My Funny Valentine Tutorial Part 2
In part 2 we build upon the theory that we covered in part 1 of this tutorial.
We start by adding some ornamentation and interest to the melody. The main melodic motif is very repetitive and so we explore some alternate ways that it can be played and phrased. We then look at some bigger extended chord voicings and harmonising the melody in 3rds.
Moving into the bridge, we now add 2 handed voicings and passing chords. The minor 251 progression in the final few measures of the bridge is a nice place to add some altered voicings and upper structure triads.
For the final A section, we now harmonise the melody using 6th intervals which creates a nice contrast to the previous use of 3rds in the melody. We also add some subtle fills in our right hand and incorporate arpeggio runs in our left hand.
Related Lessons
Passing chords are temporary stepping stones between chords, adding variety and making your playing sound more interesting & dynamic.
Learning and memorising all of the upper structure triads is a daunting task! This lesson introduces the upper structure cheat sheet.
Upper structure triads are complex sounding altered dominant chords. They will add texture and sophistication to your playing.
Practice Tips
My Funny Valentine is a widely recorded jazz standard so there are lots of records to draw inspiration from. Check out the recordings below which are some of PianoGroove's favourites.
If you have a favourite recording of this tune, be sure to share it in the comments section below.
Hayden how are you?I hope you are doing great..How about a suggestion?In future standars you could add above the chord the following:in Roman numbers the grade of the scale..Só we can Study the chord relations faster. What do you think?A hug from brazil
3.25 …that voicing is an upper structure?Or a substitution?I yet havent learned any of that but i wanna know if that voicing is one of the previous ones or a totally different voicing.Thks for your time replaying my questions..Forever gratefull
Hey Ivan,
Great question!
That is a minor 13th voicing – F-13 to be precise.
Yes you could look at it as an upper structure…. we have an F- triad in our left hand, and then an Ebmaj7 chord in our right hand.
You could create a formula… left hand plays minor triad off the root, right hand plays major 7th chord off the b7.
That would work in any key.
Upper structures are most commonly associated with dominant chords, however, there are benefits of also viewing major and minor chords as upper structures. Check out this lesson: https://www.pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/major-minor-upper-structures/
Hope this helps 🙂
Hayden
Dam i didnt played this song for a week and forgot it :(.Its difficult to have só many songs in your head fully memorized ..I want to sight read and improvise standards só bad lol .Any advice?I can sight read melodies but i get a bit stucked with chord lecture sometimes .Cheers !
Hi Ivan,
Check out this forum thread: https://www.pianogroove.com/community/t/intro-to-jazz-standards/954/5
I think that approach will help you visualise and memorise jazz standards. I find it effective to visualise the form in these 8 bar blocks.
Also make sure you are listening to lots of different recordings of the tune.
Cheers,
Hayden
Hi Hayden 🙂 Awesome lesson as always! Wish to ask tips on which lessons to watch so I can further understand the rules or how ” minor 7th chords b5″ , and “7th chords b9” are built and when they are used in jazz arrangements .. Big thanks in advance!
Hey Hayden,
Thanks again for a wonderful lesson. I’m confused by 2:20, when you harmonize the melody. Why were these chords and voicings the best choices?
Thanks a lot!
Theo
Hi Theo,
My pleasure with the lessons, really glad to hear you are finding them useful!
Yes as a new jazz student, reharmonisation can be a little tricky to comprehend because of the amount of freedom we have. There is also no exact science to it, which makes it harder to explain. Sometimes a reharmonisation will not follow any rules of traditional harmony, but still sound great.
Anyhow let’s talk about this example:
The most important this going on here is that we are moving the exact same voicing shape around the keyboard in chromatic motion (half steps). This works well because our ears recognise the voicing sound and texture. This works particularly well with minor voicings. Try this with any minor voicing and you should hear that it sounds pleasing to the ear.
We are moving to D-7b5 in the next bar, so the Eb-11 could be seen as a chromatic approach chord. We do land on the D-11 right before the D-7b5, which is a little unusual, but in this case it does set up the transition into the D-7b5 chord as it’s just the b5th that changes.
Finally, this is a step-wise melody, which is where the melody moves by whole or half steps. This type of reharmonisation technique works great with step-wise melodies. Check out this lesson for more examples of step-wise melody reharmonisations: https://www.pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/harmonising-step-wise-melodies/
Hope this helps!
