"Scatterbrain" - Jeff Beck chords

[todonne3]

So I've been working a lot recently on trying to understand more advanced harmony and chord progressions but this one has me stumped as to why it works/sounds good. The way I hear it, it goes like this..

Bbm7 -> B7 -> D/C -> E/D -> Gmaj7 -> diminished descending thing, then it restarts the progression.

Love this song and progression. It sounds so cool but I can't make any sense of why it works, and I have kind of an obsession with trying to figure out the "why" something works. Is there any logic to this progression someone can explain to me? The best I can come up with is that it is a "modal" progression where each chord almost acts as its own key, but then again idk what I'm really talking about.

Anyone have the answers?

[Question]

Hello Todonne3,

I think your description of how the song works is pretty good, but you are missing the main thing that gives it coherence and that is the melody. The melody is a sequence in 9/8 I believe, that sort of "adjusts" itself slightly to fit into each chord change.

Yes, the chords are like a "ladder" climbing up to the top and then sort of falling back down with the minor third fall, but not really falling back to the original energy but rather starting up the ladder again at a slightly higher point.
Sort of like those M.C. Escher paintings where the stairs always seem to be ascending.

The chords do have some common tones, but like so many great pieces of music can not be analyzed through the lens of functional harmony.

I saw Jeff Beck play Scatterbrain on the "Blow by Blow" Tour in 1975 and always loved that song, but was not advanced enough at the time to transcribe it.
Many years later I did transcribe it, and if I can find it I can send it to you if you are interested.

Harmonic progressions (luckily) cannot always be analyzed, so sometimes letting go of the left brain needs and start just trying to "hear" what it means to you will hopefully reduce your frustration.

There are many pieces by Wayne Shorter, Ralph Towner, Joni Mitchell and others that will defy most attempts to make sense of their harmony in the traditional way, but nonetheless sound beautiful.

Although I studied traditional harmony, I usually prefer to hear something that I don't "understand".

Anyway, I hope my long winded explanation was helpful!

[wolflen]

So I've been working a lot recently on trying to understand more advanced harmony and chord progressions but this one has me stumped as to why it works/sounds good. The way I hear it, it goes like this..

Bbm7 -> B7 -> D/C -> E/D -> Gmaj7 -> diminished descending thing, then it restarts the progression.

Love this song and progression. It sounds so cool but I can't make any sense of why it works, and I have kind of an obsession with trying to figure out the "why" something works. Is there any logic to this progression someone can explain to me? The best I can come up with is that it is a "modal" progression where each chord almost acts as its own key, but then again idk what I'm really talking about.

Anyone have the answers?

why it works is..its Jeff Beck..

perhaps you can find some clues in vid below..I hear Mclaughlin/Mahavishnu flavors in this tune-(Beck has played with John and Jan Hammer..Vinny-drummer has played w/John)

there are many vids of this tune and some fair lessons here is one I liked..