Workshop 6 mini-test

1. What is B♭m7-E♭7-A♭maj7?

2. How should you think of Fm7 before that cadence?

3. What is the most important destination after Dm7♭5-G7?

4. What is the key mental shift when harmony becomes chromatic?

5. What bass motion marks the pivot after D♭maj7?

6. Why are guide tones so useful in this tune?

7. What is the tritone substitute for E♭7?

8. Why is scale-per-chord thinking inefficient here?

9. What should you memorize instead of a long chord list?

10. What is the deepest practical definition of modulation?

Answers

1. ii–V–I in A♭ major.
2. As a tonic-family/vi chord that extends the path into the ii–V–I.
3. C major.
4. Hear the destination first, then understand the intermediate chords as voice-leading/function toward it.
5. D♭ → D
6. They preserve smooth semitone/common-tone lines even while the tonal center changes.
7. A7
8. Because the harmony changes faster than you can comfortably relabel every mode, and the music is better understood in destination-centered packets.
9. Functional blocks such as ii–V–I, minor ii–V–i, and their target key centers.
10. A modulation is a change in what your ear accepts as “home.”

The central lesson of Workshop 6 is:

When the key keeps moving, do not chase every chord. Hear where the harmony is going, and let the individual chords become steps toward that destination.

A natural next workshop is “Misty”, which shifts the challenge again: slower harmonic rhythm, lush ballad voicings, melody notes functioning as 9ths/11ths/13ths, richer reharmonization, rubato, and learning how to make a solo piano arrangement sound full without becoming harmonically overcrowded.