Going to Chicago Blues by Count Basie

Overview

Key: E♭ major · Chords used: 12 · Sections: 8

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse → Verse → Verse → Verse → Verse → 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

• F9 – B7 – B♭7 – B♭aug7
  II9 – #V7 – V7 – V+7

Verse 1

• E♭ – A♭7 – Adim – E♭ – E♭7 – A♭7 – E♭ – Fm7 – B7 – B♭7 – E♭ – A♭7 – E♭
  I – IV7 – #iv° – I – I7 – IV7 – I – ii7 – #V7 – V7 – I – IV7 – I

Verse 2

• E♭ – A♭7 (×2)
  I – IV7
• E♭ – Fm7 – B♭7 – E♭ – A♭7 – Adim – E♭ – B♭7
  I – ii7 – V7 – I – IV7 – #iv° – I – V7

Verse 3

• E♭7 – A♭ – E♭7 – A♭7 – E♭7 – B♭7 – E♭ – A♭7 – Adim – B♭7
  I7 – IV – I7 – IV7 – I7 – V7 – I – IV7 – #iv° – V7

Verse 4

• E♭7 – A♭7 (×2)
  I7 – IV7
• E♭7 – B♭7 – E♭ – A♭7 – Adim – E♭ – B♭7
  I7 – V7 – I – IV7 – #iv° – I – V7

Verse 5

• E♭7 – A♭7 – E♭7
  I7 – IV7 – I7
• F7sus4 – B♭7 (×2)
  II7sus4 – V7
• E♭ – A♭7 – Adim – E♭ – B♭7
  I – IV7 – #iv° – I – V7

Verse 6

• E♭7 – A♭7 – E♭7
  I7 – IV7 – I7
• F7sus4 – B♭7 (×2)
  II7sus4 – V7
• E♭ – A♭7 – Adim – E♭ – B♭7 – E♭
  I – IV7 – #iv° – I – V7 – I

Outro

• E♭6/B♭ – E♭
  I6 (bass B♭) – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• B♭aug7 (V+7) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• E♭7 acts as V/IV: it resolves to A♭.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 1149, 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.