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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 ".
In the first chord, E ♭ major, the "E ♭" indicates that the chord is built on the root note "E ♭" and the word "major" indicates that a major chord is built on this "E ♭" note. In rock and blues, musicians also often refer to chord progressions using Roman numerals, as this facilitates transposing a song to a new key. For example, rock ...
Blues for Alice" is a 1951 jazz standard, composed by Charlie Parker. [1] [2] The standard is noted for its rapid bebop blues-style chord voicings and complex harmonic scheme which is a fine example of what is known as "Bird Blues". [3] [4] It is written in the key of F major and usually begins with an F major seventh or F sixth chord.
Many blues songs were developed in American folk music traditions and individual songwriters are sometimes unidentified. [1] Blues historian Gerard Herzhaft noted: In the case of very old blues songs, there is the constant recourse to oral tradition that conveyed the tune and even the song itself while at the same time evolving for several decades.
At its most basic, a single version of this blues scale is commonly used over all changes (or chords) in a twelve-bar blues progression. [7] Likewise, in contemporary jazz theory, its use is commonly based upon the key rather than the individual chord. [2] Greenblatt defines two blues scales, the major and the minor.
In voicing jazz chords while in a group setting, performers focus first on the seventh and the major or minor third of the chord, with the latter indicating the chord quality, along with added chord extensions (e.g., elevenths, even if not indicated in the lead sheet or fake book) to add tone "colour" to the chord.
A common type of three-chord song is the simple twelve-bar blues used in blues and rock and roll. Typically, the three chords used are the chords on the tonic, subdominant, and dominant (scale degrees I, IV and V): in the key of C, these would be the C, F and G chords.
It does not accurately represent the chord progressions of all the songs it depicts. It was originally written in D major (thus the progression being D major, A major, B minor, G major) and performed live in the key of E major (thus using the chords E major, B major, C♯ minor, and A