My Ideal by Richard Whiting & Newell Chase

Overview

Key: E♭ major · Chords used: 21 · Sections: 6

Form: A Section → B Section → C Section → D Section → C Section → D 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

• E♭/B♭ – B♭7 – E♭/G – E♭7/F – C7 – Fm – B♭7 – E♭ – Fm7 – B♭7 – B♭aug – E♭ – B♭aug – E♭/B♭ – B♭7 – Cm – D7 – Gm
  I⁶₄ – V7 – I⁶ – I7 (bass F) – VI7 – ii – V7 – I – ii7 – V7 – V+ – I – V+ – I⁶₄ – V7 – vi – VII7 – iii

B Section

• Gm7 – C7 – B♭ – Cm7 – F7 – Fm7 – B♭aug – E♭maj7 – C7 – Fm7 – D♭7 – C7 – F7
  iii7 – VI7 – V – vi7 – II7 – ii7 – V+ – Imaj7 – VI7 – ii7 – bVII7 – VI7 – II7

C Section 1

• Fm7 – B♭7 – G7 – Cm7 – F7 – B7 – B♭7 – E♭maj7 – C7 – Fm7 – D♭7 – C7 – F7
  ii7 – V7 – III7 – vi7 – II7 – #V7 – V7 – Imaj7 – VI7 – ii7 – bVII7 – VI7 – II7

D Section 1

• Fm7 – Fm7♭5 – E♭/B♭ – D7 – D♭7 – C7 – Fm7 – B♭7 – E♭ – Fm7 – B♭7 – E♭maj7 – C7 – Fm7 – D♭7 – C7 – F7
  ii7 – iiø7 – I⁶₄ – VII7 – bVII7 – VI7 – ii7 – V7 – I – ii7 – V7 – Imaj7 – VI7 – ii7 – bVII7 – VI7 – II7

C Section 2

Same chords as C Section 1.

D Section 2

• Fm7 – Fm7♭5 – E♭/B♭ – D7 – D♭7 – C7 – Fm7 – B♭7 – E♭maj7 – Fm – B♭7 – E♭
  ii7 – iiø7 – I⁶₄ – VII7 – bVII7 – VI7 – ii7 – V7 – Imaj7 – ii – V7 – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• B♭aug (V+) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• D♭7 (bVII7) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• Fm7♭5 (iiø7) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• C7 acts as V/ii: it resolves to Fm.
• D7 acts as V/iii: it resolves to Gm.
• G7 acts as V/vi: it resolves to Cm7.

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.