See all the books

Start here Project 03 · Harmony

Play Stablemates 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

D♭ major

Tonal center

Db

Confidence

High

Chords analysed

5

Chord	Roman numeral	Function	What it is doing	Confidence
Em7	biii	Other	Em7 does not take a functional role in Db. It sits on bIII and is best heard as colour, or as a sign that the tonal center has moved.	Low
A7	subV7/V	Dominant	A7 is a tritone substitute — subV7/V. It carries the same tritone as Eb7, the real dominant of Ab, but resolves down a semitone instead of down a fifth.	Low
Ebm7	ii	Predominant	Ebm7 is the ii chord of Db: the classic predominant. It prepares the dominant and almost always moves to it.	High
Ab7	V7	Dominant	Ab7 is the dominant of Db. Its third and seventh form a tritone, and that tritone is what makes the tonic feel due.	High
Dbmaj7	I	Tonic	Dbmaj7 is the tonic of Db. It is where the progression is at rest.	High

What the analyzer found in it

ii - V7 - IEbm7 - Ab7 - Dbmaj7

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

V - IAb7 - Dbmaj7

The progression closes with an authentic cadence in Db.

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 Stablemates — 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 D♭ major, these bars come out as biii – subV7/V – ii – V7 – I. Inside those 5 chords there is a complete ii-V-I 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 Stablemates goes

Thirty-six bars, ABA, with fourteen-bar A sections and an eight-bar bridge — the uneven lengths are part of what makes it feel unsettled. The A sections are built from ii–Vs that arrive from a half step above, and the bridge is a descending chain of dominants moving chromatically, G7 to C7 and then B7, B♭7, A7, A♭7, before the side-slip that opens the last A.

Stablemates on record

Benny Golson wrote it early in his career; the Miles Davis quintet with John Coltrane recorded it in 1955 on its first album, which is how it entered the repertoire. Golson recorded it himself many times afterwards, and it remains one of the tunes teachers use to introduce the side-slipped ii–V.

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.

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Stablemates — Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

The books behind this page

Jazz Harmony

The Jazz Guitar Shortcut

Harmonic Narrative

The Jazz Roadmap Lite

Play Stablemates in JamShed

Harmonic analysis

What the analyzer found in it

Why this example matters

How the rest of Stablemates goes

Stablemates on record

Analyze this progression

Related

ii-V-I

Tritone substitution

Blues for Alice

All Blues

So What

Jazz chord progressions