Am I Blue? by Harry Akst

Overview

Key: F major · Chords used: 15 · Sections: 4

Form: A Section → B Section → C Section → D 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

• F – C9 – F – A7♭5 – D7 – G7 – D♭7 – C7 – F – F6 – F♯dim
  I – V9 – I – III7♭5 – VI7 – II7 – bVI7 – V7 – I – I6 – #i°

B Section

• C7 – F – C9 – F – A7♭5 – D7 – G7 – D♭7 – C7 – F – B♭ – B♭m
  V7 – I – V9 – I – III7♭5 – VI7 – II7 – bVI7 – V7 – I – IV – iv

C Section

• F – Am – E7 – Dm6 – E7 – Am – F♯dim
  I – iii – VII7 – vi6 – VII7 – iii – #i°

D Section

• Gm7 – C7 – F – C9 – F – F♯dim – D7 – G7 – D♭7 – C7 – F
  ii7 – V7 – I – V9 – I – #i° – VI7 – II7 – bVI7 – V7 – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• B♭m (iv) is borrowed from the parallel key, F minor.
• E7 acts as V/iii: it resolves to Am.

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.