JAZZ THEORY EXPLAINED

ONCE & FOR ALL

by Julian Bradley

 r e h a r m o n i z at i o n

‘Reharmonization’ means to make changes to a song’s I could precede each chord with a dominant 7 chord like
original chord sheet - that could mean adding extra chords this:
in-between the existing ones, or substituting new chords in
place of old ones. In this chapter I’ll outline some of my
favorite approaches to reharmonization.

PASSING CHORDS
Some songs have sparse chord progressions. To make
things more interesting you can add ‘passing chords’ - CIRCLE OF FIFTHS
chords that help you move to the next chord in a more To take this idea further, you can create a longer circle of
interesting way. fifths leading up to the next chord. The trick here is to
think backwards (not forwards) from each chord in the
A simple starting point you can use is to precede each
chord sheet. I call these ‘target chords’, because they’re
chord in the chord sheet with a dominant 7 chord a 5th
the target you’re trying to reach. So work backwards from
above. So if C minor 7 is coming up, you could precede
each target chord, counting up a 5th for each preceding
it with G7. If D major 7 is coming up, you could precede
chord.
it with A7, and so on. Dominant 7 chords are designed to
resolve down a 5th, so this creates a natural progression So say that A major 7 is my next target chord - the
leading up to the next chord. preceding chord will be a 5th above A (some sort of E
chord), the chord before that will be another 5th above
Take the following chord sheet for example:

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(some sort of B chord), before that an F# chord, and so THE ‘SLIGHTLY WRONG’ SOUND
on - for as many chords as you need to fill: This works best on well known songs that listeners have
heard before:

Substitute an important chord in the music (one that

people are familiar with) with a chord that’s similar but
noticeably different. To do this, substitute the original
chord with a chord that contains about half of the same
You’re free to choose which type of chord you build off
chordal tones (1 3 5 7) but differs on the other half. Lets
each root note (maj 7 / min 7 / dom 7, half-diminished) -
try this on the opening of ‘Misty’ with its well known
but a good rule of thumb is to alternate between minor 7
major 7 chord:
- dominant 7 - minor 7 - dominant 7:

Jazz is known for its continual key changes from one

chord to the next, so you don’t have to keep chords First we could try substituting a chord that has the same
within the same scale - in fact the more you can change root and 5th as the original chord (Eb major 7) but a
scale with each chord the better. different 3rd and 7th:

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 So say I see C major 7 in the chord sheet - I could try
substituting any of the following:

Or a chord that has the same 3rd and 7th, but a

different root and 5th perhaps?:
Or if I see C minor 7 in the chord sheet - I could play:

Maybe your new chord has the same root, but every
other note is tweaked a half-step one way or the other:
p r ac ti ce t ip
Search for your own ‘slightly-wrong’ chord
substitutions, by playing through a well known jazz
song, and substituting the most crucial chords with
new chords that have small but drastic tweaks to
the chordal tones (1 3 5 7).

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INVENT A RULE
Set yourself a reharmonization rule - for example:
! ‘When I see major 7 - I’ll play minor 7 instead’.
Then play through a familiar jazz song and see how your
rule sounds applied to the original chord sheet.
Apply your rule to a specific chord type (maj 7 / min 7 /
dom 7) and have it change any of the following:
• Chord type (‘major becomes minor’, ‘minor becomes
major’, etc).
• Transposition (‘up a 5th’, ‘down a minor 3rd’, etc).
To give you an idea, here are some rules I might try:
• When I see major 7 - I’ll play minor 7 a whole-
step up (‘C maj 7’ becomes ‘D min 7’).
TWEAKING THE MELODY
Bare in mind that when you change the chord, you also
change the scale - so be prepared to tweak melody notes
(and bass notes) to fit with the new harmony.
related video: ‘reharmonization’
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• When I see minor 7 - I’ll play dominant 7 a major

3rd below (‘C min 7’ becomes ‘Ab dom 7’).

• Play all major 7 chords as minor 7 chords, and all

minor 7 chords as major 7 chords.

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