Isn’t She Lovely - Stevie Wonder
Map of Root progression
Verse
The system is set to produce rich 5 note chords voiced for Jazz.
This piece is to be played by a single player, who guides the path of the chord progression.
A South Westerly walk of 4 chords reaches the traditional "home" location.
(A series of 4 chords moving purposefully to a target makes a good verse.)
This walk is repeated four times.
Chorus
- 1st Chord of Chorus. The chorus starts by continuing in the same direction, but plunges on down past the "home" location. This poses a problem, since in order to finish effectively, the chorus of a popular song typically needs to get back to the home location. But if the current direction of motion is maintained, it will take too long to get back to the home "location". On the other hand, momentum needs to be maintained, and it would be good to keep some kind of thematic unity in the way the song moves.
- 2nd Chord of Chorus. In a stroke of genius by Stevie Wonder, there is a sideways swerve down a semitone. Astoundingly, although this is the smallest possible move, due to the folded nature of harmony, this acts as a kind of hyperspace jump, letting us emerge one notch higher than the start of the chorus.
- Chords 3-7 of Chorus. Hence we now have aSouth Westerly walk of 5 chords reaching the traditional "home" location.
- Ending the Chorus - However, to keep the rhythm of the chorus even, 8 chords would be much better than 7. So just before we get home, the second to last chord is played twice.
"Isn't She Lovely" in Whole Body Harmony Space
Settings for Isn't She Lovely
Chord Size 5
Inversion 0
Chord Map Stevie
Altered Chord - none
