"I Love Your Smile" chord theory

[konaboy]

Question for the music theory guys.

I enjoy playing this tune, the chords are more or less -

 

|  EbM  |  Gm7   Dm7  |  Fm7  |  Bb7sus9  |

 

I want to understand where the Dm7 comes from as it is not in the key of Eb major but just fits in so well anyway, so perhaps some substitution or borrowed cbord, but I can't figure out what is going on here.

 

Thanks.

 

 

[jerrythek]

I don't mean to be snarky, but... because it sounds good? It's what the composer liked?

 

Everything doesn't have to be based on functional harmony, and "rules".

 

And sometimes, when following some voice-leading for a song, some chromatic passing tones sound good, and then they cause you to find a chord to fit them with.

 

Sorry if this is not the answer you're looking for. But to find fresh new sounds you need to break away from the rigid constraints of rules. Not that this song is the most compelling example of "fresh new sounds", but I hope you get my drift. Wayne Shorter wrote amazing tunes that simply can't be analyzed by theoretical harmony rules. But they were the color he liked/wanted.

[ProfD]

25 minutes ago, jerrythek said:

I don't mean to be snarky, but... because it sounds good? It's what the composer liked?

 

Everything doesn't have to be based on functional harmony, and "rules".

 

And sometimes, when following some voice-leading for a song, some chromatic passing tones sound good, and then they cause you to find a chord to fit them with.

Brotha Jerry, you just wrote exactly what I think every time I see one of these threads.

 

At a certain point, whether it's in composition or performance, so much of what we play just happens because it sounds and/or feels good.

 

Musicians don't always *think* about a particular note or chord or voicing. it just flows.😎

[jerrythek]

1 hour ago, ProfD said:

Brotha Jerry, you just wrote exactly what I think every time I see one of these threads.

 

At a certain point, whether it's in composition or performance, so much of what we play just happens because it sounds and/or feels good.

 

Musicians don't always *think* about a particular note or chord or voicing. it just flows.😎

Thanks!

 

Of course there are plenty of examples/situations where there is functional harmony, or an underlying concept, I'm not dismissing that out of hand. Hell, I've written a lot of columns/blog posts teach them!  I agree with you about playing/performance, but to be fair to Woody, he's asking about a song... composition. So it is more prone to the type of analysis he is looking for. But I don't see any of that for this example. Maybe someone else will.

 

But as we are both saying, all theory and "rules" are just codification of things that people did, most often because they liked the sound of it. Then years later people came up with a name for it.

 

Here's a great example: The development of McCoy Tyner's language. It didn't fit at all within the language and concepts of the day. He went his own way. It became so dense and complex that it only later was codified as pentatonics, chromaticism and harmonic planing... Or.... what he heard in his head and felt in his heart. 

[Docbop]

what's the old saying in Jazz....  If it sounds good to you then it is good

[ProfD]

54 minutes ago, jerrythek said:

Of course there are plenty of examples/situations where there is functional harmony, or an underlying concept, I'm not dismissing that out of hand.

Surely. 

54 minutes ago, jerrythek said:

...but to be fair to Woody, he's asking about a song... composition.

Definitely not to dismiss brotha Woody's inquiry.

 

But, if we were to ask the composer his thought process for sticking a Dm7 in that spot...the answer would be more along the lines (no pun intended) of it felt good.🤣

 

From a harmonic analytical perspective we can figure out *why* that chord right there made the butterflies sing in the composer's ears.😁

54 minutes ago, jerrythek said:

But as we are both saying, all theory and "rules" are just codification of things that people did, most often because they liked the sound of it. Then years later people came up with a name for it.

Bingo. 

54 minutes ago, jerrythek said:

Here's a great example: The development of McCoy Tyner's language. It didn't fit at all within the language and concepts of the day. He went his own way. It became so dense and complex that it only later was codified as pentatonics, chromaticism and harmonic planing... Or.... what he heard in his head and felt in his heart.

Exactly. 

 

Excellent discussion.😎

[konaboy]

all great points, thanks, and I get the "if it sounds good" argument.

but this is not an unexpected or outside chord, this is a straighforward pop song, the Dm7 fits perfectly in the changes but is not in the key. 

so I believe there is some conventional harmony going on here that i would like to understand.

