Chords and Harmony - B Section

Music Lesson: Modulating to B Flat Major

And then we cycle back to the D flat 7 with the A/B in the bass, to the C7, and to the F major, and then back to the C7.

Repeats like the very first four bars. However, now we're going to change; it's modulating now into the key of B flat major.

It's doing that much in the same way as it resolves to F major at the beginning of the piece. Same thing, but up five frets.

Transitioning to B Flat Major

And how we do that:

• G flat 7 with D flat in the bass
• F7 with C in the bass
• Then B flat 6 or BB 6, 9

In my backing track, I've included a cheeky A7 as a passing chord, which is again very reminiscent of the era.

Reminiscent of every Woody Allen soundtrack you've ever heard, you get this effect.

Four Minor Chord Use

Then we have the power of four minor:

• B flat minor
• F major

And then the same with the first four bars again. So that little ending bit there is very typical.

A lot of pop music and jazz music after this era, after the Second World War, will use a dominant chord like C to F.

In fact, all music uses that.

Sorry, everything from Bach to Mozart to Jimi Hendrix will go this way.

However, in the gypsy jazz era, they often use four minor, like a B flat minor, as a substitute to move back to chord one, which is F.

So you get:

Instead of this (C to F) at the end, you often hear this (B flat minor) or any inversion of that, and that's how the piece ends.