PianoChords.studio

Doin' the Thing by Horace Silver

Piano chords, voicings & structure breakdown · 9 steps · 6 unique chords

Community chart. These chords come from a chart a musician wrote and shared on the iReal Pro forums, not from a transcription checked against the recording. Charts are sometimes written in a different key or simplified, and no second chart of this song agreed closely enough to mark this page verified. Trust your ears.
Blues Chorus 1Step 1 of 9

Gm

LeftG2, D3RightB♭3, D4, G4
C4G2D3D4G4B♭3
Left hand Right hand Middle C (C4)

No source cited for this step

Harmonic Analysis & Structure

Overview

Key: G minor · Chords used: 6 · Sections: 2

Form: Blues Chorus → Blues Chorus

Where these chords come from: a chord chart of this song written by a musician and shared on the iReal Pro forums, archived in the iReal Pro forum charts archived in ChoCo (de Berardinis et al., 2023). It's one musician's reading of the song, not a transcription checked against the recording. This page shows that chart 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

Blues Chorus 1

  • Gm – Dm7/C – Gm – Gaug/D♭ – Am7♭5 – D7♯9 – Gm – Am7♭5 – Daug
    i – v⁴₂ – i – I+ (bass D♭) – iiø7 – V7#9 – i – iiø7 – V+

Blues Chorus 2

Same chords as Blues Chorus 1.

Chord vocabulary

ChordRoman numeralRoleHeard in
GmiHome chord (tonic)Blues Chorus
Dm7/Cv⁴₂In the keyBlues Chorus
Gaug/D♭I+ (bass D♭)Outside the key (chromatic)Blues Chorus
Am7♭5iiø7In the keyBlues Chorus
D7♯9V7#9In the keyBlues Chorus
DaugV+In the keyBlues Chorus

Sources & accuracy

  • Chords: the iReal Pro forum charts archived in ChoCo (de Berardinis et al., 2023). Community chord chart “Doin' The Thing” (credited “Silver Horace”, style Medium Swing) from the forum file linked here, CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo. Performer/songwriter confirmed from Wikidata.
  • Section names: the chart has no section markings, so sections were detected by code from repeated 8-, 12- and 16-bar phrases (letters such as A and B mark different phrases).
  • Chord charts are often written in a key that suits a particular singer or band, so this may not be the key of the original recording.
  • The chart's key setting didn't fit its chords (it was probably left at a default), so the key shown here was worked out from the chords.
  • About the song: Wikipedia.
  • Not verified: only one chart 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.

Sources & Accuracy

Every chord on this page comes from the community chart listed first below. Piano voicings are our arrangement of the reported chord symbols, not a note-for-note transcription.

  • Chords from a chart a musician wrote and shared on the iReal Pro forums (archived in the ChoCo research dataset); may be in a different key from the recording, and not checked against it.

    Community chord chart “Doin' The Thing” (credited “Silver Horace”, style Medium Swing) from the forum file linked here, CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo. Performer/songwriter confirmed from Wikidata.

All Piano Voicings

#SectionChordLeft handRight handSources
1Blues Chorus 1GmG2, D3B♭3, D4, G4—
2Blues Chorus 1Dm7/CC2A3, C4, D4, F4—
3Blues Chorus 1GmG2, D3B♭3, D4, G4—
4Blues Chorus 1Gaug/D♭D♭2B3, D♯4, G4—
5Blues Chorus 1Am7♭5A2, A3C4, E♭4, G4—
6Blues Chorus 1D7♯9D2, A2A3, C4, E♯4, F♯4—
7Blues Chorus 1GmG2, D3B♭3, D4, G4—
8Blues Chorus 1Am7♭5A2, A3C4, E♭4, G4—
9Blues Chorus 1DaugD2, D3A♯3, D4, F♯4—