Chord progressions to jazz tunes

Chord progressions with detailed bar indications of jazz standards for piano.

This tutorial presents examples of well-known jazz tunes and their chord progressions.

April in Paris

April in Paris chord progression
Fm6/G iv⁶	Cmaj7 I	Dm7b5 iiø⁷	G7 V7
Cmaj7 I	Cmaj7 I	Gm7 ii	C7 V7
Fmaj7 IV	Fmaj7 IV	Bm7b5 E7 iiø⁷ – V7	Am Am/G vi – vi⁶
F#m7b5 iiø⁷	B7#5 V7	Bm7 E7 ii – V	Em7b5 A7 iiø⁷ – V7
F#m7b5 Fdim7 iiø⁷ – #iio7	C/E Ebdim7 I – #iio7	Dm7b5 iiø⁷	C/E I
Bm7b5 E7 iiø⁷ – V7	Am Am/G vi – vi⁶	F#m7b5 B7#5 iiø⁷ – V7	Emaj7 G7 V – V7
Fm6/G iv⁶	Cmaj7 I	Em7b5 iiø⁷	A7#5 V7
D7 V7	Dm7 G7 ii⁷ – V7	C6 I	C6 I

Song description: "April in Paris" is a popular song with music by Vernon Duke. The song has been played by numerous artists, but perhaps is the Count Basie version most famous. The Roman numerals are used to describe chord functions within the progression. These are given in a simple form, but could have been written with more information concerning key changes. Typical in jazz, are ii–V pairs and ii–V–I chains, which can be seen in several occasions in the actual tune. Since the key changes during the song, the label of Roman numerals is sometimes not obvious. For example, Fmaj7 in bars 9–10 could be I as the temporary key is F or IV as the home key of the whole song is C.

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