 

it starts on the 1 chord, goes to the 3 chord, ends with a 25 turnaround back to the 1.  but that Dm7 is puzzling me.

[CyberGene]

It’s a borrowed chord but I think the best term is actually “modal interchange” as they call it in jazz. Which means that you can borrow a chord not just from the parallel minor/major on the same root, but actually from any mode on the same root. In this case the Lydian.

 

Here’s the Eb Lydian:

 

Eb F G A Bb C D

Same as G minor scale. And guess what? We have a Gm chord before that Dm chord. So, we used Eb Lydian from which we borrowed the Gm and Dm chords. 

[Sean M. H.]

Now that we're talking/thinking about this particular song, the chord in question reminds me of the classic Donny Hathaway song: "Someday We'll All Be Free"...in that one--which is in F#--the second line of the verse has an Fm7 in there.  The whole progression is something like:

F#maj9 > D#m > A#m7 > Fm7 > Bmaj9

 

I've played both of these songs a bunch of times in various settings, and never noticed ths similarities actually.  Which I guess goes back to: it just works so I've never put much thought into it.

 

 

[AROIOS]

12 hours ago, konaboy said:

...I want to understand where the Dm7 comes from as it is not in the key of Eb major but just fits in so well anyway, so perhaps some substitution or borrowed cbord, but I can't figure out what is going on here....

You can see Dm7 as viim7, which is a pretty common sub-dominant chord in Ebmaj9's relative minor. It's essentially the "2" in a minor 2-5-1 (or the "7" in a "7-3-6" as folks call it in Gospel). The iiim7-viim7 (3->7) progression in this song is a minor plagal cadence, just like vim7-iiim7 that's much more frequently heard.
 

The brilliance of this song, is the ambiguity of its tonal center. If you see Ebmaj9 as IV instead of I, now Ebmaj9-Gm7-Dm7 becomes IV-vi-iii, and the #4 (the "outside" note, A) in Dm7 that led to your question, becomes 7 "inside" Bb major scale.
 

The melody also assisted in creating that ambiguity. It sounds like 5-5-5-6-5-6-5, 1-1-2-7-6-5 in the key of Bb over the Ebmaj9-Gm7-Dm7 progression; and suddenly switches to 4-4-4-3-2-1-6-1-6-5 in the key of Eb over the Fm7-Bb9sus part. Our brain is constantly teased by whether the Ebmaj9 serves as IV or I, and that ambiguity is where a ton of fun in the game of harmony lies.

[zephonic]

I always thought of the Dm as the V of the Gm, it’s a very gospel thing to do.

 

[AROIOS]

2 hours ago, CyberGene said:

“modal interchange” ... In this case the Lydian.

Yup, that's what I was talking about by treating the Ebmaj9 as IV.

[stoken6]

See also: Yesterday, and Here There and Everywhere, which both use the minor chord built on the 7th degree of the major scale, although a half-diminished would be “correct”.

 

Cheers, Mike

[AROIOS]

1 hour ago, stoken6 said:

See also: Yesterday, and Here There and Everywhere, which both use the minor chord built on the 7th degree of the major scale, although a half-diminished would be “correct”.

 

Cheers, Mike

As did Anita Baker's "Caught up in the rapture" (0:42), and Rita Coolidge's cover of "We're All Alone" (0:09), among many others.

We can push the 7-3-6 trick even further, to a #4-7-3-6 progression, using a "sub-sub-dominant" of iv#m11, as David Foster tastefully did in "Best of Me" (1:30)

 

 

 

 

[MathOfInsects]

Like @zephonic, I just hear it as a V(m) to the Gm. It's not worried about the Eb at that point, it's only communing with that Gm. It was just a songwriter choosing a cool next chord.

[jerrythek]

[konaboy]

some interesting and differing views on the function of the Dm7, thanks one and all.

the "gospel movement" Gm7 to its V(m) is curious as I would never think of doing that, only familiar with the V7 as passing chord before the target chord.  you can actually skip the Dm7 and just play entire bar of Gm7 and it does work, but is boring.  

