Liza by George Gershwin

Overview

Key: E♭ major · Chords used: 32 · Sections: 11

Form: Lead-in → A Section → B Section → C Section → C Section → D Section → C Section → C Section → C Section → D 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

Lead-in

• E♭ – Gm – Cm – Gm
  I – iii – vi – iii

A Section

• Cm – Gm (×2)
  vi – iii
• Cm6 – B♭7 – E♭
  vi6 – V7 – I
• Gm – Cm (×3)
  iii – vi
• Gm – F7 – B7 – A♭ – A♭m6 – E♭ – E♭dim
  iii – II7 – #V7 – IV – iv6 – I – i°

B Section

• Fm7 – A♭m6 – B♭7 – Gm7 – C7 – A♭6 – A♭m6 – E♭ – F7♭9 – B♭ – E♭ – E♭m – B♭ – C7 – E♭m6 – B♭ – Gm7 – Cm7 – F9 – B♭ – Fm7 – Gm – B♭7
  ii7 – iv6 – V7 – iii7 – VI7 – IV6 – iv6 – I – II7b9 – V – I – i – V – VI7 – i6 – V – iii7 – vi7 – II9 – V – ii7 – iii – V7

C Section 1

• E♭ – B♭7 – Cdim – C7 – A♭m6 – Cdim – B♭m6 – E♭9 – A♭ – Fm7 – Gm – C9 – Fm – B♭7 – E♭ – A♭ – E♭ – Fm7
  I – V7 – vi° – VI7 – iv6 – vi° – v6 – I9 – IV – ii7 – iii – VI9 – ii – V7 – I – IV – I – ii7

C Section 2

• E♭ – B♭7 – Cdim – C7 – A♭ – Cdim – B♭m6 – E♭9 – A♭ – Fm7 – Gm – C9 – Fm – B♭7 – E♭ – Gaug7 – G7
  I – V7 – vi° – VI7 – IV – vi° – v6 – I9 – IV – ii7 – iii – VI9 – ii – V7 – I – III+7 – III7

D Section 1

• C – C7 – Cdim – G7 – Cm – Cdim – E♭7 – A♭ – Fm – B♭m7 – E♭7 – A♭6 – E♭m6 – B♭7
  VI – VI7 – vi° – III7 – vi – vi° – I7 – IV – ii – v7 – I7 – IV6 – i6 – V7

C Section 3

• E♭ – B♭7 – Cdim – C7 – A♭m6 – Cdim – B♭m6 – E♭9 – A♭ – Fm7 – Gm – C9 – Fm – B♭7 – E♭ – D♭ – Bm7 – B♭7
  I – V7 – vi° – VI7 – iv6 – vi° – v6 – I9 – IV – ii7 – iii – VI9 – ii – V7 – I – bVII – #v7 – V7

C Section 4

Same chords as C Section 1.

C Section 5

Same chords as C Section 2.

D Section 2

Same chords as D Section 1.

C Section 6

• E♭ – B♭7 – Cdim – C7 – A♭m6 – Cdim – B♭m6 – E♭9 – A♭ – Fm7 – Gm – C9 – Fm – B♭7 – E♭ – D♭ – Bm7 – B♭7 – E♭
  I – V7 – vi° – VI7 – iv6 – vi° – v6 – I9 – IV – ii7 – iii – VI9 – ii – V7 – I – bVII – #v7 – V7 – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• A♭m6 (iv6) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• E♭m (i) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• B♭m7 (v7) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• D♭ (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• F7♭9 acts as V/V: it resolves to B♭.
• F9 acts as V/V: it resolves to B♭.
• E♭9 acts as V/IV: it resolves to A♭.
• C9 acts as V/ii: it resolves to Fm.
• G7 acts as V/vi: it resolves to Cm.
• E♭7 acts as V/IV: it resolves to A♭.

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.