M-O-T-H-E-R by Theodore F. Morse

Overview

Key: E♭ major · Chords used: 19 · Sections: 4

Form: A Section → B Section → A 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

A Section 1

• E♭ – B♭7 – Cdim – E♭ – G♭dim – Fm7 – B♭7 – B♭dim – B♭7 – E♭
  I – V7 – vi° – I – biii° – ii7 – V7 – v° – V7 – I

B Section

• E♭7 – A♭6 – B7 – E♭ – Gaug7 – C7 – F7 – E♭ – Adim – B♭7 – A♭m6 – B♭7
  I7 – IV6 – #V7 – I – III+7 – VI7 – II7 – I – #iv° – V7 – iv6 – V7

A Section 2

• E♭ – B♭7 – Cdim – E♭ – G♭dim – Fm7 – B♭7 – B♭dim – B♭7 – Gm – Fm6 – G7 – Gaug7 – C7
  I – V7 – vi° – I – biii° – ii7 – V7 – v° – V7 – iii – ii6 – III7 – III+7 – VI7

C Section

• Cdim – B7 – E♭ – B♭m
  vi° – #V7 – I – v
• C7 – Fm (×2)
  VI7 – ii
• C7 – Fm7 – B♭7 – E♭
  VI7 – ii7 – V7 – I
• Fm7 – B♭7 (×2)
  ii7 – V7
• E♭
  I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• A♭m6 (iv6) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• B♭m (v) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• E♭7 acts as V/IV: it resolves to A♭6.
• C7 acts as V/ii: it resolves to Fm.

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.