Ain't We Got Fun? by Richard A. Whiting

Overview

Key: E♭ major · Chords used: 16 · Sections: 3

Form: A Section → B Section → C 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

• E♭ – B♭7 – E♭ – E♭7
  I – V7 – I – I7

B Section

• A♭ – B7 – E♭ – Cm7 – Gm – D7 – Ddim – D7 – Gm – Gdim – Fm – B♭aug
  IV – #V7 – I – vi7 – iii – VII7 – vii° – VII7 – iii – iii° – ii – V+

C Section

• G – Cm – Fm – D7 – E♭ – A♭m6 – E♭ – F9 – B♭7 – E♭
  III – vi – ii – VII7 – I – iv6 – I – II9 – V7 – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• B♭aug (V+) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• A♭m6 (iv6) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• D7 acts as V/iii: it resolves to Gm.
• G acts as V/vi: it resolves to Cm.
• F9 acts as V/V: it resolves to B♭7.

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.
• The sheet has D.C./D.S. jump markings (go back to the start or a sign); those repeats aren't written out here, so part of the song may be played more times than shown.
• 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.