Barbershop Turnaround I-VI-II-V
Piano sound loads on first tap. Resolved in the key of C — every chord links to its full analysis.
The circle-of-fifths turnaround at the heart of barbershop quartet arranging and rhythm-changes-style jazz, built from the same secondary-dominant chain as George Gershwin's 'I Got Rhythm'. French jazz musicians even gave it its own slang name, 'l'Anatole'.
What each degree does
Feels like home — complete rest, where the piece departs from and returns to. The major tonic, where everything settles.
The MAJOR sixth degree — a chromatic mediant of unexpected brightness where you expected the minor vi. It often works as the target triad toward ii.
The MAJOR second degree — the triad with a major 3rd on II, a bright, lifted Lydian raised-fourth colour. It also shows up as the triadic goal of a V-of-V.
Tension pulling home — the chord that 'wants to resolve' to I; it closes or opens sections. The dominant, the engine of the key.