I Could Write A Book

• Courses
• I Could Write A Book

Course Lessons

• Resources
• Form
• Miles Davis
• Progression
• Red Garland Comping
• Andre Previn

Another great tune from the Great American Songbook.

There are countless recordings of I Could Write a Book, but in this course, we’re going to focus on the Miles Davis version from Relaxin’. We'll walk through the chord changes and highlight how they diverge from the Real Book — including a few unexpected surprises.

We’ll also dig into Red Garland’s comping style, especially how he uses syncopation to push the groove forward.

And we’ll check out Andre Previn’s recording, where he spices up the opening phrase with some beautifully simple but bold reharmonizations.

Course Objectives #

• Understand the ABAC song structure (a shift from the AABA forms we’ve covered before)
• Learn to break the tune down into vi–ii–V–I building blocks
• Explore variations and substitutions for the vi–ii–V–I progression
• Analyze how the Miles Davis recording adds turnaround tags to stretch the form
• Practice Red Garland’s comping feel — especially his use of offbeat accents
• Steal a spicy reharm from Andre Previn’s intro and learn how to apply it yourself

— or —