Silent Night by Bing Crosby

Overview

Key: A♭ major · Chords used: 12 · Sections: 3

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse

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♭/E♭ – E♭7 – A♭/E♭
  I⁶₄ – V7 – I⁶₄

Verse 1

• A♭ – E♭sus4 – E♭
  I – Vsus4 – V
• A♭ – D♭ (×2)
  I – IV
• A♭ – E♭7 – A♭ – E♭ – A♭
  I – V7 – I – V – I

Verse 2

• A♭ – A♭maj7 – A♭add9 – A♭maj7 – E♭7 – A♭
  I – Imaj7 – Iadd9 – Imaj7 – V7 – I
• A♭maj7 – A♭7 – D♭ – D♭maj7 – D♭6 – D♭7 – A♭add9 (×2)
  Imaj7 – I7 – IV – IVmaj7 – IV6 – IV7 – Iadd9
• A♭ – E♭7 (×2)
  I – V7
• A♭
  I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• 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 0123, 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.