Workshop 4 mini-test

1. What root sequence drives much of the tune?

2. What progression is Am7-Dm7-G7-Cmaj7 in C?

3. What is Bm7♭5-E7-Am in A minor?

4. Which note makes E7 strongly point toward Am?

5. What is the critical resolution?

6. What is the tritone substitute for G7?

7. What is the tritone substitute for E7?

8. Why can C major/A minor thinking cover much of the progression?

9. What is more useful than assigning a separate scale to every chord?

10. What is the deepest lesson of the tune?

Answers

1. A-D-G-C-F-B-E-A
2. vi-ii-V-I, containing the major ii-V-I Dm7-G7-Cmaj7.
3. iiø-V-i
4. G♯
5. G♯ → A
6. D♭7
7. B♭7
8. Most of the progression belongs to the shared C-major/A-minor pitch collection; E7 introduces the main altered tone G♯.
9. Hear the key center, chord tones, guide tones, and destination notes.
10. A long Circle-of-Fifths progression should eventually be heard as one harmonic sentence, not as a list of separate chords.

The key lesson of Workshop 4 is:

The Circle of Fifths stops being theory when you can hear A→D→G→C→F→B→E→A as naturally as you hear the contour of a melody.

For the next workshop, the most useful new territory is a 12-bar jazz blues arrangement, where we can combine the blues language from Module 25 with ii–V progressions, diminished passing chords, tritone substitutions, walking bass, comping, and actual chorus-by-chorus improvisational development.