If I Could Build My Whole World Around You by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell

Overview

Key: D♭ major · Chords used: 13 · Sections: 9

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse → Verse → Verse → Interlude → 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.

Key changes

• Verse 5 moves to E♭ major.

Section by section

Intro

• D♭ – G♭ (×2)
  I – IV
• D♭
  I

Verse 1

• D♭ – G♭ (×4)
  I – IV
• D♭
  I

Verse 2

• Fm – B♭m (×2)
  iii – vi
• E♭m – Fm – A♭sus4 – D♭ – G♭ – D♭ – A♭
  ii – iii – Vsus4 – I – IV – I – V

Verse 3

• D♭ – G♭ (×8)
  I – IV

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 2.

Interlude

• D♭ – G♭ (×3)
  I – IV
• D♭ – E♭m – Fm – Fm7 – B♭
  I – ii – iii – iii7 – VI

Verse 5

• E♭ – A♭ (×8)
  I – IV

Verse 6

• Gm – Cm (×2)
  iii – vi
• Fm – Gm – B♭11 (×2)
  ii – iii – V11
• E♭ – A♭ – E♭
  I – IV – I

Outro

• Fm – Gm – B♭11 – Fm – Gm – B♭11 – E♭ – A♭ – E♭ (×2)
  ii – iii – V11 – ii – iii – V11 – I – IV – I

Chord vocabulary

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0619, 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.