The ‘Giant Steps’ Progression and Cycle Diagrams（巨大的步骤的进展和周期图）.pdf

The ‘Giant Steps’ Progression and Cycle Diagrams Dan Adler One of the challenges faced by any intermediate Jazz student is to master the Coltrane changes in every key. The term Coltrane changes refers to the harmonic progression associated with the tune ‘Giant Steps’ by John Coltrane. Besides using this progression as the basis of ‘Giant Steps’, Coltrane also applied these changes as a substitute pattern over the chord changes of a number of standard tunes to which he composed new melodies, such as Countdown (based on Tune Up), Sattelite (based on How High The Moon), 26-2 (based on Confirmation). In some cases (Body and Soul, But Not For Me) Coltrane applied the same changes as substitute patterns for turnarounds using slight modifications of the original melodies. Clearly, Coltrane viewed this chord progression as a formula that can be applied in many contexts and in many keys. Most approaches to learning the Coltrane harmonic progressions are based on memorization, and when faced with memorizing a long chord sequence in 12 keys – most people find the task daunting. However, you will see in this article that the ‘Giant Steps’ harmonic progression is a musical cycle, and like all musical cycles is based on easy to memorize formulas. I started to investigate musical cycles systematically following a master class by the great alto saxophonist Gary Bartz at Michiko Rehearsal Studios in NYC, where he made the statement that all the secrets of Jazz harmonic progressions and substitutions can be deduced from studying cycles. I was fascinated by this idea that everything from II-V-I patterns to Tritone substitutions to Coltrane changes can all be deduced from a simple set of rules, and so I started down the path of understanding the principles behind cycles. Basic Cycle Math A musical cycle is an ordered set of notes obtained by successively applying the same interval. In other words: take any interval