A Lesson in Leavin by Dottie West

Overview

Key: B major · Chords used: 16 · Sections: 8

Form: Chorus → Verse → Pre-Chorus → Chorus → Solo → Pre-Chorus → Chorus → Chorus

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). This page shows that transcription as-is: the analysis below is generated directly from it by code, not written by AI. Consecutive repeats of a chord are shown once, and the piano voicings are our playable arrangement of each chord symbol, not a note-for-note transcription.

Key changes

• Chorus 3 moves to D♭ major.

Section by section

Chorus 1

• B – E – F♯ – G♯m – D♯m – E – F♯7sus4 – B
  I – IV – V – vi – iii – IV – V7sus4 – I

Verse

• G♯m7 – Badd9 (×2)
  vi7 – Iadd9

Pre-Chorus 1

• G♯m7 – D♯m7 – E – B/D♯ – E – F♯sus4
  vi7 – iii7 – IV – I⁶ – IV – Vsus4

Chorus 2

• B – E – F♯ (×2)
  I – IV – V

Solo

• G♯m7 – Badd9 (×2)
  vi7 – Iadd9

Pre-Chorus 2

• G♯m7 – D♯m7 – E – B/D♯ – E – F♯sus4 – G♯sus4
  vi7 – iii7 – IV – I⁶ – IV – Vsus4 – VIsus4

Chorus 3

• G♭ – A♭ – D♭ (×2)
  IV – V – I
• A♭9sus4
  V9sus4

Chorus 4

• D♭ – G♭ – A♭ (×2)
  I – IV – V
• D♭ – A♭9sus4 – D♭
  I – V9sus4 – I

Chord vocabulary

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0101, CC0), via ChoCo.
• Not verified: only one expert transcription of this song is available so far.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.