Poems, Prayers and Promises by John Denver

Overview

Key: D major · Chords used: 8 · Sections: 18

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). 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

Part 1 (0:08)

• D – G (×2)
  I – IV

Part 2 (0:21)

Same chords as Part 1 (0:08).

Part 3 (0:34)

Same chords as Part 1 (0:08).

Part 4 (0:47)

Same chords as Part 1 (0:08).

Part 5 (1:01)

• A7 – D – G – D – Bm – Em – A7
  V7 – I – IV – I – vi – ii – V7

Part 6 (1:14)

• G – A7 – D – G – D – Bm – Em – A7
  IV – V7 – I – IV – I – vi – ii – V7

Part 7 (1:27)

• G – F♯m – Em – D – G
  IV – iii – ii – I – IV

Part 8 (1:41)

• A – G – F♯m – Em – D – Em
  V – IV – iii – ii – I – ii

Part 9 (1:54)

• A – Asus4 – A – D
  V – Vsus4 – V – I

Part 10 (2:07)

• G – D (×2)
  IV – I

Part 11 (2:21)

Same chords as Part 10 (2:07).

Part 12 (2:34)

Same chords as Part 10 (2:07).

Part 13 (2:47)

• G – D – G – A7
  IV – I – IV – V7

Part 14 (3:00)

• D – G – D – Bm – Em – A7 – G – A7
  I – IV – I – vi – ii – V7 – IV – V7

Part 15 (3:13)

• D – G – D – Bm – Em – A7 – G
  I – IV – I – vi – ii – V7 – IV

Part 16 (3:26)

• F♯m – G – D – G – A – G
  iii – IV – I – IV – V – IV

Part 17 (3:40)

• F♯m – Em – D – Em – A – Asus4 – A
  iii – ii – I – ii – V – Vsus4 – V

Part 18 (3:53)

• D
  I

Chord vocabulary

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). Chord annotation of the original recording (Poems Prayers Promises), time-stamped by researchers; CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo.
• Section names: this annotation doesn't name verses or choruses, so they aren't guessed. Instead, code used the chord timings to find the bars and cut the song into 8-bar parts. Each part is labelled with the time it starts in the annotated recording (Poems Prayers Promises), and a part with exactly the same chords as an earlier one says so.
• The key was estimated by code from the chords; this annotation doesn't state it.
• 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.