Almost by Being in Love by Michael Johnson

Overview

Key: E♭ minor · Chords used: 16 · Sections: 9

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Interlude → Chorus → Verse → Outro

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.

Section by section

Intro

• E♭m11 – B – D♭ (×2)
  i11 – #V – bVII

Verse 1

• E♭m7 – Bmaj7 – B♭m7 – A♭m7 – B♭m7 – Bmaj7 – B – D♭ – E♭m11
  i7 – #Vmaj7 – v7 – iv7 – v7 – #Vmaj7 – #V – bVII – i11

Verse 2

• E♭m7 – Bmaj7 – B♭m7 – A♭m7 – B♭m7 – Bmaj7 – D♭ – E♭m11
  i7 – #Vmaj7 – v7 – iv7 – v7 – #Vmaj7 – bVII – i11

Chorus 1

• Fm7♭5 – B♭7sus4 – B♭7 – E♭maj9 – E♭sus4 – E♭ – E♭m7 – B9 – Fm7♭5 – B♭7 – B – D♭
  iiø7 – V7sus4 – V7 – Imaj9 – Isus4 – I – i7 – #V9 – iiø7 – V7 – #V – bVII

Verse 3

• E♭m7 – Bmaj7 – B♭m7 – A♭m7 – B♭m7 – Bmaj7 – B – D♭
  i7 – #Vmaj7 – v7 – iv7 – v7 – #Vmaj7 – #V – bVII

Interlude

• E♭m11 – B – D♭ – E♭m9 – Bmaj7 – B♭m7 – A♭m7 – D♭ – E♭m11
  i11 – #V – bVII – i9 – #Vmaj7 – v7 – iv7 – bVII – i11

Chorus 2

• Fm7♭5 – B♭7sus4 – B♭7 – E♭maj9 – E♭ – E♭m7 – B9 – Fm7♭5 – B♭7 – A♭m7 – D♭
  iiø7 – V7sus4 – V7 – Imaj9 – I – i7 – #V9 – iiø7 – V7 – iv7 – bVII

Verse 4

• E♭m9 – B – B♭m – A♭m7 – B♭m7 – Bmaj7 – B – D♭ – E♭m11
  i9 – #V – v – iv7 – v7 – #Vmaj7 – #V – bVII – i11

Outro

• E♭m11 – B – D♭ (×4)
  i11 – #V – bVII

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• E♭maj9 (Imaj9) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ major.
• E♭ (I) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ major.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0547, 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.