Why Musicians Fear John Coltrane's 'Giant Steps'

by Tom Stone

Jazz is a genre of music that is difficult to define because it is so varied and has evolved over such a long time. Its early years were heavily influenced by African-American gospel and work songs. The genre then took many forms over the years as various artists expressed themselves in different ways. It has helped shape the course of music over the years, and elements of the genre can still be found in popular music today.

One of the most influential jazz musicians of all time was John Coltrane. He was a saxophone player, and composer in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Much of his music was influenced by the popular styles of Bebop and Cool Jazz during this period. However, he also was at the forefront of what became known as Freeform Jazz, which involved breaking down the normal chord progressions that many musicians felt had been overused during the Bebop era, and using different chord progressions, tempos, and tones. In 1960, his most influential album, Giant Steps, was released. It featured the groundbreaking piece of music from which the album took its name, 'Giant Steps'.

'Giant Steps' is a fast-tempo free-form piece of jazz music including lengthy solos from John Coltrane himself on the saxophone and Tommy Flanagan on piano. Nowadays it is seen as a fear-inducing right of passage for many young jazz musicians. 

Why so scary? 

It's all down to the fast tempo and unique chord changes which became known as the ‘Coltrane changes.’ In a more traditional jazz piece the chord sequence is based around one key, often using the classic II, V, I sequence. For those of you reading who don’t know much about music theory, let me try to explain what this means. The simplest key in all western music is the key of C which contains no sharps or flats (if you look at the keys on a piano it contains 8 white notes only and no black notes). This means that a scale in the key of C will contain the white notes C,D,E,F,G,A,B and then back to C again. The II, V, I sequence links to this is by numbering each letter in this sequence I through VIII, (i.e. C would be I, D would be II, E would be III, and so on until you reach C again which would be VIII).

Chords are made up of three or more notes from the scale, so a basic triad in the key of C involves C,E and G. Played together, these notes create a major chord. We would call this chord I in the C major key. Chord II starts with the second note in the C major scale, which is D.  To construct chord II, you look at the C major scale again and use the third note after D and the fifth note after D which are F and A. Chord V starts with the fifth note in the C major scale which is G. Then like the other two chords find the notes three above G and five above G which are B and D. Playing these chords in the order II, V, I is used in jazz a lot, and is often described as the backbone of jazz. Coltrane uses this sequence throughout the piece, but with one crucial and fundamental difference: instead of sticking to one key (in this example the key of C), he uses three different keys. This is very tricky!

For the next part of understanding the fear behind Giant Steps we need to have a look at the circle of fifths, pictured above. We don't need to understand a lot about the circle of fifths but what we do need to know is that each note on the outside of the circle represents a different key. The further apart a key is from another, the less the two keys have in common. For example the keys C and F# (12 o’clock and 6 o’clock) have very few notes in their scales in common, so they are diametrically opposite each other. Imagine each key is a different language. Keys that are closer together in the circle are like languages that are closely linked such as French and Spanish. With keys that are further apart, it is more like French and Japanese.

In Giant Steps, Coltrane uses three different keys which could not be more widely spaced around the circle of fifths. This means that only a few notes are shared between the different keys. It is as if he switches from French to Arabic to Japanese within a matter of seconds. To be able to improvise over them, you need to be fluent in all of them. The key changes happen incredibly quickly, often within the same bar, ready to flummox the most experienced players.

The story goes that Tommy Flanagan had never seen the chords before making the recording. He starts his solo with a few hesitant notes and struggles to piece together an improvised phrase at all. Tommy was by then a well seasoned and highly successful professional jazz musician. No wonder Giant Steps is considered the most feared jazz piece of music of all time and students quake at the thought of performing it!