Sweet Georgia Brown Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt

Form: ABAC, 32 bars · Bars 1–32 · each symbol lasts two bars

D7 | D7 | D7 | D7 | G7 | G7 | G7 | G7 | C7 | C7 | C7 | C7 | F6 | F6 | F6 | F6

This is a short excerpt, not the full chart. The composition dates from 1925 and is old enough that it is very likely in the public domain in the United States, which is why the excerpt runs longer here — but copyright status varies by territory and by edition, so treat that as context, not as legal advice.

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 major

Tonal center

F

Confidence

Low

Chords analysed

16

Chord	Roman numeral	Function	What it is doing	Confidence
D7	V7/ii	Dominant	D7 is functioning as V7/ii: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of G, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at ii instead.	Low
D7	V7/ii	Dominant	D7 is functioning as V7/ii: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of G, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at ii instead.	Low
D7	V7/ii	Dominant	D7 is functioning as V7/ii: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of G, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at ii instead.	Low
D7	V7/ii	Dominant	D7 is functioning as V7/ii: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of G, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at ii instead.	High
G7	V7/V	Dominant	G7 is functioning as V7/V: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of C, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at V instead.	Low
G7	V7/V	Dominant	G7 is functioning as V7/V: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of C, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at V instead.	Low
G7	V7/V	Dominant	G7 is functioning as V7/V: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of C, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at V instead.	Low
G7	V7/V	Dominant	G7 is functioning as V7/V: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of C, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at V instead.	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
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
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
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
F6	I	Tonic	F6 is the tonic of F. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
F6	I	Tonic	F6 is the tonic of F. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
F6	I	Tonic	F6 is the tonic of F. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
F6	I	Tonic	F6 is the tonic of F. 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

In F major the excerpt reads V7/ii – V7/V – V7 – I. Inside those 16 chords there is at least one secondary dominant. Play it slowly with only two voices — the third and seventh of each chord. In D7 those are Gb and C, and watching where that pair goes next tells you more about the progression than the root movement does. The same device turns up in Stella by Starlight, How High the Moon and Ornithology, in other keys and at other tempos.

How the rest of Sweet Georgia Brown goes

The whole first half is one idea: a chain of dominant chords, each resolving to the next, starting three steps out on the cycle of fifths and working inward until the tonic finally arrives. Every chord is a dominant; nothing is a ii and nothing is a tonic until the end. That makes it the clearest possible demonstration of the extended dominant chain, and also the reason it is so comfortable for a soloist — the destination is never in question, only how long you take to get there.

Sweet Georgia Brown on record

Published in 1925, credited to Ben Bernie, Maceo Pinkard and Kenneth Casey. Its widest fame is not musical: an instrumental version has been the Harlem Globetrotters’ theme since the 1950s, which means most people who recognise it have never heard it as a song. Django Reinhardt recorded it repeatedly and it remains central to the gypsy jazz repertoire, usually at a tempo that makes the dominant chain hard to hear as anything but momentum.

Analyze this progression

Take these bars into the analyzer and interfere with them. The fastest way to learn what a chord was doing is to remove it and read what the analysis says instead.

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Sweet Georgia Brown — 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 Sweet Georgia Brown goes

Sweet Georgia Brown on record

Analyze this progression

Related

Secondary dominants

Stella by Starlight

How High the Moon

Ornithology

Jazz chord progressions