Oh Lady Be Good by George Gershwin

Overview

Key: G major · Chords used: 12 · Sections: 8

Form: A Section → A Section → Bridge → A Section → A Section → A Section → Bridge → A 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

• G – D7 – G – C7 – G – G♯dim – D7 – G
  I – V7 – I – IV7 – I – #i° – V7 – I

A Section 2

• D7 – G – C7 – G – G♯dim – D7 – G – G7
  V7 – I – IV7 – I – #i° – V7 – I – I7

Bridge 1

• C – D7 – C6 – G – D7 – Em – Baug – Em – A7 – Am7 – D7 – Em – Am7 – A7♭5
  IV – V7 – IV6 – I – V7 – vi – III+ – vi – II7 – ii7 – V7 – vi – ii7 – II7♭5

A Section 3

• G – D7 – G – C7 – G – G♯dim – D7 – G – D7 – Am7 – D7
  I – V7 – I – IV7 – I – #i° – V7 – I – V7 – ii7 – V7

A Section 4

Same chords as A Section 1.

A Section 5

Same chords as A Section 2.

Bridge 2

Same chords as Bridge 1.

A Section 6

• G – D7 – G – C7 – G – G♯dim
  I – V7 – I – IV7 – I – #i°
• D7 – G (×2)
  V7 – I
• C7 – G
  IV7 – I

Chord vocabulary

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.