Originally Posted by: CSchlegelStructural is regarding the entire piece as in one home key and modualtions are dealt with as they occur, but everything is related back to the home key. You can even just focus on two and three chord blocks that form V-I or ii-V-I (or ii-V-i) changes as they occur. But the idea is to focus on functional harmony.

Okay, so it sounds like this method would require looking at the song and analyzing it before hand.

Okay, so then, let's try to apply this a bit. I watched some of the videos you recommended (....24+9 is a LOT of videos to go through), and I think I have some ideas for how this might play out.

Okay, so let's look at an example. This is the sheet music I have for Manha De Carnaval (Black Orpheus):


I can tell you right off the bat, the song is in the key of Aminor, and the melody stays within the Aminor scale, with the exception of a few spots where there is an exceptionally colorful chord.

So it's pretty obvious the melody for this piece fits into the principle that you gave - find the "home key," and modulate where necessary.

But let's say I wanted to play more colorfully. In one of your videos, link , you mentioned using modes to pre-empt a chord change. Obviously, the A minor/harmonic minor scale works fantastically for the first set of chords, which is your basic 1-2-5 jazz progression. What scale might I pick to modulate over to the next chord set, which is Amin7-Dmin7-Gdom7?

D is the fifth of G, and A is the fifth of D. I think a Dmin scale could work well over the A-D-G progression. Dmin scale is the same as an A Phrygian scale, I think. So would I be right in using an A Phrygian scale right before the chord change?