Cheers,
Hayden
Thanks so much for the quick and thorough reply, Hayden!
This makes a lot more sense now! You’re using ‘so what’ chords. You chose Eb- and D- because they were a fourth below the melody, and approach tones to the D-7b5.
Thanks for all your help!
HI Hayden… went back to this lesson and really wanting to start learning how to improvise more on the Funny Valentine song that I tried playing 6 months ago now hahaha.. I thought I might probably be ready to start adding some improv to it… am not really sure but am going to keep watching these lessons – your detailed lessons are amazing – wish to also submit it to you in case when I finish it in probably a few weeks. or a. month’s time 🙂 for critique pleaaase? if that’s okay. Thank. you so. much in advance.
Hi Tina,
I’m glad you are enjoying the lessons.
Yes absolutely you can send me your version and I will take a listen.
Cheers and talk soon,
Hayden
Hi Hayden,how are you.
i wanna say that you are very good at arrangement, very nice voicing, beautiful song.
I always have a question for this song,
at 21:25 you run a arpeggios from f g a b♭ c d e ♭ f g a♭ b♭ c d over A♭maj7
what is this scale? the front of this scale sounds like a Eb lydian but there are two note which are a♭ and b♭ dont belong to Eb lydian scale in the end of this arperggios?
or am i uderstanding in a wrong way?
Hi Guorong,
Good question here.
The scale that I’m wanting to play there is Ab Lydian, the first A natural is not in the scale of course, but we are coming from C-6 where that A natural is the characteristic note of the chord and so that note does not sounds too out of place.
If you notice an octave higher, I play Ab instead of A natural. If you played the Ab in both octaves, the scale would be Ab Lydian, and the D natural (#11) gives it that nice uplifting quality over the Abmaj7.
We could also look at the Ab Lydian as F Dorian, both contain the same notes, and we are moving to the F-7 in the next bar.
So to answer your question, the A natural I played initially in the scale was not intentional, but given that we don’t rest on that note, it doesn’t sound awkward. If you play Abmaj7 in your left hand, and then A natural in your right hand you will hear that it creates a clash and a lot of dissonance.
Also because we are using a lot of sustain pedal, the notes blend together.
I hope that helps Guorong. Always try to use the Lydian Mode over major chords, it works very well with scale runs and arpeggios.
Also check out this lesson where we create some introductions for this tune and also explore some improvisation over the first 16 bars: https://www.pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/minor-introductions-1625s/
Here to help if you have any further questions.
Cheers,
Hayden
thank you for answering
so sometimes Jazz players dont need to run the scales excat same as what it is, some “wrong note” also make that arpeggios sound good.
And it doesnt matter if the note belongs to the scale, as long as it sounds good, we just use it
Hey Hayden,
One final question as I revisit this song: the upper structure triads at 13:00. How do we know to choose Eb major and Dflat as the base for those? Why do the sharp 11 and sharp 5 work this way, and can you always use this trick with a dominant chord?
Thanks,
I think this question is along the same lines. Why do the Bb minor triad and C minor triad work within that Ab maj7 at 17:18?
Thanks so much!
Hi Theo,
Great question. We can also apply upper structure triads to major and minor chords, I created a lesson on that here: https://www.pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/major-minor-upper-structures/
For Abmaj7, the C minor triad is simply the 3rd, 5th, and 7th of the Abmaj7 chord, so I would not look at this as an upper structure.
The Bb minor triad however, when played over an Abmaj7 chord, gives us the tones 9 (Bb), #11 (D), and 13 (F), and these are very colourful upper extensions.
The next thing to understand is that we can play these triads in any inversion, and also toggle between the 2 to create some interesting sounds over the Abmaj7.
Much of this is related to the first lesson that I references in my previous comment: pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/what-are-upper-structure-triads/ – in particular when I talk about playing upper structure triads allows us to manoeuvre and manipulate each hand independently, even doubling notes at the top and bottom of the triad to create bigger sounds.
There is lots to play around with.
Let me know if I can help further here!
Cheers,
Hayden
Hi Theo,
Check out this lesson on upper structure triads: https://www.pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/what-are-upper-structure-triads/
There are 4 common upper structure triads and yes we can use these on any dominant chord. They each have a different sound so it is often down to personal taste as to which one to use.
I also hosted a seminar on upper structure triads here: https://www.pianogroove.com/live-seminars/understanding-upper-structure-triads/
After watching those 2 lessons/seminars, you should have a much better understanding of how USTs work.
