The Sidewinder Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis | Niels Dalgaard
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The Sidewinder
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Lee Morgan · 1963 · F major · 24-bar blues

The Sidewinder — Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

A blues stretched to twenty-four bars, with the turnaround replaced by two borrowed dominants sliding up into the tonic. Neither of them is the V, and the arrival works anyway.

Tritone substitution Backdoor progression Roman numeral analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt

Form: 24-bar blues · Bars 1–24 · each symbol lasts two bars

F7 | F7 | F7 | F7 | Bb7 | Bb7 | F7 | F7 | Db7 | Eb7 | F7 | F7

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

Jazz Harmony

From tradition to the expectation framework · For any instrument Project 05 · Harmony

Harmonic Narrative

A practical method for creating and understanding harmonic progressions through expectation Project 04 · Jazz guitar

Jazz Guitar Comping

Creating direction through harmony, rhythm and the expectation framework

Harmonic analysis

Key
F major
Tonal center
F
Confidence
Medium
Chords analysed
12
ChordRoman numeralFunctionWhat it is doingConfidence
F7I7TonicF7 is the tonic, but built as a dominant seventh — the sound that defines the blues. The tonic keeps a b7 and stays at home anyway.High
F7I7TonicF7 is the tonic, but built as a dominant seventh — the sound that defines the blues. The tonic keeps a b7 and stays at home anyway.High
F7I7TonicF7 is the tonic, but built as a dominant seventh — the sound that defines the blues. The tonic keeps a b7 and stays at home anyway.High
F7I7TonicF7 is the tonic, but built as a dominant seventh — the sound that defines the blues. The tonic keeps a b7 and stays at home anyway. Also readable as V7/IV.Medium
Bb7IV7PredominantBb7 is the IV of a blues, built as a dominant seventh. In this context that is its normal quality, not a dominant of anything.High
Bb7IV7PredominantBb7 is the IV of a blues, built as a dominant seventh. In this context that is its normal quality, not a dominant of anything.High
F7I7TonicF7 is the tonic, but built as a dominant seventh — the sound that defines the blues. The tonic keeps a b7 and stays at home anyway.High
F7I7TonicF7 is the tonic, but built as a dominant seventh — the sound that defines the blues. The tonic keeps a b7 and stays at home anyway.High
Db7subV7/VDominantDb7 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.Low
Eb7bVII7DominantEb7 is the backdoor dominant of F. It approaches F from a whole tone below rather than from the fifth above — the b7 and b3 of the parallel minor resolving inward.High
F7I7TonicF7 is the tonic, but built as a dominant seventh — the sound that defines the blues. The tonic keeps a b7 and stays at home anyway.High
F7I7TonicF7 is the tonic, but built as a dominant seventh — the sound that defines the blues. The tonic keeps a b7 and stays at home anyway.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

Numbered against F major, the excerpt is I7 – IV7 – subV7/V – bVII7. Inside those 12 chords there is a tritone substitute and a backdoor resolution. Take the roots away and keep the third and seventh. In F7 that is A and Eb. Those two notes decide where the progression is going, and hearing them move is worth more than naming the chords. Now’s the Time, Billie’s Bounce and Straight, No Chaser use the same device, which is the argument for learning it once properly rather than three times by accident.

How the rest of The Sidewinder goes

A twenty-four-bar form — twice the length of a blues and built from blues material, with the harmony held far longer than a standard blues would allow. It sits over a boogaloo bass figure that does not swing, which was the point: the piece was written to reach an audience outside jazz clubs. The extended chord durations mean a soloist gets several bars on each harmony, so the demand is closer to that of a modal tune than to a blues.

The Sidewinder on record

Lee Morgan recorded it in 1963 and it became an unexpected commercial hit, charting well outside the jazz market and briefly making its label financially secure. That success had consequences: the label spent the following years asking its artists for something similar, and a great deal of mid-1960s hard bop is a response to this one record.

Analyze this progression

Open these chords in the analyzer and change them. Move one chord, substitute a dominant, take the ii away — the reading updates and tells you what you just did.

Open in Jazz Harmony Analyzer →

Related

Tritone substitution

What this device is, and the other standards in the library that use it.

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Backdoor progression

What this device is, and the other standards in the library that use it.

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Roman numeral analysis

What this device is, and the other standards in the library that use it.

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Now’s the Time

Charlie Parker · 1945 · F major

Chord progression →

Billie’s Bounce

Charlie Parker · 1945 · F major

Chord progression →

Straight, No Chaser

Thelonious Monk · 1951 · F major

Chord progression →

Jazz chord progressions

The families every standard is assembled from, with examples from the library.

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