[AROIOS]

2 hours ago, konaboy said:

...the "gospel movement" Gm7 to its V(m) is curious as I would never think of doing that...

When it comes to harmony, a diatonic viewpoint can be very limiting. That's why I like Gospel and Pop Jazz, where common tone and voice leading are often the only rules necessary.

 

Take the minor plagal cadence in discussion for example, nothing prevents us from walking it further down into a Pop Jazz progression like the example below.
 

 

 

 

[CyberGene]

@AROIOS sometimes I think you might be my music-harmony soulmate, so to speak 🤣 Because I was going to post exactly the same two things: how diatonic thinking might be limiting. But more importantly, I was going to demo the same sequence you followed because it comes naturally. I’ve been playing it in my head since yesterday when thinking about this thread. It also reminds me of:

 

 

[AROIOS]

28 minutes ago, CyberGene said:

@AROIOS sometimes I think you might be my music-harmony soulmate, so to speak 🤣

😃 The feeling is mutual. I knew it the first time I heard you demo some tasty progression on Hydrasynth two years ago. 🤝

[AROIOS]

36 minutes ago, CyberGene said:

...It also reminds me of:

I call that IV-iii-IIIb-ii (or its alternative IV-V-IIIb-IV) pattern the "Human Nature" progression. It's my favorite Steve Porcaro lick.
 

 

[konaboy]

49 minutes ago, AROIOS said:

When it comes to harmony, a diatonic viewpoint can be very limiting. That's why I like Gospel and Pop Jazz, where common tone and voice leading are often the only rules necessary.

 

Take the minor plagal cadence in discussion for example, nothing prevents us from walking it further down into a Pop Jazz progression like the example below.
 

 

 

 

 

thanks for the example, amazing demonstration, i didn't spot that pattern.

[NewImprov]

I'm sure it happened because it sounded good. And it does! The more "normal" progression would be Gm7 to some sort of C, either a m7 or some altered dominant, to set up the Fm7. The Dm pulls the ear towards expecting an F major, so the Fm7 kinda hits hard every time, even though they repeat the progression a bunch of times.

[Bobby Simons]

On 7/28/2024 at 3:36 PM, AROIOS said:

You can see Dm7 as viim7, which is a pretty common sub-dominant chord in Ebmaj9's relative minor. It's essentially the "2" in a minor 2-5-1 (or the "7" in a "7-3-6" as folks call it in Gospel). The iiim7-viim7 (3->7) progression in this song is a minor plagal cadence, just like vim7-iiim7 that's much more frequently heard.
 

The brilliance of this song, is the ambiguity of its tonal center. If you see Ebmaj9 as IV instead of I, now Ebmaj9-Gm7-Dm7 becomes IV-vi-iii, and the #4 (the "outside" note, A) in Dm7 that led to your question, becomes 7 "inside" Bb major scale.
 

The melody also assisted in creating that ambiguity. It sounds like 5-5-5-6-5-6-5, 1-1-2-7-6-5 in the key of Bb over the Ebmaj9-Gm7-Dm7 progression; and suddenly switches to 4-4-4-3-2-1-6-1-6-5 in the key of Eb over the Fm7-Bb9sus part. Our brain is constantly teased by whether the Ebmaj9 serves as IV or I, and that ambiguity is where a ton of fun in the game of harmony lies.

This is exactly as I heard it, coming out of my mac mini speakers fairly bass-less. That opening is a garden variety, white bread melody if you're hearing it in the key of Bb. Wasn't until I plugged in some headphones did I hear the shenanigans.

[AROIOS]

And here's another twist of the minor walk down: EWF's Daydreamin' (0:39)  
 

Instead of the 3-7-2-6 progression demonstrated above, Maurice White flipped the 1st and 2nd half of the progression into a 2-6-3-7.
 

David Foster did something similar in Boz Scaggs' "Look What You've Done to Me". By moving the 2nd half of that 2-6-3-7 progression a half step up, he created a clever "parallel minor" (or Aeolian modal interchange) trick of vi-iii-i-v progression. The brilliance of that trick is, he then uses the "v" in its dominant form to pivot back to the original tonal center before chorus.
 

