Night Moves by Bob Seger

Overview

Key: A♭ major · Chords used: 9 · Sections: 9

Form: Intro → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Bridge → Interlude → Instrumental

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). 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.

Section by section

Intro

• A♭ – G♭ – D♭ – G♭ (×2)
  I – bVII – IV – bVII

Verse 1

• A♭ – G♭ – D♭ – G♭ (×5)
  I – bVII – IV – bVII

Chorus 1

• Fm – E♭ – D♭ – E♭ (×2)
  vi – V – IV – V
• Fm – E♭ – D♭ – D♭maj7
  vi – V – IV – IVmaj7

Verse 2

• A♭ – G♭ – D♭ – G♭ (×6)
  I – bVII – IV – bVII

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Verse 3

• A♭ – G♭ – D♭ – G♭ (×2)
  I – bVII – IV – bVII

Bridge

• Fm
  vi
• A♭ – A♭7 (×2)
  I – I7
• D♭ – A♭ – D♭ – G♭ – E♭
  IV – I – IV – bVII – V

Interlude

• A♭ – D♭maj7 (×2)
  I – IVmaj7
• Fm – D♭ (×3)
  vi – IV
• D♭maj7 – A♭
  IVmaj7 – I

Instrumental

• A♭ – G♭ – D♭ – G♭ (×10)
  I – bVII – IV – bVII
• Fm – Cm – B♭m – D♭ – A♭
  vi – iii – ii – IV – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• G♭ (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, A♭ minor.
• A♭7 acts as V/IV: it resolves to D♭.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 1171, CC0), via ChoCo.
• Not verified: only one expert transcription of this song is available so far.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.