My Foolish Heart Tutorial
My Foolish Heart is a delightful jazz piano ballad composed by Victor Young. Published in 1949, the most famous version of My Foolish Heart is undoubtedly the Bill Evans trio version – definitely worth checking out if you haven’t already!
The tune is most commonly played in Bb Major, however you will find it in some other keys. Bill Evans played it in A major so this is a common key for transcriptions of the tune. The lyrical melody and interesting changes make My Foolish Heart a favourite amongst cocktail jazz musicians.
This standard contains a number of major and minor 251s which is great practise for playing these common progressions in context of a jazz standard. The melody in the A section contains a lot of arpeggiated eight notes and climbs gradually within the octave. This contrasts with the B section which moves mostly in steps and stays within a close range of the keyboard.
Related Lessons
This is part 2 of the tutorial on dominant chord voicings. Here we explore voicing options for the natural 4th, #11, 5th, #5, 13th and the b7.
In a minor 251, the 5 chord will be an altered dominant chord. In this lesson we apply altered dominant chords to the major 251 progression.
Minor harmony is much more complex than major harmony and so the minor 251 progression takes much more time and patience to master.
Practice Tips
Take a listen to the Bill Evans Trio version of this tune. This is widely cited as the definitive recording of My Foolish Heart:
Thanks for these awesome lessons of yours ! Oh and I love your perfect british accent 🙂
Awesome introduction to your course, Hayden. I’m 2 months into my pro membership and still using this introductory free lesson on Foolish Heart to apply some of the theory I’m learning from the course so far. It’s a terrific lead in to the course in general. Great stuff mate.
Eri
Thanks Eric… that’s great to hear.
You will always be adding to the tunes you know. That is the beauty of learning jazz… it’s never ending.
I love it when I come back to a tune after a few months or so and I apply all of the new stuff I have been working on.
All the best mate,
Hayden
Hayden, could you please explain the theory behind why we can substitute the Bbmaj chord at the end with a Bmaj chord instead? Thanks!
Hi Eric, yes sure let me help you out here:
Instead of ending the tune on the Imaj7 chord (Bbmaj7 in this case) – it’s a nice effect to play a major #11 chord a half step higher.
The listener is expecting the tune to finish on the I chord and so playing a major chord a half step up creates a surprising and unexpected ending. The #11 extension has a ‘floating’ quality which adds to the unique and unusual sound of this ending technique. Try this on any other tune that ends on the I chord.
You can take this technique further, try this Eric:
1) Instead of ending on the Imaj7 chord, play a major #11 chord a half step higher
2) run up the keyboard outlining this new chord
3) then finally resolve to the I chord
This is a useful technique to delay the sense of resolution and add interest to the end of your arrangement. The #11 chord a half step higher is not related to the key of the tune, and so it sounds very unusual in relation to the rest of the harmony. When you finally drop back to the actual I chord, it creates a final sense of resolution – the perfect way to end a tune!
I demonstrate this technique in many different jazz standard lessons, check out “The Nearness Of You” as an example: pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/the-nearness-of-you-tutorial/ – skip to the final chapter of the video on the “4 Bar Ending”.
Hope this helps Eric… any other questions just let me know 🙂
Hayden
Hayden thanks so much for the swift and amazing response. I’ve been enjoying every minute of the subscription so far your tutorials are truly the best 😀
Hi Hayden, Please post the sheet music/lead sheets for this song.
Hi Ronny 👋
You can download the chord changes and transcription in the “Downloads” section of this page. You must be logged into the website for the “Downloads” section to appear. If I can be of further assistance let me know 🙂
Hello Hayden.In what context do you like to use the 5th?.i know that the more important notes are the 3th and 7th..but you use the 5th at random chords.Thanks
Hi Ivan, the fifth just adds weight and volume to any chord voicing. It is a unique interval because it can be played in the lower registers without sounding too “muddy”. I would recommend experimenting with and without the 5th in your voicings and follow your ears on what you like. Cheers! Hayden
Nice!Thanks
A couple questions.1)Do you only reharmonise when you have a 251 progression?2)If whe have a sharp 11th..whe should sharp the 9th or 13th too?I saw you doing it a couple of times with the 9th.3)In the minute 25.34 you have a c13 chord but you didnt play the 13..So that means that we can choose when to play the extensions whenever we wan to?Thanks
Hi Ivan,
I’d recommend checking our the following 2 courses which will answer all of your questions, and more!
