Giant Steps
John Coltrane's song Giant Steps is known for its unusual and difficult chord changes. Although the chord progressions are complicated, there aren't that many unique chords, only nine. And there is a simple pattern to the chords; the difficulty comes from the giant steps between the chords.
If you wrap the chromatic scale around a circle like a clock, there is a three-fold symmetry. There is only one type of chord for each root, and the three notes not represented are evenly spaced. And the pattern of the chord types going around the circle is
minor 7th, dominant 7th, major 7th, skip
minor 7th, dominant 7th, major 7th, skip
minor 7th, dominant 7th, major 7th, skip
To be clear, this is not the order of the chords in Giant Steps. It's the order of the sorted list of chords.
For more details see the video The simplest song that nobody can play.
Related postsThe post Giant Steps first appeared on John D. Cook.