PianoChords.studio

No Ordinary Love by Sade

Piano chords, voicings & structure breakdown · 15 steps · 6 unique chords

Community chart. These chords come from a chart a musician wrote and shared on the iReal Pro forums, not from a transcription checked against the recording. Charts are sometimes written in a different key or simplified, and no second chart of this song agreed closely enough to mark this page verified. Trust your ears.
Lead-inStep 1 of 15

Dm

LeftD2, A2RightD4, F4, A4
C4D2A2D4F4A4
Left hand Right hand Middle C (C4)

No source cited for this step

Harmonic Analysis & Structure

Overview

Key: D minor · Chords used: 6 · Sections: 4

Form: Lead-in → A Section → A Section → A Section

Where these chords come from: a chord chart of this song written by a musician and shared on the iReal Pro forums, archived in the iReal Pro forum charts archived in ChoCo (de Berardinis et al., 2023). It's one musician's reading of the song, not a transcription checked against the recording. This page shows that chart 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

  • Dm
    i

A Section 1

  • C/D – B♭maj7 – C/B♭ – B♭maj7 – C/D – Dm – Dm7
    bVII (bass D) – bVImaj7 – bVII (bass B♭) – bVImaj7 – bVII (bass D) – i – i7

A Section 2

  • D – B♭maj7 – C/B♭ – B♭maj7 – C/D – Dm – Dm7
    I – bVImaj7 – bVII (bass B♭) – bVImaj7 – bVII (bass D) – i – i7

A Section 3

Same chords as A Section 2.

Chord vocabulary

ChordRoman numeralRoleHeard in
DmiHome chord (tonic)Lead-in, A Section
C/DbVII (bass D)In the keyA Section
B♭maj7bVImaj7In the keyA Section
C/B♭bVII (bass B♭)In the keyA Section
Dm7i7Home chord (tonic)A Section
DIBorrowed from D majorA Section

Harmonic highlights

  • D (I) is borrowed from the parallel key, D major.

Sources & accuracy

  • Chords: the iReal Pro forum charts archived in ChoCo (de Berardinis et al., 2023). Community chord chart “No Ordinary Love” (credited “Sade”, style R N B) from the forum file linked here, CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo. Performer/songwriter confirmed from Wikidata.
  • Section names: the chart has no section markings, so sections were detected by code from repeated 8-, 12- and 16-bar phrases (letters such as A and B mark different phrases).
  • Chord charts are often written in a key that suits a particular singer or band, so this may not be the key of the original recording.
  • About the song: Wikipedia.
  • Not verified: other charts of this song differ in places from this one, so this page isn't marked verified.
  • Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.

Sources & Accuracy

Every chord on this page comes from the community chart listed first below. Piano voicings are our arrangement of the reported chord symbols, not a note-for-note transcription.

  • Chords from a chart a musician wrote and shared on the iReal Pro forums (archived in the ChoCo research dataset); may be in a different key from the recording, and not checked against it.

    Community chord chart “No Ordinary Love” (credited “Sade”, style R N B) from the forum file linked here, CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo. Performer/songwriter confirmed from Wikidata.

All Piano Voicings

#SectionChordLeft handRight handSources
1Lead-inDmD2, A2D4, F4, A4—
2A Section 1C/DD2C4, E4, G4—
3A Section 1B♭maj7B♭2, F3D4, F4, A4—
4A Section 1C/B♭B♭2C4, E4, G4—
5A Section 1B♭maj7B♭2, F3D4, F4, A4—
6A Section 1C/DD2C4, E4, G4—
7A Section 1DmD2, A2D4, F4, A4—
8A Section 1Dm7D2, A2C4, F4, A4—
9A Section 2DD2, A2D4, F♯4, A4—
10A Section 2B♭maj7B♭2, F3D4, F4, A4—
11A Section 2C/B♭B♭2C4, E4, G4—
12A Section 2B♭maj7B♭2, F3D4, F4, A4—
13A Section 2C/DD2C4, E4, G4—
14A Section 2DmD2, A2D4, F4, A4—
15A Section 2Dm7D2, A2C4, F4, A4—