page_title: Coltrane changes
section_title: Influences
hierarchical_section_title: Coltrane changes / Influences
caption_attribution_description: English: A graphical representation of the chords from "Have you met Miss Jones" by Rogers and Hart, using a SeeChord chart.
context_page_description: Coltrane changes are a harmonic progression variation using substitute chords over common jazz chord progressions. These substitution patterns were first demonstrated by jazz musician John Coltrane on the albums Bags & Trane and Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago. Coltrane continued his explorations on the 1960 album Giant Steps and expanded on the substitution cycle in his compositions "Giant Steps" and "Countdown", the latter of which is a reharmonized version of Eddie Vinson's "Tune Up". The Coltrane changes are a standard advanced harmonic substitution used in jazz improvisation.
context_section_description: David Demsey, saxophonist and coordinator of jazz studies at William Paterson University, cites a number of influences leading to Coltrane's development of these changes. After Coltrane's death it was proposed that his "preoccupation with... chromatic third-relations" was inspired by religion or spirituality, with three equal key areas having numerological significance representing a "magic triangle", or, "the trinity, God, or unity." However, Demsey shows that though this meaning was of some importance, third relationships were much more "earthly", or rather historical, in origin. Mention should be made of his interests in Indian ragas during the early 1960s, the Trimurti of Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva may well have been an inherent reference in his chromatic third relations, tritone substitutes, and so on. In playing that style, Coltrane found it "easy to apply the harmonic ideas I had... I started experimenting because I was striving for more individual development." He developed his sheets of sound style while playing with Miles Davis and with pianist Thelonious Monk during this period. In terms of the origin of this “sheets of sound” technique, saxophonist Odean Pope considers pianist Hasaan Ibn Ali a major influence on Coltrane and his development of this signature style.
  Coltrane studied harmony with Dennis Sandole and at the Granoff School of Music in Philadelphia. He explored contemporary techniques and theory. He also studied the Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns by Nicolas Slonimsky (1947).
  The first appearance of the "Coltrane changes" appear in the verse to the standard "Till the Clouds Roll By" by Jerome Kern. The bridge of the Richard Rodgers song and jazz standard "Have You Met Miss Jones?" (1937) predated Tadd Dameron's "Lady Bird", after which Coltrane named his "Lazy Bird", by incorporating modulation by major third(s). (highlighted yellow below) "Giant Steps" and "Countdown" may both have taken the inspiration for their augmented tonal cycles from "Have You Met Miss Jones?".
caption: SeeChord chart of "Have You Met Miss Jones?"
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