Tag Archives: stella by starlight

Stella By Starlight – 6 ways to Harmonize a minor II V I

The Minor II V I is a difficult progression to have options for. In this video I am going to demonstrate 6 variations of Stella by Starlight Guitar chord melody options that you can use on this song and on other Minor II V I options.

It should help you get some different ways to approach the minor II V I and not play the same things all thet time.

The examples are going from the original and I also made one with Coltrane Changes, so there is a bit of Jazz history in there as well!

Most of the examples you can easily use on many minor II V I cadences, and some are a little more specific but can still give you some ideas for a way of working on your own arrangements and reharmonizations.

If you know one I didn’t talk about then please leave a comment!

The Content of the Stella By Starlight Video

0:00 Intro

1:25 #1 Original Changes of Victor Young

1:42 Analysis – The Original harmony and the dim chord!

3:18 Finding great harmony by NOT thinking in Chords

5:17 #2 The Real Book Changes

5:57 Analysis

7:01 #3 Eø Natural 9th

7:26 Analysis

8:30 F7 as a Lydian Dominant – Why It Works

9:11 #4 Phrygian Dominant

9:26 Analysis – What is a Phrygian Dom7th

11:15 #5 Major II V Cadence

11:33 Analysis – A great trick also for solos!

13:38 An Extra Level of Hancock in this version

14:13 #6 Coltrane Changes

14:30 Analysis

15:57 #7 Coltrane Changes 2.0 – a more musical approach?

16:44 What is your favourite Reharmonization for this song?

17:10 Like the video? Check out my Patreon Page!

Corinna Danzers Great Video with the original Changes: 

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II V What?! – How not to resolve a II V I (on purpose) – Modern Jazz Guitar Lesson

Probably you know a lot of choices dominant scales in a II V I, but no matter what you do it will always be the same old II V I chord progression that sounds predictable.
 
In this video I will go over how you can break up that pattern by suspending the resolution of the I chord. Our ear really expects the dominant to resolve so going somewhere else is one of the most powerful reharmonization techniques.
 
The video covers how you can get started playing outside by insering IV minor, diminished chords or altered dominant ideas on places where your ear expects resolution not tension. I demonstrate how I use chord substitution in this context with both comping and soloing. The video also discusses how and where you can use this in a reharmonization of a jazz standard. Some of the songs I mention are Stella By Starlight, I Love You and Fly Me To The Moon.
 

 

List of contents

 
0:42 What is a Cadence
1:12 How can we use that to surprise the listener
1:46 #IV diminished Solo
2:03 #IV dim What it does and how it works
3:30 Using this in arranging or comping
3:58 Song example: I Love You
4:34 Song example: Stella By Starlight
5:04 Using Dim suspension when comping
5:36 Song example: Misty
6:30 IV minor Solo
6:48 How IV minor works in a solo context
8:04 Other Iv minor sounds than Melodic minor
8:58 Songs with a IV minor suspension in the melody
9:53 When can you use this suspension on the melody
11:07 Maj7#5 solo
11:24 Maj#5 as a suspension – Using chords to practice
12:59 solo ideas
13:15 In Comping or Reharmonizations
14:06 Song example: Stella By Starlight
14:48 Altered Dominant suspension
15:06 What Altered Dom7th suspension is
16:30 Where this often works the best – Relating it to the form
18:00 VImaj7 solo
18:18 How it works and how I use it.
20:55 Resolve the Maj7 sound and playing difficult modern changes
22:03 Using it to reharmonize standards
23:04 Using Common Progressions in Funny places
23:50 This ReHarmonization series and reinterpreting chords
24:53 Don’t think in scales think in chords and sounds
25:26 Using Standards as reharmonization exercises
 

Stella By Starlight – Backing Track – Playalong – Medium Up – 183 bpm

Stella By Starlight is probably one of the more complicated jazz standards. At the same time it is a very beautiful melody and the harmony is, even if a bit complicated, also very rich!

If you want to check out my solo on it you can do so here:

 

If you want to check out my analysis of the song you can do so here: 

And check out my other backing tracks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u6wxqdUFQA&list=PLWYuNvZPqqcEKZdvb3Q2iKIMqiEVJFqcM&index=1

Analyzing a Standard – Stella By Starlight – Functional Harmony in Jazz

Understanding the chords

Since I was not around last week I didn’t have time to make a Q&A video. Instead here’s a little video about analyzing the standard Stella By Starlight.

I guess Stella by Starlight is in many ways one of the most mysterious chord progressions among the jazz standards. At the same time it is so beautiful that everybody just keeps at it until they can play it 🙂 I know I did it like that at least.

One of the first jazz solos I could play was Ulf Wakenius solo over this on a NHØP album that I since lost.

 

Check out my Solo guitar rendition of Stella by Starlight: