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The Blues for Alice changes, Bird changes, Bird Blues, or New York Blues changes, is a chord progression, often named after Charlie Parker ("Bird"), which is a variation of the twelve-bar blues.

The progression uses a series of sequential ii–V or secondary ii–V progressions, and has been used in pieces such as Parker's "Blues for Alice". Toots Thielemans's "Bluesette", Freight Trane written by pianist Tommy Flanagan, and Parker's "Confirmation" also have similar progressions.

Structure

A simple blues progression, in C, is as follows:

A typical blues progression in jazz, in C, is as follows:

The Bird Blues progression, in C, is as follows:

In roman numeral analysis, this is represented by

I	vii   III	vi    II	v     I
IV	iv    ♭VII	iii    VI	♭iii  ♭VI
ii	V	I   VI	ii     V

This can be viewed as a cycle of ii–V progressions leading to the IV chord (F in the key of C major), and the tritone substitution of the dominant chords leading by half-step to the V chord (G in C).

C:	Am:	G(m):	F:
I	ii     V	ii      V	ii      V
F:	E♭:	D:	D♭(m):
I	ii V	ii V	ii V
C:
ii	V	I    VI	ii     V

Sources

1. Hatfield, Ken (2005). Jazz and the Classical Guitar Theory and Applications, p.182. ISBN 0-7866-7236-6.
2. Umble, Jay (2011). Mbgu Jazz Curriculum: Payin Your Dues with the Blues, p. 62. ISBN 9781610653145.
3. Jacobs, Sid (2011). The Changes, p. 12. ISBN 9781610651684.
4. ^ Baerman, Noah (1998). Complete Jazz Keyboard Method: Intermediate Jazz Keyboard, p. 63. ISBN 0-88284-911-5.

• Charlie Parker
• Chord progressions
• Chord substitution
• Jazz terminology