Chord Analysis of All of Me

[@knotwilg3596]

If I can add my own analysis 1) I'm looking at the E7 in the 3rd and 4th bar as a dominant of the second degree. A7 is the dominant leading to Dm7 and E7 leads to A7 2) the D7 - Dm7 or the F7 - Fm7 are both major to minor color shifts that allow going (back) into another (the original) key. 3) then there's the turnaround following a typical logic of its own. That's the functional analysis. However, the feeling is a little different. The E7 in the first line musically relates to the previous chord more than it does to the 2nd line, to which it logically relates. This is strengthened by the melody pattern carrying itself in almost duplication across those 2 chords. And the E7 in the third line repeats that colorful chord but in a different function, which gives this song a lot of color in E7. The double usage of E7 is what makes this song great. The major to minor colors or the 2-5-1s are embedding the song in standard jazz.

[@billa6348]

"Context" matters and shifted my understanding of the E7, A7 and D7s being secondary dominants retonicizing the tune in a spiraling fashion. It makes a crazy framework for playing the changes using 7th chord arpeggios with scale tones.

[@jimimaze]

this just took my understanding of this song, and jazz in general, to a whole 'nother level. I was soloing over it like a champ. Thank you sir.

[@JensLarsen]

Solid stuff Brent! 🙂👍

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Thanks Jens!

[@danielpalma5795]

Awesome Brent. To us from Brazil, in our language, there's nothing like your classes in KZbin. Thanks and greetings 🇧🇷🇧🇷

[@Learnjazzstandards]

I appreciate that, thanks!

[@johnmcminn9455]

Roman numeral system ...thank God I studied The David Bennett Piano Channel lessons explains progressions and cadence in pop music how a E D A can be I bVII V7 etc so this is great some of the guys like Jens explain what scale to play A mixo b2 b6 and F Melodic Minor as suggestions but the complete picture is seen in actual harmony in Roman numerals !

[@mikewhelan9561]

1 to Dom 3 , C to E7 is the Georgia on my Mind movement . Also the B section of Tennesse Waltz "I remember the night" is a strong C to E7.

[@josh_174]

Thank you for your very good lesson. It helped me to play this song a lot.

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Awesome! Glad to hear that

[@ericstandefer9138]

Love the color coding.

[@vasoostagiorgou7583]

The technique with the colours is so practical!! Thank you very much!!

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Glad you like it!

[@composer7325]

Excellent analysis.Colours are excellent

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Glad you found it helpful Peter!

[@composer7325]

Your analysis is excellent.Please do more.Thank you.

[@johnmcminn9455]

just looking at the E7 as a raised 7th in A minor I am seeing C as I and E7 V in A harmonic minor then A7 as V in D harmonic minor Dmin A min D7 as V of G Melodic Minor (A min blues) then D min g7 ii V c maj

[@leobird8756]

Great analysis, clear and well structured. I appreciate you! Thanks for posting

[@chockbailey8127]

love your analysis. Really helps me and have learned a lot from your videos and podcasts

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Glad to help!

[@MexSax]

Very interesting stuff my friend !! Understanding better the chord structure helps you to improvise, giving you tons of options to play on. Thanks for sharing ! 👍👍👏🎷

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Mex Sax absolutely! Thanks for watching!

[@hahabass]

Tempted to pick up the e-book now. That was great.

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Glad you found it helpful!

[@drlano69]

Great analys! I thought that the E7 chord is a secondary dominant and then A7 again a secondary dominant. But your 2-5-1 in D-minor makes more sense. I also like your idea in the F6 Fm Bb7 C6. The Bb7 functions as a backdoor dominant, isn't it?

[@woelneberg]

Hi! This video was a great lesson for me. I have had difficulties understanding what rules govern key changes in jazz. I am a beginner, still learning the basics of jazz but have played blues for a long time. If I understand you right the key changes that happens in this particular song aren't really key changes. If I only look at the chords that resolves in the changes they are all within the diatonic scale of C major? Like E7-A7-Dm7 are really just one unit reprsenting and resolving to the ii chord? The ii chord is having it's own private party? So if I strip away the units the progression would be C6 Dm7 Am7 Dm7 G7 C6 Dm7 F6 Cm Cmaj7 Dm7 G7 C6? But this isn't true for all songs? Like In a sentimental mood seems to do a "hard break" from Dm to Db major? I would love to view a lesson on what rules govern key changes. Do you think that would be possible to do? Thanks for all the great lessons!

[@imhome904]

Thank you for a nice video! It gave me lots of help.

[@stuartpalmer2966]

Amazing video, thank you!

[@TwdlD]

Super helfpful! Thank you.

[@VictoriaYanezM]

Nice approach, the colors make it very easy to understand. Also the last bars I would see them as the common chord progression: III - VI - II - V - I, (cause Cmaj7 is almost Em7, as you point out). I would like to watch your analysis over Giant Steps and/or Windows from Chick Corea. I like your website, is very useful and easy to understand ;)

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Hi Maria! Thanks for watching, and glad to be of help.

