Turnarounds
The two bars that cycle you home · I – VI7 – ii – V7 · I – ♭III°7 – ii – V7
A turnaround is the short progression at the end of a section that pushes the music back to the beginning of the next chorus. Most are two bars long. They live at the end of the 12-bar blues, the end of every Rhythm Changes A section, and the last two bars of countless jazz standards. Knowing four or five standard turnarounds gives you the harmonic glue that ties form together.
The classic turnaround — I – VI7 – ii – V7
Two bars that loop you back to the top. The most common turnaround in jazz and blues, and the one to learn first in every key.
Toggle voice leading in the player to hear it smooth out, or learn voice leading →
The amber and honey palette on this page is inspired by music-color synesthesia — turnarounds maps to amber and honey, reflecting its pivot-and-return momentum.
About Turnarounds
Turnarounds exist because forms are meant to repeat. The 12-bar blues plays chorus after chorus; the 32-bar Rhythm Changes form cycles through its AABA structure dozens of times in a single performance. Without a turnaround, the music would arrive at the end of a chorus and just sit there — the I chord in the last bar feels like a stopping point. The turnaround replaces that resting I with a sequence of chords that ends on V7, which creates strong harmonic tension pulling the listener's ear back to the top of the next chorus.
The classic turnaround — I – VI7 – ii – V7 — works because it is a sequence of root motions by descending fifths (or ascending fourths), which is the strongest harmonic motion in tonal music. From I to VI7 is a third (which works because VI7 is itself a secondary dominant pulling to ii). From VI7 to ii is a fifth. From ii to V7 is another fifth. From V7 back to I (the top of the next chorus) is the final fifth. Four chords, three perfect-fifth root motions, total forward momentum.
The Tadd Dameron turnaround is the bebop reharmonization of the same idea. Instead of moving through diatonic chords, it cycles through tritone substitutions: Imaj7 → ♭III7 → ♭VI7 → ♭II7. Each chord is a tritone away from where the diatonic version would have gone, and the bass line descends chromatically (in C: C – E♭ – A♭ – D♭ – C). It produces a much denser, more chromatic sound, but the function is identical: get back to I in two bars. Once you have both the diatonic and the chromatic turnaround in your hands, you can switch between them inside a single tune for variety.
Variations
Rhythm Changes turnaround — I, VI7, ii7, V7
The cycling four-chord turnaround that closes every A section of "I Got Rhythm" and every Rhythm Changes head.
Tadd Dameron turnaround
Bebop reharmonization built entirely from tritone substitutions. Imaj7 – ♭III7 – ♭VI7 – ♭II7.
Diatonic stepwise turnaround — I, iii, vi, ii, V
A softer, all-diatonic version that walks down by thirds before landing on V7.
Turnaround with a secondary dominant — I, V7/ii, ii, V
Borrows V7 of ii (which is VI7 voiced as a dominant) before resolving through ii–V.
Famous songs & pieces
- I Got Rhythm — George Gershwin (Rhythm Changes turnaround at the end of every A section)
- Anthropology — Charlie Parker (Bebop head over Rhythm Changes — turnaround in bars 7–8)
- Sweet Home Chicago — Robert Johnson (Standard blues turnaround in bars 11–12)
- Oleo — Sonny Rollins (Rhythm Changes with rapid turnarounds at every section break)
- Lady Bird — Tadd Dameron (The tune that gave its name to the Tadd Dameron turnaround)
- Take the A Train — Billy Strayhorn (Standard I – VI7 – ii – V7 turnaround into the bridge)