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Understanding Coltrane Changes Part 1

By

Brent Vaartstra

3
Coltrane Changes. If you’ve been playing jazz for a while and have really gotten deep
into it, you’ve probably had to confront them. At some point you’ve attempted to
play Giant Steps at a jam session or even by yourself at home and had to learn the
hard lesson: it’s not easy!

Sure playing tunes like Giant Steps, Satellite, Countdown, or 26-2 can be quite a
challenge, but like any other tunes you just need to practice them.

But where do you start? A lot of musicians like to go straight to shedding scales,
arpeggios, and patterns over all of Coltrane’s harmonically complex forms. After all,
that’s the hard part right: just being able to sound good when soloing over the
changes?
However in order to set yourself up for success, you need to first understandColtrane
Changes. A lot of musicians skip this step and end up making it so much harder than
it really is. It can be helpful to take a step back from your instrument and analyze
what’s going on.

In this lesson we’re going to look at 2 fundamental types of Coltrane Changes that
you need to understand before moving forward to others: the Three Tonic System
and the Four Tonic System. In the next post we’ll talk about how you can
apply Coltrane Changes to different jazz standards, but for now this is a necessary
starting point.

Three Tonic System

Realize that Coltrane Changes are all about cycles. It’s incredibly important to
understand what these cycles are and how they work. What is being cycled? Different
key centers. Let’s start by talking about the Three Tonic System.

Three Tonic System essentially means there are 3 different tonal centers present in
the cycle.

There are different kinds of Three Tonic Systems as you’ll see in the next lesson, but
for now let’s focus on Giant Steps.

Here is the rule for a Three Tonic System based on Giant Steps: Each key center
descends in Major 3rds.

Let’s take a look at the first three bars of Giant Steps:

Notice that in Giant Steps the three tonal centers are: B Major, G Major, and Eb
Major.

Now in case you don’t find this fascinating: understanding that Giant Steps can be
simplified to three keys makes thinking about it much easier!

Let’s take another look at these first three bars and see how the rule (Each key center
descends in Major 3rds) shows up in these changes:

As you can see, Bmaj7 is moving to Gmaj7 which is a major 3rd down and Gmaj7 is
moving to Ebmaj7 which is a major 3rd down. This movement in thirds (major or
minor) is really what characterizes most all Coltrane Changes.

Notice as well that each key center moves up to a dominant 7 chord a minor
3rd away (Bmaj7-D7).

Why does this work? Notice that the D7 is the V chord of G and notice how Bb7 is the
V chord of Eb. If you’ve been paying attention to your ii-V-I’s, you already know that
the V chord resolves perfectly to the I chord.

Let’s take a look now at the entire form of Giant Steps and analyze this even further:
First note that the entire form keeps going in this same cycle: Bmaj7-Gmaj7-Ebmaj7-
Bmaj7-Gmaj7-Ebmaj7…..etc. It sticks to the the rule of the key centers moving down
in Major 3rds.

You’ll notice that for the sake of the piece, Coltrane doesn’t continually connect the
tonal centers with dominant 7 chords a minor 3rd up (or the V chord of the next tonal
center). If he did, there would be a constant attack of 2 beats per chord and no space.

To deal with that he starts adding ii-V’s to connect tonal centers. My suggestion is to
think of the ii-V-I of the next tonal center as a whole and don’t worry about the exact
minor 7 chord that comes after the tonal center you are currently on.

If you understand the cycle and realize you are only dealing with three different keys,
Giant Steps automatically becomes much easier to navigate.
Four Tonic System
Coltrane also utilized a Four Tonic System in his music.

If you haven’t concluded already, a Four Tonic Systems means there are 4 different
tonal centers present in the cycle. Again there are different types of Four Tonic
Systems, and each tune has it’s own way of cycling.

A good example of a Four Tonic System is Central Park West.

Here is the general rule for a Four Tonic System based on Central Park West: Each
key center modulates by minor 3rds (up or down).

Now the reason I say general rule is because Coltrane doesn’t completely follow this.

In this tune the key centers are: B Major, D Major, F Major and Ab Major. Notice how
these key centers modulate up by minor 3rds. But Coltrane throws a little bit of a
curve ball at us. Take a look at the first 6 bars:
He starts the tune modulating a minor 3rd up (Bmaj7-Dmaj7) but then decides to
switch the order of the key centers and moves to Abmaj7 instead of the Fmaj7 after
the Dmajor (which are a tritone apart from each other). This causes the Fmaj7 at the
end of the cycle to be a minor 3rd down from the Abmaj7.

He connects the 4 different key centers by ii-V’s into each proceeding key, much like
he did in the last half of Giant Steps.

In summary…
If you understand what the cycle and the key centers are in each Coltrane Changes
tune you are already on the right path. Focus in on the key centers and the tune will be
easier to digest.

In the next lesson we’ll talk about how Coltrane applied his Coltrane Changes to
popular jazz standards such as Tune-Up and Confirmation. As always, check
our blogoften.

-Brent Vaartstra

Learn more about the author by visiting www.brentvaartstra.com

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Previous articleMiles Davis Solo Transcription of Oleo

Next articleLick of the Week #7 – Easy ii-V7-I Lick

 Brent Vaartstra
http://www.brentvaartstra.com

Brent Vaartstra is a professional jazz guitarist and educator living in New York City. He is the
head blogger and podcast host for learnjazzstandards.com which he owns and operates. He
actively performs around the New York metropolitan area and is the author of the Hal Leonard
publications "500 Jazz Licks" and "Visual Improvisation for Jazz Guitar." To learn more, visit
www.brentvaartstra.com.

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3 COMMENTS

1. DLB August 26, 2018 at 9:43 pm

Hi Brent, In 42 years of playing guitar, this is hands down the best
introduction and breakdown of The Coltrane Changes I’ve ever read.

Brilliant. I wish I read this 18 years ago. ‘Would have saved me years of
headache.
 Wonderful lesson. Thank you!
DLB

Reply

o Brent VaartstraAugust 28, 2018 at 5:56 pm

Hey DLB, so glad to help! I appreciate you letting me know.

Reply

 DLB September 1, 2018 at 2:25 am

My pleasure! This is a fabulous website!

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