The first is Altered Harmony & Upper Structure Triads: pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/altered-harmony-upper-structure-triads/ – this course explains exactly how and when you can use extensions and alterations.
The second course is “Chord Substitution & Rehamormonisation”: pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/chord-substitution-reharmonisation/ – we look at different tricks and tips for rehamonising any chord or progression. 251s are the most common progression in jazz, and so naturally you will discover many ways to reharmonise this common progression.
Cheers!
Hayden
ps. there is no such thing as a #13, that would be the b7. Again this is explained in the course on Altered Harmony 🙂
Great!Im gonna take a look.
On the iReal Pro app the turnaround at the end is a 2-5 with the chords listed as C7 and F7sus. The recommended chords sound real cheesy. Can you give me a couple of voicings for these chords that transition to the beginning? Thanks in advance.
Hey Adam!
Try a string of chromatic dominant chords. Perhaps Db7, C7, then B7, which will take you back to Bbmaj7.
Dominant chords will always have a strong sense of pull a half step down and so simply stack them up leading to where you want to go, which is Bbmaj7 in this case.
You can add any alterations/extensions/upper structures to those chords too. Try adding #5#9 to the B7 and that will sound less ‘cheesy’ than the F7sus.
Let me know if that helps 🙂
Hayden
Thank you Hayden. You’re awesome!
Hello,
Can you explain the theory behind using both the flat and sharp 9 in the final F7 chord? Is there a lesson that covers this subject? Thanks in advance and great lesson!
Hi Jose 👋
Good question!
Yes the b9 and #9 are chord alterations. When playing dominant chords, we can add the chord extensions b9, #9, #11, and #5/b13.
These chord alterations add more ‘colour’ and ‘tension’ to dominant chords and create more jazzy sounding progressions.
We have a full course on “Altered Harmony”, check it out here:
pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/altered-harmony-upper-structure-triads/
Watch the theory lessons in that course and if you have any further questions just let me know.
Cheers,
Hayden
Hi,
this is an excellent tutorial on one of my favourite songs. Although, we’ll never reach the ingenuity of Bill Evans, this tutorial takes me a huge step forward on my jazz piano journey. Hayden, your arrangement is full of interesting harmonic ideas and surprises. Thanks a lot!
After having worked thoroughly through the tutorial one question is remaining. It refers to the tritone substitution in measure 19 (notes): In the video you show the “standard” substitution Db7 for G7; in measure 19 of the notes the Db9#11 substitutes for the Dm7 and G7b13 for G7. This also seems to work but it somehow “destroys” the nice chromatic (bass note) movement. Is there a reason for bringing the substitution forward?
Thanks,
Karsten
P.S. I guess there should be a Ab7 (instead of Abm7) in bar 4 of the coda…
Hi Karsten 👋🏻
Glad you enjoyed the lesson!
I agree it’s an extremely audacious goal to reach the ingenuity of Bill Evans when playing this tune; he was a truly amazing jazz pianist.
To answer your question regarding the tritone substitution, I think a lot of this is down to taste. I agree the descending half step bass line sounds great and so my recommendation would be to follow your ears with the sound you like best.
We can also play both the regular dominant and the tritone sub which I like to do. I often play the V7 chord and then quickly slide into the Imaj7 from the tritone which adds some nice interest and movement.
And yes thanks you spotting the typo in the coda… I will fix this.
I hope the above helps and we cover lots of tritone principles in our course on “Chord Substitution” should you wish to explore that topic further: pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/chord-substitution-reharmonisation/
Hope this helps and enjoy the lessons!
Cheers,
Hayden