Hayden Hill
Hayden founded PianoGroove in 2015 with the goal of making the world a more musical place. He shares his love for jazz piano through his online courses and manages the community area of PianoGroove.
Live Seminar Resources
Live Seminar Resources
PDF Downloads
- Seminar Notes & Agenda
Join PianoGroove Pro to access all downloads and learning resources.
Download theory supplements, midi files, chord changes and full note-for-note transcriptions of every lesson.
- "Home For Christmas" Reharmonised
Join PianoGroove Pro to access all downloads and learning resources.
Download theory supplements, midi files, chord changes and full note-for-note transcriptions of every lesson.
- "Moon River" - First 16 Bars Reharms
Join PianoGroove Pro to access all downloads and learning resources.
Download theory supplements, midi files, chord changes and full note-for-note transcriptions of every lesson.
- 1436251 Progression - 12 Keys
Join PianoGroove Pro to access all downloads and learning resources.
Download theory supplements, midi files, chord changes and full note-for-note transcriptions of every lesson.
- I'll Be Home For Christmas - Reharmonised
Join PianoGroove Pro to access all downloads and learning resources.
Download theory supplements, midi files, chord changes and full note-for-note transcriptions of every lesson.
Related Lessons
- Tritone Substitution Tutorial
- Passing Chords Tutorial
- Sus Chords Tutorial
- 1625 & 436251 Progressions
Forum Threads
Seminar Description
Seminar Description
In this live seminar we dive deeper into the art of arranging jazz standards. We cover some simple but effective chord reharmonisations and substitutions that can be applied to any tune you are working on.
Comments
Leave a reply
Ask questions and get instant replies from our team of teachers. Get Started With PianoGroove Pro.Details
Reharmonising Jazz Standards
Chapters
Lesson Chapters
Related Seminars
Please clarify the rules regarding harmonizing the minor d and e chords in the first two lines of I’ll Be Home for Christmas in which you modified them to dominant chords. I understand when they are the VI chord but these are II and III chords. Is there another lesson in which you talked about this process? Thanks
Hi Edwin,
Firstly yes check out this tutorial where we explore the 436251 progression in more detail: https://www.pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/1625-436251-progressions/
You will see that when playing the 436251 progression, we can play all of these chords as dominant chords.
In a 251 progression we are basically moving around the circle of fifths. Let’s take a 251 in C Major:
The 2 chord “D” is a 5th above “G”, and “G” is a 5th above the 1 chord “C”.
In a regular 251 progression, the 2 chord is a ii-7 chord, but we can always change this to a dominant 7th chord.
Dominant 7th chords have a strong sense of resolution down a 5th or down a half step, and so D7 to G7 to C7 is another way to play a 251 progression.
We can say the same when we add the 6 chord – A7 – which is a 5th above the 2 chord.
and also the 3 chord is a 5th above the 6 chord, so we just have a string of dominant chords which are all a 5th apart.
E7 to A7 to D7 to G7 to C also known as 3-6-2-5-1.
And we can reharmonise them all as dominant chords.
I hope that helps Edwin and let me know if you have any further questions.
Cheers,
Hayden
Hi Hayden, this is a really great video. Thanks for the explanations. Would it be possible to explain the topic “Substitute Dominant Chords (22:10)” in a more detailed video in a more in-depth way ? Maybe also in the regular PianoGroove courses ? Thank you very much for that. Greats, Olli.
Hi Oliver,
I’m glad you enjoyed the session!
Absolutely I will create a tutorial on “Substitute Dominant Chords” and add the lesson to our course on Chord Reharmonisation.
I agree it would be useful to show a number of examples using different jazz standards and also having the in-video notation makes it easier to explain the theory.
Leave that with me and I will start planning it right away.
Cheers,
Hayden
Great, thanks ! One further last question: what is the reason to play Bm at 50:49 ? Why did you choose Bm, where is Bm derived from ? Thanks in advance.
HI Oliver 👋🏻
Good question!
The B-7b5, or B-11b5 as I play it, is the diatonic 7th chord built from the 7th degree of the C Major Scale.
We are reharmonising that entire line with the diatonic chords from the C Major scale, but remember that we can choose what chord quality to play based on the melody note. Often replacing minor chords with dominant 7 voicings.
I play B-11b5 and next E7#5#9 which is a minor 25, next instead of going to A-7, we play A7b9 to accommodate for the note Bb in the melody. You could look at this as a 251 in A Minor, or as 7-3-6 in the key of C Major.
That 6 chord – A7 – has a strong sense of resolution down to the 2 chord, D-7, but we add the passing chord Eb7#11 before we hit the 2 chord and this works well with the A Natural in the melody.
If you look at these chords, they are all a 5th apart, I have excluded the passing chord Eb7 in between A7 and D-7.
B-11b5 / E7 / A7 / D-7 / G7 –> resolving to C Major. (736251 in C Major)
So really we are just stacking chords a 5th apart which is what the 7-3-6-2-5-1 progression is. The 251 is just a sequence of 3 chords a 5th apart, and so you could look at this as an extended 251 incorporating the other chords in the scale.
Let me know if you have any further questions and happy to help out.
Cheers!
Hayden