Bird changes

Bird Blues progression in B  Play .

The Blues for Alice changes, Bird changes, Bird Blues, or New York Blues changes, is a chord progression, often named after Charlie Parker ("Bird"), which is a variation of the twelve-bar blues.

The progression uses a series of sequential II-V or secondary II-V progressions, and has been used in pieces such as Parker's "Blues for Alice". Toots Thielemans's "Bluesette"[1] and Parker's "Confirmation"[2] also have similar progressions.

Structure

A simple blues progression, in C, is as follows:

| C         | C            | C           | C           |
| F         | F            | C           | C           |
| G         | F            | C           | C           ||

A typical blues progression in jazz, in C, is as follows:[3]

| C7        | F7           | C7          | C7          |
| F7        | F7           | C7          | Em7   A7    |
| Dm7       | G7           | C7    A7    | D7    G7    ||

The Bird Blues progression, in C, is as follows:[4]

Popular music symbols
| CMaj7     | Bm7b5 / E7   | Am7   / D7  | Gm7  / C7   |
| F7        | Fm7   / Bb7  | Em7   / A7  | Ebm7 / Ab7  |
| Dm7       | G7           | CMaj7 / A7  | Dm7  / G7   ||
Roman numerals
| I         | viiø / III7  | vi  / II7   | v     / I7   |
| IV7       | iv  / bVII7  | iii / VI7   | biii  / bVI7 |
| ii        | V7           | I   /  VI7  | ii    / V    ||

This can be viewed as a cycle of ii-V progressions leading to the IV chord (F7 in the key of C major), and the tritone substitution of the dominant chords leading by half-step to the V chord (G7 again in C).[4]

  C:          Amin:          G(min):        F:
| I         | ii    / V    | ii    /  V   | ii    / V    |
  F:          Eb:            D:             Db(min):
| I7        | subii / subV | subii / subV | subii / subV |
  C:
| ii        | V7           | I7    / VI7  | ii    / V    ||
Different notations
Chord Function Numerical Roman
numeral
Tonic T 1 I
Subdominant S 4 IV
Dominant D 5 V

Sources

  1. Hatfield, Ken (2005). Jazz and the Classical Guitar Theory and Applications, p.182. ISBN 0-7866-7236-6.
  2. Umble, Jay (2011). Mbgu Jazz Curriculum: Payin Your Dues with the Blues, p.62. ISBN 9781610653145.
  3. Jacobs, Sid (2011). The Changes, p.12. ISBN 9781610651684.
  4. 1 2 Baerman, Noah (1998). Complete Jazz Keyboard Method: Intermediate Jazz Keyboard, p.63. ISBN 0-88284-911-5.
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