What are some standards that stay on one major key?

[Jonzo]

Title says it all.

[JakeAcci]

If the definition is a tune that doesn't have a true modulation, someday my prince will come, There will never be another you, rhythm changes, days of wine and roses, just friends, night and day, out of nowhere at a quick glance at my tune list.

I don't know if modulating to the relative minor or parallel minor (or relative major of the parallel minor) might meet your standards for not modulating. If so, green dolphin st, there is no greater love, here's that rainy day..

[Jonzo]

Thanks.

I am looking for tunes that can be improvised over using one major scale. I guess I am asking for songs that stay on one major key center.

[JakeAcci]

You can improvise over all of those tunes using one major scale, in the sense that each moment of the harmony generally has at least a few notes from the parent major scale. For example, in night and day in key of C, there is an Ebma7 chord in the bridge - five notes from key of C are conventional choices over the Ebma7 - C, D, F, G, A

You could play freely with the parent major scale over these tunes but I'm not sure you'd be happy with the musical result.

I think you'd be hard pressed to find a jazz standard where no chord of the harmony uses notes other than the 7 notes of its key's major scale. The nature of the harmony used in jazz standards sort of defies this. For example

iii7 VI7b9 ii7 V7b9

IVma7 iv7 I

iii7 biiidim7 ii7 V7

II7#11 ii7 V7 I

These are some of the most common harmonic sequences in standard jazz harmony, there are no modulations outside of the key, but they use notes that are not diatonic to the parent major scale.

[ecj]

If the definition is a tune that doesn't have a true modulation, someday my prince will come, There will never be another you, rhythm changes, days of wine and roses, just friends, night and day, out of nowhere at a quick glance at my tune list.

I don't know if modulating to the relative minor or parallel minor (or relative major of the parallel minor) might meet your standards for not modulating. If so, green dolphin st, there is no greater love, here's that rainy day..

I think he's asking for tunes that have chords that are mostly (all) diatonic to the key center. Most of the tunes you've listed change key centers at least once during the tune. The only tunes I can think of like that are in minor keys.

Autumn Leaves - if you treat the descending cadence at the end as a normal iii-vi-ii-V and ignore the tritone subs.
Beautiful Love - with one exception in the first ending of the G7#11. Just treat the Bb7#11 like it's the ii.

That being said, if your plan is to just play a major scale over these...good luck. It's not going to sound like jazz unless you are emphasizing the proper chord tones, and any song with a minor ii-V will require you to think about the chords enough to raise the 7th scale degree of the minor parent key over the V7.

Is this for a student, or yourself?

[dinot]

So What stays in """"C major"""" for 24 bars (16 + 8 at the end)

[dinot]

By the way, there is one aebersold volume called major and minor which is for practicing ionian and dorian modes exclusively, in a jazz context, in the 12 tonalities.

[pkirk]

If the definition is a tune that doesn't have a true modulation, someday my prince will come, There will never be another you, rhythm changes, days of wine and roses, just friends, night and day, out of nowhere at a quick glance at my tune list.

I don't know if modulating to the relative minor or parallel minor (or relative major of the parallel minor) might meet your standards for not modulating. If so, green dolphin st, there is no greater love, here's that rainy day..

I'm not so sure about out of nowhere....Ignore that Bbmi7 at your peril! it defines the tune. and how about the bridge on rhythm changes....

[JakeAcci]

I think he's asking for tunes that have chords that are mostly (all) diatonic to the key center. Most of the tunes you've listed change key centers at least once during the tune.

I think if you look closely at the harmony to those tunes, you'll see that there is never actually any changes of key. There may be dominants and ii Vs leading to things other than the I, and plenty of movement that isn't strictly diatonic, but the harmony is all centered around one key, the key center stays the same.

For example, in There will Never be another you there is a ii V to vi then a ii V to IV, but none of those cadences are modulations, they are just expanded harmony to move with strength to a different point in the key. I think of a modulation as more extended and less related to the original key. For example, Body and Soul is in Db but the bridge modulates to D for quite a while, then to C. Prelude to a kiss is in C but the bridge modulates to E.

