Family Affair by Sly & the Family Stone

Overview

Key: D minor · Chords used: 7 · Sections: 11

Form: Intro → Chorus → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Transition → Verse → Chorus → Chorus ×2 → Outro

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. 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.

Key changes

• Verse 1 moves to F major.
• Chorus 5 moves to D minor.
• Outro moves to F major.

Section by section

Intro

• Dm
  i

Chorus 1

• Dm – B♭maj7 – Am7 – Gm7 – C
  i – bVImaj7 – v7 – iv7 – bVII

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Verse 1

• Gm7 – C (×8)
  ii7 – V

Chorus 3

• Gm7 – C – Gm – Dm
  ii7 – V – ii – vi

Transition

• Gm7 – C (×3)
  ii7 – V
• Gm – Dm
  ii – vi

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 4

• Gm7 – C (×3)
  ii7 – V
• Gm – Dm – A7
  ii – vi – III7

Chorus 5

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Chorus 6

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Outro

• Gm7 – C (×3)
  ii7 – V

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
Dm	i	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Chorus
B♭maj7	bVImaj7	In the key	Chorus
Am7	v7	In the key	Chorus
Gm7	iv7	In the key	Chorus
C	bVII	In the key	Chorus
Gm7	ii7 (in F major)	In the key	Verse, Chorus, Transition, Outro
C	V (in F major)	In the key	Verse, Chorus, Transition, Outro
Gm	ii (in F major)	In the key	Chorus, Transition
Dm	vi (in F major)	In the key	Chorus, Transition
A7	III7 (in F major)	Outside the key (chromatic)	Chorus

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. Expert by-ear harmonic analysis of the original recording, shown on this page.
• Cross-check: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by David Temperley. Independent by-ear analysis of the same recording. The two analysts agree on the chord (root and major/minor) for 95% of the song.
• Verified: two independent expert transcriptions agree on this song's harmony.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.