Bird changes

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". Toots Thielemans's "Bluesette"[1] and Parker's "Confirmation"[2] also have similar progressions.

Structure

A simple blues progression, in C, is as follows:

A typical blues progression in jazz, in C, is as follows:[3]

The Bird Blues progression, in C, is as follows:[4]

In roman numeral analysis, this is represented by

I^M7	vii^ø^7   III^7	vi^7    II^7	v^7     I^7
IV^7	iv^7    ♭VII^7	iii^7    VI^7	♭iii^7  ♭VI^7
ii^7	V^7	I^M7   VI^7	ii^7     V^7

This can be viewed as a cycle of ii–V progressions leading to the IV chord (F⁷ in the key of C major), and the tritone substitution of the dominant chords leading by half-step to the V chord (G⁷ in C).[4]

C:	Am:	G(m):	F:
I^M7	ii^ø^7     V^7	ii^7      V^7	ii^7      V^7
F:	E♭:	D:	D♭(m):
I^7	^subii^7 ^subV^7	^subii^7 ^subV^7	^subii^7 ^subV^7
C:
ii^7	V^7	I^M7    VI^7	ii^7     V^7

Sources

1. Hatfield, Ken (2005). Jazz and the Classical Guitar Theory and Applications, p.182. ISBN 0-7866-7236-6.
2. Umble, Jay (2011). Mbgu Jazz Curriculum: Payin Your Dues with the Blues, p.62. ISBN 9781610653145.
3. Jacobs, Sid (2011). The Changes, p.12. ISBN 9781610651684.
4. Baerman, Noah (1998). Complete Jazz Keyboard Method: Intermediate Jazz Keyboard, p.63. ISBN 0-88284-911-5.