“Equinox” is a John Coltrane composition recorded in 1960 and released on Coltrane’s Sound. It’s a slow, dark minor blues with a hypnotic, Latin-tinged groove from Elvin Jones and McCoy Tyner, and it’s one of the most popular minor blues tunes at jam sessions.
The form is a 12-bar minor blues, usually in C# minor (concert). The changes are simple: the tonic minor for four bars, the iv chord for two bars, back to the tonic, then a bVI7 to V7 movement (A7 to G#7) before returning home. The melody is a short, brooding phrase repeated over the changes, giving the tune its meditative quality.
Section by section: in bars one to four, use C# Dorian or C# minor pentatonic and build phrases slowly from low to high. In bars five and six, move to F# Dorian and target A, the minor third of F#m. Bars nine and ten bring the A7 to G#7 move; over A7, use A Lydian dominant, and over G#7, use the altered scale or C# harmonic minor to create strong tension. Then resolve to C#m with a clear chord tone. Coltrane builds his solo with repetition and intensity, so try developing one motif across several choruses.
Practice with a slow minor blues play-along, focusing on tone and long phrases. Learn the melody by ear and play it with Coltrane’s dark, rich sound in mind. Pianists should study McCoy Tyner’s open fourths voicings.
Transposing tip: Bb instruments read it in D# minor (often written as Eb minor), and Eb instruments in A# minor (written as Bb minor). Get a lead sheet in your key.
Is it hard to play? It’s intermediate; the key is unusual, but the form is simple. Recordings to study: Coltrane’s Sound. Learn more about the composer on John Coltrane’s Wikipedia page, and find more minor blues lead sheets on Minedit.