See See Rider by Ma Rainey

Overview

Key: C major · Chords used: 23 · Sections: 3

Form: A Section → B Section → C 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

• C – Cdim (×3)
  I – i°
• C – Gaug7 – C – Cdim – C – Am7 – D7 – G7
  I – V+7 – I – i° – I – vi7 – II7 – V7

B Section

• C – Cdim – C – D7 – G – Am – A♯dim – G7 – C – C7
  I – i° – I – II7 – V – vi – #vi° – V7 – I – I7

C Section

• F – Fm – C – F/A – C/G – F6 – C/E – Dm7 – C – Am7 – D9 – G7 – C – C/B♭ – Adim – Fm/A♭
  IV – iv – I – IV⁶ – I⁶₄ – IV6 – I⁶ – ii7 – I – vi7 – II9 – V7 – I – I (bass B♭) – vi° – iv⁶
• C/G – F♯dim – G7 (×2)
  I⁶₄ – #iv° – V7
• C/G – G11 – C
  I⁶₄ – V11 – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• Gaug7 (V+7) is borrowed from the parallel key, C minor.
• Fm (iv) is borrowed from the parallel key, C minor.
• Fm/A♭ (iv⁶) is borrowed from the parallel key, C minor.
• D7 acts as V/V: it resolves to G7.
• D9 acts as V/V: it resolves to G7.

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.