Take the "A" Train Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt

Section: A1 · Bars 1–8

Cmaj7 | Cmaj7 | D7 | D7 | Dm7 | G7 | Cmaj7 | Cmaj7

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

C major

Tonal center

C

Confidence

High

Chords analysed

8

Chord	Roman numeral	Function	What it is doing	Confidence
Cmaj7	I	Tonic	Cmaj7 is the tonic of C. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Cmaj7	I	Tonic	Cmaj7 is the tonic of C. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
D7	V7/V	Dominant	D7 is functioning as V7/V: 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 V instead.	Low
D7	V7/V	Dominant	D7 is functioning as V7/V: 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 V instead.	Low
Dm7	ii	Predominant	Dm7 is the ii chord of C: the classic predominant. It prepares the dominant and almost always moves to it.	High
G7	V7	Dominant	G7 is the dominant of C. Its third and seventh form a tritone, and that tritone is what makes the tonic feel due.	High
Cmaj7	I	Tonic	Cmaj7 is the tonic of C. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Cmaj7	I	Tonic	Cmaj7 is the tonic of C. It is where the progression is at rest.	High

What the analyzer found in it

ii - V7 - IDm7 - G7 - Cmaj7

A complete ii-V-I in C. 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 →

Why this example matters

In C major the excerpt reads I – V7/V – ii – V7. Inside those 8 chords there is a complete ii-V-I and 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 Take the "A" Train goes

The A sections are almost the plainest harmony imaginable except for one chord: the second sonority is a dominant built on the second degree with a raised eleventh, where an ordinary song would use a minor ii. That single alteration is the tune. It changes one note against the melody and is the reason the piece sounds modern for its date. The bridge is entirely conventional, which throws the opening into relief.

Take the "A" Train on record

Billy Strayhorn wrote it in 1939, shortly after joining Ellington — the title comes from the subway directions Ellington gave him for getting to his apartment in Harlem. It became the Ellington orchestra’s theme, replacing an earlier one, and the 1941 recording with Ray Nance’s trumpet solo is so fixed in the tradition that the solo is often played note for note as though written.

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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Take the "A" Train — Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

The books behind this page

Jazz Harmony

Harmonic Narrative

Jazz Guitar Comping

Harmonic analysis

What the analyzer found in it

Why this example matters

How the rest of Take the "A" Train goes

Take the "A" Train on record

Analyze this progression

Related

ii-V-I

Secondary dominants

Stella by Starlight

How High the Moon

Ornithology

Jazz chord progressions