All the Things You Are: Anatomy of a Tune

[jckoto3]

Great stuff Matt! Thanks for posting this.

[m78w]

No problem, thanks for checking it out!

[va3ux]

Originally Posted by m78w

Hey Everyone

Just wanted to share a new lesson on my site, the latest installment in my Anatomy of a Tune Series.

In this edition I take apart All the Things You Are from the perspective of building a chord melody, comping, analyzing the progression and intervallic structure of the melody line.

All the Things You Are: Anatomy of a Tune | MattWarnockGuitar.com

Check it out, cheers!

Now THIS....is what I have been looking for. Excellent.

I have a severe lack of understanding of how music 'works' - or how it is put together. And a huge curiosity to understand it. So right off the bat I'm mystified about something :

The key signature shows four flats which is the key of A flat. You then go on to show that the key signature (?) changes every so often (based on the chord progression in those sections ?) - yet the written key signature still remains A flat. How does that work ?

Thanks in advance...Phil

[m78w]

Hey Phil,
Glad you like the series, it's been fun to write!

In jazz, keys often change several times throughout a tune, as is the case with All the Things You Are. So, what is the most common practice is to put the tonic key signature at the start of the tune, the four flats you mentioned, and then just use accidentals when needed throughout the music. The key does move around to different tonics, but we don't write a new key signature each time as in classical music. Mostly since it would become fairly hard to read most jazz tunes as the key signature could be changing every line, every two bars or every bar in some instances.

That's it, just some jazz shorthand to make it easier to follow the lead sheet.

[va3ux]

Very good. Thank you for the explanation Matt.

So, is it correct to say that the key signature is fixed but the key centers move around ?

[m78w]

Yeah that's the easiest way to think about it. it's good to know what the parent key is, but also to be able to recognize each new key center as they come up so you can properly navigate the tune.

[brwnhornet59]

Well said Matt!

[m78w]

Thanks Britt!