My Funny Valentine | TAB
Let’s look at some TAB for how you could play My Funny Valentine. I’ve used the chords you’d find in the Real Book ass that’s what musicians naturally would reference.
I’ve also made it super simple so it’s easy for a singer or soloist to know where they are.
Here’s verse 1, or idea 1.
The main focus here is bass, I did this because the Chet Baker version is so bass-heavy, that people will naturally think of that.
Notice how the bass is often chromatic when we switch to a new chord or use an open string.
All 8th notes should be played as broken triplets as well.
Here’s verse 2.
Now, I’m playing more. Start by practising as the TAB says before you blend the concept with what we did in verse 1.
The last two chords are new, the Abm6 is chord IVm, and many notes are the same as a Dm7b5. The final chord is chord V, but interestingly, it’s the same notes as G7b9, if we see it as a dim7 chord.
Whenever you see a dom7b9, you should/could change it to a dim7 chord a tone down, so G7b9 is Fdim7, Bb7b9 is Abdim7. In both cases, we ignore the root note but play all the other notes from the dom7b9 chord.
Fdim7 and Abdim7 are identical.
Anyway, let’s look at the third verse.
Now we go rogue and ignore the low notes at first, this increases the tension.
Verse 3 is also the end so the chords change as we play over 12 bars instead of 8. Bbm7 – A7#11 is a II – V to take us to chord IV (Abmaj7).
Fm7 – Bb7b9 is a II – V to get us to Eb6. Dm7b5 – G7b9 is a minor II – V to get us to Cm if we want to start from the top again.
Perhaps practising to improvise over major and minor II – V’s is a good idea…
Here’s the bridge.
The bridge is in Eb, the relative major of the verse’s Cm tonal centre.
We move I – II – III – II at first, I’ve changed the way this is played to give you ideas.
On the second line, we start our journey back to Cm by using the IIIx (G7), After resolving to Cm, we get that II – V taking us to chord IV you’ll later hear in verse 3.
Having looked at all of My Funny Valentine’s chords, it is perhaps becoming obvious why this is a jazz standard and a great place to start if you want to learn how to “solo over changes”.
My advice would be to first learn how to comp it for a singer and maybe a sax player.
Following this, you should move on to the melody, then develop the melody, then and not before, start thinking about soloing.
My Funny Valentine TAB | Related Pages
My Funny Valentine | Chords + Lyrics
You can learn to play My Funny Valentine by the Real Book using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and various famous versions.
| Cm | Cmmaj7 | Cm7 | Cm6 |
My funny Valentine, sweet comic Valentine…
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
Chet Baker tunes
Trumpeter, Chet Baker is most famous for singing My Funny Valentine and how his approach to jazz pioneered the style of Cool.
Chet recorded many jazz standards including Autumn Leaves, I Fall In Love Too Easy, Stella By Starlight, and A Foggy Day.
Chet Baker on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This guitar lesson by Dan Lundholm featuring TAB covers My Funny Valentine. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.