We also have a full course dedicated to the topic here: https://www.pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/altered-harmony-upper-structure-triads/
Cheers,
Hayden
Hi Hayden,
Just a small note; on 2:17 from Fm7->Dm7b5 you harmonize the melody with an Ebm11 and Dm11. I was playing the transcription PDF after watching ‘My Funny Valentine’ part 1 and noticed the transcription indicates Em11 and Ebm11 instead of Ebm11 and Dm11, which was confusing me since the notes didn’t match with the abbreviations Em11 and Ebm11. Now, looking at Part 2, it is clear to me that this was just a typo.
Other than that, great arrangements here and nice to see a more complex intro to the song, which jumpstarts you for what lies ahead. I’m trying to internalize this one by also remembering how it is structured (memorizes better that way). I find that at 53 years of age, understanding the structure is quite crucial to remembering tunes (or at least a lot easier).
Cheers,
Ruud
Hi Ruud,
Apologies for the late reply here and thanks for letting me know about the typo. I have fixed this and re-uploaded the transcription PDF document.
And yes that’s exactly the idea with putting this lesson here. It’s certainly more advanced than all others in this course and gives a taster of what’s to come next in the subsequent courses.
I did create a lesson on the additional measures I play in my recording of this song, you can find that here: https://www.pianogroove.com/funny-valentine-run/ – in that lesson I break down a nice little run for the 2nd A Section.
Also I would recommend watching this lesson on minor introductions where we use “My Funny Valentine” as an example: https://www.pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/minor-introductions-1625s/ – I also discuss some improvisation tricks and tips which are fun to explore.
The topics and concepts discussed above will help to take your arrangement to the next level :–)
I also plan to cover this tune in a live seminar so that we can take a deep dive into the form and harmony. You are indeed correct that memorising the form ABAC, and also grouping together blocks of harmony, is the most effective way to gain long term memorisation of standards. The more tunes that we play the easier this becomes as they are in fact more similar than different in their forms and harmonies.
On another note, be sure to tune into my live seminar on “Moon River” next week: https://www.pianogroove.com/live-seminars/moon-river-jazz-standard-workshop/
Cheers,
Hayden
Hi Hayden,
I was interested in the thinking behind the chord / augmented upper structure at 19:24. Generally one’s taught not to combine the major 3rd and the 4th in a major or dominant chord (and to use the #4/#11 instead if you need that colour or use a sus chord if you really want the natural 4th which then drops the 3rd).
The clash isn’t that noticeable so I guess this voicing falls into the category of use your ears over everything else, but was interested as to how it came about and why this voicing works, when many M3/4ths don’t work, so as to think about applicability elsewhere. Many thanks.
Hi Dom,
Great question here.
You are correct that generally speaking we avoid the playing natural 4th when playing major and dominant chords (except if we are playing a sus voicing).
This particular voicing contains the b9 and the 13 which are both colourful notes. The b9 adds tension which somewhat disguises the ‘rub’ of the major 3rd and the 4th. If we were to play just R-3-7 in our left hand and the 4th in our right hand, the clash would be much more noticeable. That would be one explanation as to why it is still ‘palatable’.
You are correct that it falls down to our ears, and it fact that voicing is still quite dissonant to my ears but it does work in this setting for me. Perhaps this is not the case for everyone! :–)
Some other options would be:
– UST 13#11 (F Major Triad over the Eb7 in LH)
– UST 13b9 (C Major Triad over Eb7 in the LH and with this voicing we can omit the 3rd in our left hand)
Those 2 voicings definitely have a smoother sound so experiment with those too.
I hope that helps Dom, let me know if you have any further questions.
Cheers,
Hayden
Hi Hayden, you wrote G7(b9) in measure 8. Isn’t it G7(#9) as you said and played ?
Regards,
Fabien
Hi Micheletti,
Good question!
When playing altered dominant chords we have the freedom to add any of the alteration which are b9, #9, #11, and #5/b13.
The b9 is ‘the default alteration’ in minor 251 progressions because the b5 of the ii-7b9 chord becomes the b9 of the dominant 7 chord.
In this example I choose to change the b9 to the #9, but both sound good so follow your ears on which one sounds better to you.
Let me know if you have any further questions.
Cheers,
Hayden
Thanks Hayden ! very clear explanation !