My Girl by The Temptations

Overview

Key: C major · Chords used: 7 · Sections: 18

Form: Transition → Verse → Pre-Chorus → Pre-Chorus → Chorus → Verse → Pre-Chorus ×2 → Chorus → Transition → Interlude → Verse → Pre-Chorus → Pre-Chorus → Chorus → Chorus ×3

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. 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 3 moves to D major.

Section by section

Transition 1

• C
  I

Verse 1

• C – F (×4)
  I – IV

Pre-Chorus 1

• C – Dm – F – G
  I – ii – IV – V

Pre-Chorus 2

Same chords as Pre-Chorus 1.

Chorus 1

• C – Dm – G
  I – ii – V

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Pre-Chorus 3

Same chords as Pre-Chorus 1.

Pre-Chorus 4

Same chords as Pre-Chorus 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Transition 2

Same chords as Transition 1.

Interlude

• C – F (×2)
  I – IV
• Dm – G – Em – A
  ii – V – iii – VI

Verse 3

• D – G (×4)
  I – IV

Pre-Chorus 5

• D – Em – G – A
  I – ii – IV – V

Pre-Chorus 6

Same chords as Pre-Chorus 5.

Chorus 3

• D – Em – A
  I – ii – V

Chorus 4

Same chords as Chorus 3.

Chorus 5

Same chords as Chorus 3.

Chorus 6

Same chords as Chorus 3.

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
C	I	Home chord (tonic)	Transition, Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Interlude
F	IV	In the key	Verse, Pre-Chorus, Interlude
Dm	ii	In the key	Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Interlude
G	V	In the key	Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Interlude
Em	iii	In the key	Interlude
A	VI	Outside the key (chromatic)	Interlude
D	I (in D major)	Home chord (tonic)	Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus
G	IV (in D major)	In the key	Verse, Pre-Chorus
Em	ii (in D major)	In the key	Pre-Chorus, Chorus
A	V (in D major)	In the key	Pre-Chorus, Chorus

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. Expert by-ear harmonic analysis of the original recording, shown on this page.
• Cross-check: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by David Temperley. Independent by-ear analysis of the same recording. The two analysts agree on the chord (root and major/minor) for 100% of the song.
• Verified: two independent expert transcriptions agree on this song's harmony.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.