One of the most famous jazz standards of all time is Autumn Leaves by Joseph Kosma, and if you want to learn Autumn Leaves chords, this post is for you.
Autumn Leaves is an excellent jazz standard because it covers some basic chord progressions and harmonic concepts found throughout jazz. If you can understand how the harmony of Autumn Leaves works, you can play and understand many more jazz standards.
We’ll review everything you need to know to play this tune, memorize the chords, and solo over the changes by unpacking its harmonic movement and discussing various ways to tackle playing over the chord shapes.
That way, whether your goal is to play a chord melody arrangement on piano or guitar or rip through the changes like Michael Brecker, you’ll be on the right path.
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Table of Contents
Introducing Autumn Leaves
Let’s start by learning more about the history of this composition.
Autumn Leaves was composed by Hungarian-French composer Joseph Kosma in 1945. Poet Jacques Prévert wrote the French lyrics. Its original title is “Les Feuilles Mortes, ” meaning “The Dead Leaves.”
American songwriter Johnny Mercer wrote English lyrics in 1950.
The falling leaves drift by the window.
The autumn leaves of red and gold.
I see your lips, the summer kisses,
The sunburned hands I used to hold.
Since you went away, the days grow long
And soon, I’ll hear old winter’s song.
But I miss you most of all, my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall.
-Johnny Mercer
The song has an AABA form, meaning the first theme (or section) is repeated, followed by the second theme, and ending on the original theme. It has two main keys: concert G minor and E minor.
Remember that if your instrument is not a Concert C instrument (like guitar or piano), you should know how to transpose tunes to your key. For example:
- If you are a Bb tenor sax player, the key Autumn Leaves is in is A minor (a whole step up from the concert key).
- If you are an Eb alto sax player, E minor (a minor 3rd down from the concert key).
- If you play a C instrument, such as the piano or guitar, you will play in G minor as it’s written.
Understanding Chord Progressions
To understand the Autumn Leaves analysis we’re about to go over, you must understand how chord progressions work and how chord phrases are used to construct jazz standards.
If you don’t understand this, I highly suggest checking out two other articles: How to Harmonize a Major Scale with 7th Chords and How to Harmonize Minor Scales with 7th Chords.
But for a quick summary of both, here are two charts showing how chords work to create chord progressions.
Major Diatonic Series of 7th Chords
Take the seven notes of the C major scale—C, D, E, F, G, A, B. By stacking these notes in thirds, you can construct seven 7th chords. These seven 7th chords are the diatonic series of 7th chords.
- C + E + G + B = Cmaj7
- D + F + A + C = D-7
- E + G+ B + D = E-7
… And so on.
Jazz songs (well, really, most songs) are built from chords taken from the diatonic series. Chord progressions often move in predictable ways based on the relationships found in the diatonic series.
Some chord progressions borrow chords from other scales and keys, but usually, a tune’s core harmonic movement is built around the relationships found in the diatonic series.
You can also do this with a minor scale, which is important because the Autumn Leaves chords
Minor Diatonic Series of 7th Chords
The Minor Diatonic Series of 7th Chords is based on the natural minor, harmonic, and melodic minor scales. The V chord is borrowed from the harmonic and melodic minor harmonization.
Instead of a minor 7 (like it would be if it were a natural minor scale), it is turned into a dominant 7th chord. Why? The V chord in traditional harmony is almost always a dominant chord.
The V often resolves to the I chord, so the V in the harmonic and melodic minor is appropriate. In the same way, the vi chord is borrowed from the melodic minor.
Understanding these two charts will be necessary for understanding Autumn Leaves chords. That’s because Autumn Leaves is almost entirely made up of major and minor ii-V-I chord progressions.
You need to understand the Roman numeral numbering system to understand the chord relationships in Autumn Leaves and how they move.
Major ii-V-I
A major ii-V-I in the key of C uses the following chords:
- ii chord: D-7
- V chord: G7
- I chord: Cmaj7
Minor iiØ-V-i
A minor iiØ-V-i in the key of C- uses the following chords:
- iiØ chord: D-7b5
- V chord: G7
- i chord: C-7
With all of this in mind, it’s time to check out how the Autumn Leaves chords are written.
BEFORE YOU CONTINUE...
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Autumn Leaves Chords Analysis
The charts above are color-coded to help you identify the key for different sections of the form.
- Blue is the relative major key.
- Red is the minor parent key.
- Green is a section of cycling 4ths.
Understanding Relative Keys
Major and minor keys that share the same key signature are called relative keys. Essentially, they share the same notes as each other. C major and A minor are relative keys.
- C major: C, D, E, F, G, A, B
- A minor: A, B, C, D, E, F, G
The sequence of notes is the same in each scale. The only difference is the order of the notes.
For more information on relative keys, check out this article on relative and parallel minor.
Autumn Leaves is in the key of concert G minor. Its relative major key is Bb major. G minor and Bb major share the same key signature (and the same notes).
