Coltrane's Tone Circle
An in-depth breakdown of John Coltrane's handwritten tone circle diagram, mapping chromatic relationships, geometric shapes, and advanced jazz harmony.
read it It offers a clear, geometric breakdown of a famous music theory artifact with direct applications for jazz analysis.
summary
An exploration of John Coltrane's handwritten tone circle diagram, rebuilding it to decode its harmonic secrets. It examines how chromatic scales, circles of fourths, and geometric shapes like triangles and squares map complex jazz structures like 2-5-1 progressions and Coltrane changes. The post connects these visual topologies to practical improvisation techniques and modal relationships.
key points
- The tone circle arranges the chromatic scale inside the circle of fourths, revealing symmetric shapes like squares for diminished 7th chords and triangles for augmented triads.
- Standard jazz harmonic devices like 2-5-1 progressions and tritone substitutions appear as predictable geometric steps and straight lines.
- The triangular shape formed by augmented triads directly illustrates the three key centers used in the composition Giant Steps.
who should read it
Musicians, jazz students, and music theorists interested in the mechanics of advanced harmony.
discussion positive
consensus
Commenters generally agree that Giant Steps is challenging primarily because of its blistering tempo rather than its underlying harmonic changes alone.
pushback
A commenter notes the post might overwhelm beginners who have not yet mastered foundational bebop and blues vocabularies.
The Coltrane changes are lovely, but if you slow them down they aren't substantially more difficult than other Jazz changes from that era. What makes Giant Steps so challenging is mainly the tempo.
Tommy Flanagan, the pianist who struggled a bit on the original Coltrane recording, put out a recording of Giant Steps with his own trio in the 1980s. Having had enough time by then to woodshed the changes, his improvs are exquisite. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3PWynH-CEc
It contextualizes the difficulty of Giant Steps by noting that complex modulations existed earlier, making tempo the true differentiator.
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