Con Alma — reimagined in Major Thirds

Originally by Dizzy Gillespie (1954, Afro) Tuning used here Major Thirds (free, one of the 33 built-ins) Key idea the harmonic move jazz theorists cite as arriving at major-third key symmetry five years before Giant Steps

This isn't a guitar tuning Gillespie ever used — Con Alma was written for a bebop big band, no guitar tuning to be faithful to. But the pairing isn't arbitrary: the tune's A section moves through E, C⁠#⁠m/B, and E⁠♭⁠ — key centers a major third apart, the exact same division of the octave Coltrane would build an entire vocabulary on half a decade later. It's the same reasoning that put Giant Steps in this tuning: hear a major-third-symmetric progression on the one guitar tuning built the same way.

Where Giant Steps turns the major-third cycle into the entire tune, Con Alma just visits it — the A section drifts from E major down through a C⁠#⁠m/B and back, then answers with a ii–V into E⁠♭⁠, before a real bridge takes over with a chain of altered ii–Vs. It's the kind of tune that gets pulled out specifically to make the point that Coltrane didn't invent this idea — he systematized it.

A section

E major, sliding down a major third, and back

Emaj7→ G⁠#⁠7/D⁠#⁠→ C⁠#⁠m7→ B9→ B⁠♭⁠7→ E⁠♭⁠maj7→ E⁠♭⁠m7→ A⁠♭⁠7→ D⁠♭⁠maj7→ F7/C→ B⁠♭⁠m7→ G7→ Cmaj7

The real chart calls this a B13 — voiced here as a B9, since a full six-note 13 chord can't fit six strings without dropping the same tone a guitarist would drop anyway.

The full A section, including the real bass notes under both slash chords.

Remix with Open—Shape

Bridge

A chain of altered ii–Vs, resolving into the final A

The bridge drops the major-third symmetry entirely and just walks: a half-diminished ii–V into E, then a plain ii–V into B⁠♭⁠ that sets up the return of the A section — standard bebop machinery, placed right in the middle of the tune's least standard idea.

Cm7♭5→ F7♭9→ F⁠#⁠m7→ B7→ Emaj7→ Fm7→ B⁠♭⁠7

The full bridge, including the half-diminished ii–V into E.

Remix with Open—Shape

From here the tune repeats the A section note for note and lands back on Cmaj7 — the same shape as the ending above, played twice through, which is exactly how the real head is built.

Every chord verified against the app's own voicing engine in the real Major Thirds tuning, including the real bass note under both slash chords — no Pro unlock needed.