 

 

[MathOfInsects]

26 minutes ago, NewImprov said:

I'm sure it happened because it sounded good. And it does! The more "normal" progression would be Gm7 to some sort of C, either a m7 or some altered dominant, to set up the Fm7. The Dm pulls the ear towards expecting an F major, so the Fm7 kinda hits hard every time, even though they repeat the progression a bunch of times.

When you frame it that way, a very "in the mode" explanation for OP's query would be that this is simply I II ii V7, with subs on the I and II (Gm and Dm). 

[Jazz+]

I asked ChatGPT the following question: 

Do you agree that in the chord progression  ||: Ebmaj7 | G-7 D-7 | Fmi7 | Bb7 sus :|| that the Dmi7 acts like a momentary harmonic bridge, a bit of a surprise chord.  The Dmi7 sounds unexpected and interesting. I think it works because it's smooth.  I think it is smooth because it has two common tones with Gmi7 and also two common tones with Fmi7.

 

 

ChatGPT answered

"Yes, I completely agree. The Dm7 chord acts as a momentary harmonic bridge and introduces an interesting and unexpected element to the progression. Here's a detailed breakdown of why it works so well:

Harmonic Bridge:

Transition: The Dm7 chord creates a smooth transition between the Gm7 and Fm7 chords. While it is not diatonic to Eb major, it effectively connects these chords, making the progression more engaging.

 

Common Tones:

With Gm7:

Gm7: G, Bb, D, F

Dm7: D, F, A, C

Common tones: D, F

With Fm7:

Dm7: D, F, A, C

Fm7: F, Ab, C, Eb

Common tones: F, C

 

Smooth Voice Leading:

Voice Leading:Gm7 to Dm7:

G (Gm7) to A (Dm7) - stepwise motion

Bb (Gm7) to C (Dm7) - stepwise motion

D (common tone)

F (common tone)

Dm7 to Fm7:

D (Dm7) to Eb (Fm7) - stepwise motion

F (common tone)

A (Dm7) to Ab (Fm7) - chromatic motion

C (common tone)

 

Element of Surprise:

Unexpected but Effective: The Dm7 chord is not what one might typically expect in the key of Eb major, making it an interesting and surprising choice. This unexpected element grabs the listener's attention and adds harmonic richness to the progression.

 

Summary:

The Dm7 chord effectively acts as a harmonic bridge, providing a smooth and interesting transition between Gm7 and Fm7.

The common tones between Dm7 and both Gm7 and Fm7 ensure smooth voice leading.

The unexpected nature of Dm7 adds an element of surprise and interest to the progression, enhancing its overall harmonic texture.

Overall, the use of Dm7 in this progression is a creative choice that enriches the harmonic landscape and maintains smooth voice leading through its common tones.

[AROIOS]

4 hours ago, MathOfInsects said:

When you frame it that way, a very "in the mode" explanation for OP's query would be that this is simply I II ii V7, with subs on the I and II (Gm and Dm). 

Yup, common tone based substitutions like Imaj9 ~ iiim7 ~ VI9sus, or I ~ vim7 ~ II9sus ~ iiim#5 etc can go a long way.
 

Here's a reharm of the "Love Your Smile" progression using these tricks to give it a bit of Jam & Lewis vibe.

[elsongs]

On 7/28/2024 at 5:24 AM, konaboy said:

Question for the music theory guys.

I enjoy playing this tune, the chords are more or less -

|  EbM  |  Gm7   Dm7  |  Fm7  |  Bb7sus9  |

 

I play a lot of R&B and I play the first chord as EbMaj9.

The song was produced and co-written by Narada Michael Walden, who had a hand in many R&B songs in the '80s and the '90s, including Whitney Houston.

Trivia: On Jay Leno's first night of hosting 'The Tonight Show,' on May 25, 1992, this song was the first musical number as Shanice was the first musical guest - and rightfully so, as Leno's bandleader at the time was jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis - who also played the sax solo on this recording (he played on Shanice's musical performance of course). 

[stoken6]

3 hours ago, elsongs said:

jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis - who also played the sax solo on this recording (he played on Shanice's musical performance of course). 

"Blow, Branford, blow!"

 

Cheers, Mike