G Minor Scale
Bb Major Scale
The Autumn Leaves chords perfectly illustrate how relative major and minor keys work together. The entire song essentially switches between the two, except for one section.
Let’s take a look at it.
If there is a confusing part of Autumn Leaves, this would be it. However, it’s not really all that strange when it comes to jazz harmony.
The first bar starts on the tonic chord and then moves to a dominant IV chord.
The movement of the root notes in 4ths is very common in jazz harmony, and we’ll go over that more next. The IV chord in a minor key is usually minor, but jazz musicians constantly turn minor chords into dominant 7th chords.
From there, the second bar can be considered a ii-V chord progression to the relative major IV chord (Eb), although it doesn’t resolve.
Think of the first bar and the second bar as isolated ii-V chord progressions with no attachment to any particular key. They are passing chords that ultimately resolve to a minor ii-V-i of G minor.
Major and Minor ii-V-I Chord Progressions
The second big thing to observe about Autumn Leaves is that it is almost entirely ii-V-I chord progressions in both minor and relative major keys.
The ii-V-I progression is by far the most important chord progression in jazz. Check out this article for a deep dive into the ii-V-I chord progression.
The Autumn Leaves chords starts with a ii-V-I in the relative major key (Bb).
Knowing the major and minor diatonic series of 7th Chords is important here. You will also want to know how to transpose ii-V-Is into all 12 keys.
If you know them well, you can quickly identify that Bb is the relative major of G minor and that Cmin7-F7-Bbmaj7 is a ii-V-I in the key of Bb major.
Let’s take a look at the transition into the parent minor key.
The Ebmaj7 is the IV chord of the relative major, and it serves as a transition chord into the parent minor ii-V-i.
The beauty of the Autumn Leaves chords is that it is a fairly simple progression in terms of harmonic movement. It contains jazz theory concepts that are nearly universal in jazz standards.
Autumn Leaves Chords Guide Tone Chart
One of the most common questions jazz students ask is, “How do I make the chord changes come out in my solos?”
If you started improvising without accompaniment, would a listener know you were playing “Autumn Leaves” (assuming they are familiar with the song)?
The key to achieving this is outlining the chord changes in your improvisation. Guide tones are the perfect starting point. We have talked extensively about guide tones in another article, so be sure to check that out if this is new.
In jazz, the guide tones are the 3rds and 7ths of each chord. You don’t need the root note to convey the harmonic message of the tune.
Let’s take a look at a ii-V-I in C major using rootless chords.
Here’s what this looks like when the guide tones are played melodically and using a concept called voice leading (in this case, connecting the last guide tone in a step-wise motion with the proceeding chord).
Here is a guide tone chart for the Autumn Leaves chords. Creating guide tones maps to jazz standards helps you navigate a tune’s changes.
Keep in mind that there are many different ways to voice-lead guide tones. Experiment with different guide tone phrases. Play through these guide tones, and try targeting them in your improvisation.
You should also try singing the guide tones to help internalize pitch relationships! Singing melodies, lines, and chord tones ensures you are playing from your musical mind and not your fingers!
For the jazz guitarist or pianist—playing shell voicings through a tune is a great way to practice only playing guide tones. Shell voicings are rootless chords that outline the basic harmonic structure of a tune (3rds and 7ths).
Thinking about harmony in terms of guide tones can help you break out of stock chord shapes and make chord melody arrangements easier to play.
Autumn Leaves is an excellent jazz standard to study. Many music theory and jazz lessons can be learned from it. Analyzing jazz standards like this and breaking them apart reveals how similarly different ones are structured harmonically.
Spend some time working on this standard and be sure you understand it. Unlocking this one means unlocking many others in the process.
Suggested Listening: Listen to Vocal and Instrumental Arrangements
The most important thing you can do when learning a song is listen.
Listen to as many versions and arrangements of Autumn Leaves as you can. Jazz is all about how a player interprets and reproduces a tune in their own voice, so listening to vocal and instrumental arrangements is essential.
Check out the YouTube playlist embedded below:
Frank Sinatra from “Where Are You?” 1957
Cannonball Adderley from “Somethin’ Else” 1958
Bill Evans Trio from “Portraits in Jazz” 1959
Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt from “Boss Tenors” 1961
Listen to how each jazz musician treats the melody of “Autumn Leaves” differently. If you read the melody from a piece of sheet music, you’ll learn the basic structure of the melody, but you miss many of the nuances in jazz greats’ performances.
It’s always better to learn it by ear by cross-referencing different examples.
- Pro tip #1: check out that Sinatra recording. Frank always sings the melody “straight.”
- Pro tip #2: check out the French version, “Les Feuilles Mortes,” to hear the melody sung in a different language (which changes the rhythms and placement of notes in the melody).
- Pro Tip #3: listen to versions in various keys to hear the progression from different tonal centers.
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