Oh hai friend.
The other day I stumbled across this video for a C Major turnaround lifted from Angelo DeBarre, which I enjoyed.
Unfortunately, no tablature was included in the lesson. So I have been nice enough to provide some. And in the process I ended up learning some stuff. So now I am sharing. Check the PowerTab file here.
Chords
Section A shows the chord progression. The turnaround is based on C7 – A7 – Dm7 – G7, a ragtime-style circle of 5ths.
- Real and spectacular
The substitution of A7 with an F#7 in the first voicing threw me for a loop (more on that later), as did the Ab7 substitution in the second voicing, but the voice leading sounds good overall, and the rest of the chords are pretty straight forward.
Turnaround
Section B shows the turnaround lick as played in the video. The chords listed in brackets are the arpeggios in the lead line.
- Oh Angelo, your lead line is excellent
The lead line chords are: C, Ebm7, Dm7, Db7, C
Spirit of Manouche
In a complete coincidence that demonstrates entirely how much of music is completely derivative, the lead line chord progression reminded me of a chord progression I played out of Patrick “Romane” Leguidcoq‘s excellent gypsy jazz manual, Spirit of Manouche. That progression was an F turnaround: Am7b5, Abm7, Gm7, Gb7, Fmaj7. See below for the tab.
I then transposed the above chord progression to C, and ended up with Em7b5, Ebm7, Dm7, Db7, Cmaj7, which is identical to Angelo DeBarre‘s lead line progression, with the exception of the first chord, an Em7b5, instead of a Cmaj7. See below for the tab for that too.
Of course, I soon realized that moving the root Em7b5 from E to C, I end up with a C9, so we’re back at the original progression. See below for the tab for that incredible move.
All this to explain an Em7b5 substitution for C9
Finally, I considered what would happen if I replaced the C arpeggio from Angelo DeBarre‘s lead line with an Emb5 arpeggio, and only one goddamn note moved! At that point I realized that the Emb5 arpeggio over C is just a C7. And yes, there’s tab for that right above.
F#7 Substitution
Remember how I said that F#7 substitution for A7 in the very first progression confused me?
Well, I played through the F#7 arpeggio, as shows below, and realized it is only one-note different than an A7 arpeggio. The note is a flat 2nd over an A chord. Another move I learned from Romane is that diminshed arpeggios over dominant 7th chords give you flat 2nds.
If we recall that diminished arpeggios are symmetrical, then four-note diminished arpeggios can have 4 roots. That’s 4 possible flat 2nds, and 4 possible flat 2nds over dominant 7th chords.
Where do F#7's come from, mommy?
At this point I realized that F#7b9 is therefore a substitution for A7b9 because they share the same 4-note diminished scale. The other two dominant chords that share the same diminished arpeggio are Eb7b9, and C7b9. That means that each of these chords can be substituted for A7.
C’est si incroyable.