In terms of searching for tunes where the chords are mostly diatonic to the key, the ones I listed are the ones I know that come closest to meeting this criteria.

[JakeAcci]

I'm not so sure about out of nowhere....Ignore that Bbmi7 at your peril! it defines the tune. and how about the bridge on rhythm changes....

Is it a key change to center two measures out of 16 around the bVI7 without moving to V7?

If the harmony were

G - - - | - - - - |Bbm7 - - - |Eb7 - D7 -

or

G - - - | - - - - | Bbm7 - Eb7 - | Am7 - D7 -

then there wouldn't be much question about the place of Bbm7 in the key of G

I guess I make these points to encourage the perspective that a lot of things can happen that are very non-diatonic, yet we're still very much revolving around one clear key center.

[JakeAcci]

Maybe a more useful question for a beginning improviser is to find tunes that have longer stretches of staying diatonic to one key? Autumn Leaves and All the things you are are good for this. ATTYA does modulate a lot, but it actually stays diatonic to each key generally for many measures. Autumn Leaves is very close to being completely diatonic, to a minor key. Blue Bossa is a pretty simple tune that is diatonic to Cm then has a long ii V I to Db.

[dinot]

Also, you can get Band in a Box and practice creating your progressions in the major key or whatever you want.

[JensL]

I completely agree with Jake that standards often do not modulate. You find the same in pop music and country and western very often.

For what it is worth the Out Of Nowhere II V is actually a C# double diminished in inversion, but that is a very theoretical bla bla story, even if it sounds very impressive and complicated

Maybe it is better to practice pieces that have longer periods of one scale like Cantaloup Island, Maiden Voyage, etc. instead
of practicing to ignore the harmony with one major scale? Of course I don't know if that is what the OP was planning to do?

Jens

[JakeAcci]

For what it is worth the Out Of Nowhere II V is actually a C# double diminished in inversion

explain!

[JensL]

Ok, I'll try to keep it short.

In G major, #IVdim is C#dim, which can resolve to G (think I remember you bar 2-3, Spring is here bars 1-2 etc. etc.)
the C# double diminished is C# with a Eb (3rd is diminished twice) this is enharmonic to Eb7/Db, so Eb7 in Out of Nowhere
is a C# double diminished with the 3rd in the bass.

Jens

[JakeAcci]

Ah, interesting, thanks. I had to look up "double diminished chord" and google gave me a different definition than yours.

Would you say that any case of bVI7 to I is double diminished? Beatles use that a lot.

[JensL]

Ah, interesting, thanks. I had to look up "double diminished chord" and google gave me a different definition than yours.

Would you say that any case of bVI7 to I is double diminished? Beatles use that a lot.

Ok, that's interesting, I'll try to google it too. The explanation i have is from a my theory teach at the conservatory
and also from a combo teacher. I think he used a similar arhument to explain the tritone substitution of a dominant, but
that I am not sure about (And he is dead now so I cannot ask him..)

I guess if you have bVI7 to I it is indeed double diminished, I only know a few examples of it in standards though.

Jens

Edit: When I google it I only get a dim scale and some other stuff, no double dim chord.

[Jonzo]

I am making some educational materials, and I would like to do something like the Aebersold "major/minor", but with real tunes.

[kofblz]

The Preacher by Horace Silver

[djangoles]

My Little Suede Shoes....

[McGlamrock]

Song for my Father, but it's not Major

[JensL]

What would you want the student to achieve?
In my experience it is often hard for a student to learn to play changes when it is all diatonic because is is hard to hear harmony that only moves like that, especially if it is moving almost all the time like it is in most standards. Usually I have better
luck with simple more modal tunes to learn how to play from one chord to another and then later introduce standards.

But that is of course only my experience..

Jens

[Jonzo]

Isn't a tune that stays on one major scale a simple modal tune?

[dinot]

Nope, because that's not jazz

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Nope, because that's not jazz

This made me kinda blue.