But Not for Me by George Gershwin

Overview

Key: E♭ major · Chords used: 11 · Sections: 4

Form: A Section → B Section → A 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 1

• B♭7 – E♭ – Cm7 – B♭7 – E♭ – B♭7 – F7 – B♭7 – E♭7
  V7 – I – vi7 – V7 – I – V7 – II7 – V7 – I7

B Section

• A♭ – Fm7 – F♯dim – E♭ – B♭7 – Fm7
  IV – ii7 – #ii° – I – V7 – ii7

A Section 2

• B♭7 – E♭ – Cm7
  V7 – I – vi7
• B♭7 – E♭ (×2)
  V7 – I
• Cm7 – B♭7 – E♭7
  vi7 – V7 – I7

C Section

• A♭ – Fm7 – F♯dim – G7 – Cm – C7 – Fm7 – B♭7 – E♭
  IV – ii7 – #ii° – III7 – vi – VI7 – ii7 – V7 – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• F7 acts as V/V: it resolves to B♭7.
• G7 acts as V/vi: it resolves to Cm.
• C7 acts as V/ii: it resolves to Fm7.

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.