Baby steps to "Giant Steps."

You're probably wondering what this "Giant Steps" tune is that you keep hearing and reading about. Here is what you need to know...It's one of John Coltrane's most famous recordings, and one you should own a copy of. If a tune were a mountain, this one is a peak improvisers often attempt to climb.

In it, John Coltrane introduced a new way of improvising (and playing over a ii-v) using tonal centers a Major 3rd apart from one another. Let me explain...
If you start on G and go down a Major 3rd, it brings you to Eb. Then go down a Major 3rd and it will bring you to B, right? From there, another Major 3rd down takes you back to G. So it's G-Eb-B-G. Big steps, eh? One might say "Giant Steps." It's a tritonic way of splitting up an octave. (It's also an Augmented triad, but who cares? Not me.) So in his composition he substitutes this tritonic stuff for good old fashioned ii-v's and voila, a whole new thing.

Here is the subtitution for the first move from G to Eb. The regular ii-v would be Fmin7 to Bb7 to Eb. He does this...In the key of G, start with BM7 to D7 to GM7 to Bb7 and end on Eb. Up a minor third, down a fifth, over and over to the target. These are called "Trane changes." Sound complicated? They are and they aren't. Go HERE, this link will play it for you and visually show you what's up.