Minor Turnaround Progression: An Unexpected Love Affair

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been in Lesson 5 (Minor Turnaround Progression) of PWJ’s Play Lead Sheets with 7th Chords course. It has some weird (to me) chords—half-diminished, iv7s, etc.—and at first I wasn’t sure I would like it. It just sounded so lugubrious.

But I'm a good little Piano With Jonny student, so I bit the bullet and started the lesson. There are four suggested lead sheets for learning and practicing this progression:

In This Quiet Hour (Jonny’s 8-bar educational tune for the lesson)
Lullaby of Birdland
You Don’t Know What Love Is
Softly, As In a Morning Sunrise

I started with “In This Quiet Hour” and then began listening seriously to the other three. I made a playlist with multiple recordings of each song and listened while driving, working, walking. I didn’t know any of them when I started, but now I know and love them (except maybe “You Don’t Know What Love Is”… just too depressing!).

Then I printed out The Great Gig Book as a birthday gift to myself, and the fun began. I was surprised by how quickly I picked up the other three songs. After practicing the progression in various keys, experimenting with left-hand patterns, and just living with the sound of it for a while, the harmony stopped seeming weird and started to feel good.

For my “graduation” video for each lead sheet lesson, I simply play the PWJ tune, so I sat down early this morning to work on In This Quiet Hour. It was hard when I first learned it — half-diminished sevenths in intervals, ugh — but it’s so much easier now. Something has definitely shifted!

I liked what I was playing, so I turned on the camera and hoped I’d come up with something worth sharing.

And I did! Yay!

This progression that once felt sort of depressing turned into something reflective and beautiful. Not lugubrious at all! In this improv, I use a more contemporary, less jazzy sound. I’ve played in this style for years, so it feels natural, and I think it fits this progression beautifully.

I have to admit I’m proud of this one. It just feels honest and settled and very much me.

Here it is. Enjoy!

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