Lift Every Voice and Sing by James Weldon Johnson

Overview

Key: A♭ major · Chords used: 23 · Sections: 3

Form: A Section → B Section → C Section

Where these chords come from: a chord chart of this song written by a musician and shared on the iReal Pro forums, archived in the iReal Pro forum charts archived in ChoCo (de Berardinis et al., 2023). It's one musician's reading of the song, not a transcription checked against the recording. This page shows that chart 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

• A♭ – C7 – Fm7 – B♭m7♭5/E – A♭/E♭ – C/E – Fm7 – F7 – B♭m9 – A♭/C – D♭maj7 – Ddim – E♭11 – E♭7 – Fm7
  I – III7 – vi7 – iiø⁴₃ – I⁶₄ – III⁶ – vi7 – VI7 – ii9 – I⁶ – IVmaj7 – #iv° – V11 – V7 – vi7

B Section

• A♭ – C7♯9 – F7 – Gm7 – B♭m7 – Gm7♭5 – D♭maj7 – B♭/D – A♭/E♭ – Fm7 – B♭m7 – E♭7 – A♭ – D♭/A♭ – A♭
  I – III7#9 – VI7 – vii7 – ii7 – viiø7 – IVmaj7 – II⁶ – I⁶₄ – vi7 – ii7 – V7 – I – IV⁶₄ – I

C Section

• A♭ – Fm – E♭11 – E♭7 – A♭ – D♭m/E – A♭/E♭ – Ddim – E♭7 – Fm7 – A♭ – Cm7 – F7 – Gm7 – B♭m7 – Gm7♭5 – D♭maj7 – Ddim7 – A♭/E♭ – Fm7 – B♭m7 – E♭7 – A♭ – D♭/A♭ – A♭
  I – vi – V11 – V7 – I – iv⁶ – I⁶₄ – #iv° – V7 – vi7 – I – iii7 – VI7 – vii7 – ii7 – viiø7 – IVmaj7 – #iv°7 – I⁶₄ – vi7 – ii7 – V7 – I – IV⁶₄ – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• B♭m7♭5/E (iiø⁴₃) is borrowed from the parallel key, A♭ minor.
• D♭m/E (iv⁶) is borrowed from the parallel key, A♭ minor.
• C7 acts as V/vi: it resolves to Fm7.
• C/E acts as V/vi: it resolves to Fm7.
• F7 acts as V/ii: it resolves to B♭m9.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the iReal Pro forum charts archived in ChoCo (de Berardinis et al., 2023). Community chord chart “Lift Every Voice And Sing” (credited “Johnson James”, style 128 Feel) from the forum file linked here, CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo. Performer/songwriter confirmed from Wikidata.
• Section names: from the chart's own markings: section names written on the chart (Intro, Verse, Chorus…) are kept, and rehearsal letters are shown as “A Section”, “B Section” and so on (the B of an AABA song is called the Bridge).
• Chord charts are often written in a key that suits a particular singer or band, so this may not be the key of the original recording.
• About the song: Wikipedia.
• Not verified: other charts of this song differ in places from this one, so this page isn't marked verified.
• 1 chord was simplified to the closest symbol our player supports (for example, an unusual added tone dropped).
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.