Killing Me Softly by Fugees

Overview

Key: E minor · Chords used: 8 · Sections: 10

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). 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

Part 1 (0:00)

• Em7 – Am7 – D – G – Em7 – Am7 – D – C
  i7 – iv7 – bVII – bIII – i7 – iv7 – bVII – bVI

Part 2 (0:21)

• G – C – F – E – Em7 – Am7
  bIII – bVI – bII – I – i7 – iv7

Part 3 (1:33)

• D – G – Em7 – Am7 – D – C – G – C
  bVII – bIII – i7 – iv7 – bVII – bVI – bIII – bVI

Part 4 (1:54)

• F – E – Em7 – Am7 – D – G
  bII – I – i7 – iv7 – bVII – bIII

Part 5 (2:46)

• Em7 – Am7 – D – C – G – C – F
  i7 – iv7 – bVII – bVI – bIII – bVI – bII

Part 6 (3:07)

• E – Em – Am7 – D – G – Em7 – Am7
  I – i – iv7 – bVII – bIII – i7 – iv7

Part 7 (3:28)

• D – C – G – C – F – E
  bVII – bVI – bIII – bVI – bII – I

Part 8 (3:48)

Same chords as Part 1 (0:00).

Part 9 (4:09)

Same chords as Part 2 (0:21).

Part 10 (4:30)

• D – G – Em7 – Am7 – D – C – F – C
  bVII – bIII – i7 – iv7 – bVII – bVI – bII – bVI

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• E (I) is borrowed from the parallel key, E major.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). Chord annotation of the original recording (The Score), time-stamped by researchers; CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo.
• Section names: this annotation doesn't name verses or choruses, so they aren't guessed. Instead, code used the chord timings to find the bars and cut the song into 8-bar parts. Each part is labelled with the time it starts in the annotated recording (The Score), and a part with exactly the same chords as an earlier one says so.
• The key was estimated by code from the chords; this annotation doesn't state it.
• 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.