All The Things You Are (Analysis)

In our theory class, we were asked to analyse this piece. I have doodled on the paper some starting points, but I'm going to talk in more depth about them now.

A Section

This section is in Ab Major. The starting chord is an Fm7, which is the sixth (vi) chord in the scale. It then does a ii, V, I in Ab. A ii, V, I is a very common chord progression in jazz standards. After this progression, it goes to the IV, and then proceeds to do another ii, V, I. This last ii, V, I is different, because it goes to C Major7 (parallel major), and it's more suited to Cm. To emphasize the fact is is a C Major, the melody has a natural E in it, just to reinforce this.

The A Section is then repeated but transposed up a fifth to Eb Major. However, at the 6th bar of this section, instead of people a standard ii, V, I, it does a minor one. Again, the last chord would be expected to be a Gm instead of G Major, which is also the parallel major.

B Section

The B section is in G Major. The first 4 bars of this section is just a standard ii, V, I in G. The next 3 are a ii, V, I in E. The last chord of this section is a C Augmented 7(Sharp 5th). The artist used this chord because E Major 7 and C+7 share two notes (E, G#), and there is only one note difference. There is also a G# in the moldy line which is sustained throughout and into the F minor 7 chord which becomes the minor third. The C+7 is a pivot chord, because it is the fifth of F. This makes it a perfect cadence.

C Section

Although on the sheet I've labelled this as A again, this isn't the case. The first 5 bars however, are the same as A. However, when it gets to the Db Major, it starts to chromatically move down. The Bdim is known as a 'chromatic passing chord', which is why a diminished chord works there. This is typically used in jazz, with the diminished 7th between the iii, and the ii. The last 3 bars of this are a ii, V, I in Ab Major. The last bar, or the 'Turn around' is a minor ii, V, I leading back to the F minor 7 at the start.