A Ship Without a Sail by Richard Rodgers

Overview

Key: E♭ major · Chords used: 15 · Sections: 14

Form: A Section → B Section → C Section → D Section → E Section → F Section → G Section → A Section → B Section → C Section → D Section → E Section → F Section → G Section

Where these chords come from: a lead sheet of this public-domain song, contributed by a musician to the Wikifonia archive and preserved in the OpenEWLD lead-sheet collection (Simonetta et al., 2018). It describes the song as written, not any particular recording. This page shows that lead sheet 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.

Section by section

A Section 1

• E♭ – Fm – E♭ – B♭9 – Cm – F7 – Fm7 – B♭7
  I – ii – I – V9 – vi – II7 – ii7 – V7

B Section 1

• E♭ – Fm – E♭ – B♭9 – Cm – F7
  I – ii – I – V9 – vi – II7

C Section 1

• A♭6 – G7 – A♭ – Fm – E♭ – E♭aug – A♭ – B♭7 – E♭
  IV6 – III7 – IV – ii – I – I+ – IV – V7 – I

D Section 1

• E♭7 – A♭ – B♭7 – E♭ (×2)
  I7 – IV – V7 – I
• A♭ – G7 – Cm – A♭m – E♭ – B♭m6 – C7
  IV – III7 – vi – iv – I – v6 – VI7

E Section 1

• Fm
  ii
• B♭7 – E♭ (×2)
  V7 – I

F Section 1

• B♭7 – Fm7 – B♭7 – E♭ – G7
  V7 – ii7 – V7 – I – III7
• E♭7 – A♭ – B♭7 – E♭ (×2)
  I7 – IV – V7 – I

G Section 1

• A♭ – G7 – Cm – A♭m – E♭ – B♭m6 – C7 – Fm – B♭7 – E♭
  IV – III7 – vi – iv – I – v6 – VI7 – ii – V7 – I

A Section 2

Same chords as A Section 1.

B Section 2

Same chords as B Section 1.

C Section 2

Same chords as C Section 1.

D Section 2

Same chords as D Section 1.

E Section 2

Same chords as E Section 1.

F Section 2

Same chords as F Section 1.

G Section 2

Same chords as G Section 1.

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• A♭m (iv) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• G7 acts as V/vi: it resolves to Cm.
• E♭7 acts as V/IV: it resolves to A♭.
• C7 acts as V/ii: it resolves to Fm.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the OpenEWLD lead-sheet collection (Simonetta et al., 2018). Community-contributed lead sheet (chord symbols over the melody) from the Wikifonia archive, MIT licence. Title and songwriter credit as written on the sheet.
• Section names: detected by code from repeated 8-, 12- and 16-bar phrases (letters such as A and B mark different phrases; a phrase that comes back keeps its letter). Lead sheets rarely print section names.
• Not verified: only one lead sheet of this song is available, so it hasn't been cross-checked.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.