Fascinating Rhythm by George Gershwin

Overview

Key: F major · Chords used: 20 · 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

• Gm7 – C7 (×4)
  ii7 – V7
• Cm7 – F7 (×4)
  v7 – I7
• B♭9
  IV9

B Section

• B♭ – Adim – Gm7 – C7 – F – Em7 – A7 – Dm – Dm7 – G7 – C7 – Am7♭5 – Daug7 – D7
  IV – iii° – ii7 – V7 – I – vii7 – III7 – vi – vi7 – II7 – V7 – iiiø7 – VI+7 – VI7

A Section 2

• Gm7 – C7 (×4)
  ii7 – V7
• Cm7 – F7 (×4)
  v7 – I7
• B9
  #IV9

C Section

• B♭ – Adim – Gm7 – B♭7♭5 – A7 – Dm7 – G9 – Gm7 – C7 – Gm7 – G9 – C13 – F
  IV – iii° – ii7 – IV7♭5 – III7 – vi7 – II9 – ii7 – V7 – ii7 – II9 – V13 – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• Cm7 (v7) is borrowed from the parallel key, F minor.
• A7 acts as V/vi: it resolves to Dm.
• G7 acts as V/V: it resolves to C7.
• G9 acts as V/V: it resolves to C13.

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.