Harmonic analysis
Read in B♭ major, the key of the tune. Taken on its own, with nothing around it, this excerpt is just as easy to hear in C minor — a few bars are often not enough to fix a tonic, and that ambiguity is a real property of the music rather than a gap in the analysis.
| Chord | Roman numeral | Function | What it is doing | Confidence |
|---|
| Bbmaj7 | I | Tonic | Bbmaj7 is the tonic of Bb. It is where the progression is at rest. | High |
| Eb7 | V7 | Dominant | Eb7 is the dominant of Ab. Its third and seventh form a tritone, and that tritone is what makes the tonic feel due. | High |
| Ab7 | V7/IV | Dominant | Ab7 is functioning as V7/IV: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of Db, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at IV instead. Also readable as I7 / I7. | Low |
| G7 | V7/iii | Dominant | G7 is functioning as V7/iii: 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 iii instead. | Medium |
What the analyzer found in it
TonicizationA♭ major
Bars 2-4 lean towards A♭ major without settling — a tonicization rather than a new key.
V - viAb7 - G7
A deceptive cadence: the dominant resolves to vi rather than to the tonic of Bb.
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 There Is No Greater Love — 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 →
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Project 03 · Harmony
Project 07 · Jazz guitar
Project 05 · Harmony
