Dancing Machine by The Jacksons

Overview

Key: A♭ minor · Chords used: 9 · Sections: 8

Form: Intro → Verse → Interlude → Verse → Chorus → Interlude → Instrumental → 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

• A♭m11
  i11

Verse 1

• A♭m7
  i7

Interlude 1

• E♭m7 – E7 – Fm7♭5 – D♭7/G♭ – A♭m7
  v7 – #V7 – viø7 – IV7 (bass G♭) – i7

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus

• A♭m11
  i11

Interlude 2

• A♭m7 – D♭7/F – G♭add9 – D♭7/F – A♭7 (×2)
  i7 – IV⁶₅ – bVIIadd9 – IV⁶₅ – I7

Instrumental

• A♭m7 – D♭7/F – G♭add9 – D♭7/F – A♭7 (×2)
  i7 – IV⁶₅ – bVIIadd9 – IV⁶₅ – I7

Outro

• A♭m7 – D♭7/F – G♭add9 – D♭7/F – A♭7 (×3)
  i7 – IV⁶₅ – bVIIadd9 – IV⁶₅ – I7
• A♭m7 – D♭7/F
  i7 – IV⁶₅

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• D♭7/F acts as V/bVII: it resolves to G♭add9.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0985, 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.