Up Jumped Spring Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt

Section: A1 · Bars 1–8

Bbmaj7 | G7 | Cm7 | F7 | Gm7 | Fm7 | Em7b5 | A7b9

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.

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Start here Project 03 · Harmony

Play Up Jumped Spring 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

B♭ major

Tonal center

Bb

Confidence

Medium

Chords analysed

8

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
G7	V7/ii	Dominant	G7 is functioning as V7/ii: 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 ii instead.	High
Cm7	ii	Predominant	Cm7 is the ii chord of Bb: the classic predominant. It prepares the dominant and almost always moves to it.	High
F7	V7	Dominant	F7 is the dominant of Bb. Its third and seventh form a tritone, and that tritone is what makes the tonic feel due.	High
Gm7	vi	Tonic	Gm7 is the vi chord — the relative minor. It shares three notes with the tonic and often replaces it.	High
Fm7	v	Dominant	Fm7 is a minor v: the dominant degree without a leading tone. It comes from the mode, not from functional harmony, and it does not pull.	Low
Em7b5	iiø/iii	Predominant	Em7b5 is the ii of a secondary ii-V. Together with A7b9 it prepares D, so the pair tonicizes iii without leaving the key.	Medium
A7b9	V7/iii	Dominant	A7b9 is functioning as V7/iii: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of D, 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

ii - V7Cm7 - F7

A ii-V pointing at Bb, which never arrives. The preparation is complete, the resolution is not.

iiø/iii - V7/iiiEm7b5 - A7b9

A ii-V pointing at D, which never arrives. The preparation is complete, the resolution is not.

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 Up Jumped Spring — 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 B♭ major, these bars come out as I – V7/ii – ii – V7 – vi – v – iiø/iii – V7/iii. Inside those 8 chords there is a ii-V that is left unresolved and at least one secondary dominant. The shortest way in is a two-voice reduction: third and seventh only, slowly. G7 contributes B and F, and where that pair resolves is the whole story of the passage. You will meet the same move again in Stella by Starlight, How High the Moon and Ornithology, transposed and at a different pace.

How the rest of Up Jumped Spring goes

A forty-four-bar jazz waltz: two long A sections built on the excerpt’s shifting progression, then a section that moves through ii–Vs to F and through minor chords a fourth apart before landing on B major seventh and back to B♭. It changes key often, but each move is prepared by a ii–V, so it reads as bright and lyrical rather than restless.

Up Jumped Spring on record

Freddie Hubbard wrote it while he was with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, and the band recorded it on Three Blind Mice (1962). Hubbard recorded it again under his own name, and it became one of the most played jazz waltzes of the hard-bop era.

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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Up Jumped Spring — Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

The books behind this page

Jazz Harmony

The Jazz Guitar Shortcut

Harmonic Narrative

The Jazz Roadmap Lite

Play Up Jumped Spring in JamShed

Harmonic analysis

What the analyzer found in it

Why this example matters

How the rest of Up Jumped Spring goes

Up Jumped Spring on record

Analyze this progression

Related

ii-V-I

Secondary dominants

Stella by Starlight

How High the Moon

Ornithology

Jazz chord progressions