[@javiersuarez9634]

I’d like to see you try a chord analysis of Giant Steps and Moments Notice. 😩

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Worthy songs to analyze! Thanks for the suggestion, Javier. Will put on the requests list!

[@stemajor7]

I see the E7 A7 Dmin7 as a III7 VI7 ii - secondary Dom related to the key centre. Is this wrong?

[@aminnellis]

Stevaux That’s how I think about it too. Whatever helps you hear and remember the chord changes the best is “right” 😁

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Hey Stevaux, not a problem with looking at it that way. You are relating them back to the parent key. Which is fine, but I like understanding it the other way as well when you look at the context of all of the other chords. Whatever works best for you!

[@currentsource10]

Think in terms of fifths and seconds and shifting key centers makes more sense to me rather than having to think about IIIs and VIs

[@ribamarsantarosa4465]

I tried to exercise before watching; for the bars 1-6 (C-E7-A7) I had guessed I-III7-IV7, or better III-V7-I. Then iv-V7-i for Dm-E7-Am7. So, for the 12 first bars, I'd have two colors instead of three. Intuitively I feel the change exactly at the bar 7 (Dm) -- Indeed I would be expecting it to resolve to the major chord, D; the minor is surprising for me. But I am afraid there may be something I am not getting, or at least it's not the usual in jazz. I see you try to find the safe 2-5-1 as much as possible, because it's the most stable progression, or am I wrong?

[@rachelesantoni444]

Thank you very helpfull

[@zecamoraes5115]

Thanks for the great video, but how does analysis relate to improvisation?

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Hey Zeca, great question! Analysis can help you understand the context of the chords as they relate to chord progressions. And what do we improvise over? Chord progressions. So the better we understand how the harmony works, the better we can understand how to create melodies over those progressions.

[@zecamoraes5115]

Yes, thanks for the answer. I understand what you say but it remains somehow abstract to me. Wouldn't you like to make a video with a, let's say, "workflow", from analysis to real improvisation? Or if you don't already have such a video… Btw, the color scheme is a really good idea!

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Thanks! Essentially, my book The Jazz Standards Playbook does go into more detail about how to translate analysis into improvisation, but will keep note for future videos.

[@cobyup10]

Great video! Such an enormous contribution to the world of jazz education. I'm self taught in the jazz language and I actually got a lot from your website and backing tracks! I've always looked at the E7 chord in All Of Me as a dominant sub on iii in C. When we sub on the iii chord in the key, we introduce a leading tone, G# in this case, which wants to pull up a half-step to A. This creates the natural motion or tendency for a dominant 7th chord on iii to pull to the relative minor chord(vi chord or relative minor). When we change one note of a C major scale to match the major 3rd, G#, in the dominant sub (E7) we used on iii, we get C,D,E,F,G#,A,B,C. Play these notes from A to A and you have an A harmonic minor scale. So for me it's easier to think of the dominant sub on iii as the V chord of the relative minor and to use that harmonic minor scale over the situation. This also gives us the dominant 7th b9 sound over the chord which creates a descending half-step resolution from F to E, which is the 5th in an A minor chord.

[@janeluniversity3704]

Hi Thanks for this video. Question though on scale to use for example over E7 the straight dominant would have sharp G & F is that the scale to use?

[@javiersuarez9634]

Janel University On the E7 the most appropriate scale would be an E Phyrigian scale with a natural 3. So your note choices would be E,F,G#,A,B,C,and D. I’ve played that scale over that chord several times and it works quite well.

[@VictoriaYanezM]

I always thought that in All Of Me, the improvisation must rely basically in the notes of the chord (and just until the 7th) because it is super old school, if I start thinking in scales in this standard I feel like it loses the concept, I try to stay close to the notes of the chords (1-3-5-7) with of course some chromatic approaches and a sense of melody.

[@roykressin8229]

That's A Harmonic minor (with the G#). E7 is V of VI therefore

[@tommasocompagnini117]

What's the Song structure? AABA? Or ABAB?

[@debbiew5656]

I think of it as AB, 16 bars each. You could also look at it as ABAC, 8 bars each.

[@__-cr6fv]

Great analysis! Now, where could melodic minor and harmonic minor scales (obviously as well as the tonic and subtonics) be applied? diminished and half-diminished?

[@detomastah]

E7 is V7 dominant chord so it can't be analyzed as II.

[@zZAPp-fi]

Fm7 (iv7) - Bb7(bVII7) looks like a backdoor progression to Cmaj7, i guess...

[@bjackblack]

😎✨✨✨

[@anarchedkey8678]

This is awesome, but just FYI for us colorblind people, yellow and green look practically the same

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Ah sorry to hear that!

[@pablors6718]

But.. That E7 is and frigian dominant... Why you are going in a II7? A II7 isnt subdomiannt so it cannot be II V I... Im confused

[@horowizard]

He's confused. Pay no attention to this video.

[@pablors6718]

@@horowizard :(

[@horowizard]

@@pablors6718 It's spelled Phrygian.

[@carolineupson785]

great job, helped me a lot - thanks !