“My Funny Valentine” was composed by Richard Rogers in 1937 for the musical Babes in Arms.
It has become one of the most recorded jazz standards and notable versions include the recordings of Chet Baker and Miles Davis.
The form is “funny” (pun intended): ABCD with 4 bars extra in the D section.
The harmony of the A and B sections is in the minor key, the C goes to the relative major key, it goes back to the minor in the D section but ends in major in the extra 4 bars.
The melody is completely diatonic to the major key, or the natural minor if you prefer.
In this lesson we will do a detailed melodic and harmonic analysis, compare the variations of chords changes, study the chords scales, how to use modes and dominant bop scales.
Video lessons:
Lyrics:
But don’t change a hair for me
Not if you care for me
Stay, little valentine, stay
Each day is Valentine’s Day
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PDFs in concert, Eb and Bb
9 comments on “My Funny Valentine”
Félicitation Guillaume Super
And Guillaume again with a transcription of Frank Wess 🙂
Check out Guillaume during our private lesson playing a great solo using the motif and the development techniques discussed in the course, sounds great!
Clase magnífica. Grandes ideas para construir un solo. Merci beaucoup, Alex.
Alright gang, I’m sharing my piano solo version… I made a couple of mistakes, gotta live with this!
Chico Hamilton recorded My Funny Valentine in 1956 with Celo and Flute.
Here we are in 1989 with the same musicians : Cello Fred Katz ; Flute Buddy Collette
Perfect course, as usual! Thank you Alex
Thank you Laurent, looking forward to hearing you play this song 😉