Sir Duke by Stevie Wonder

Overview

Key: B major · Chords used: 14 · Sections: 10

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 (0:18)

• B – G♯m
  I – vi

Part 2 (0:23)

• G7 – F♯7 – B – G♯m – G7 – F♯7 – F7 – E9 – E♭9 – D9 – D♭9
  bVI7 – V7 – I – vi – bVI7 – V7 – bV7 – IV9 – bIV9 – bIII9 – II9

Part 3 (0:39)

• D9 – E9 – E♭9 – D9 – D♭9 – F♯9 – B – Fm7 – Emaj7 – C♯m7 – F♯11 – B
  bIII9 – IV9 – bIV9 – bIII9 – II9 – V9 – I – bv7 – IVmaj7 – ii7 – V11 – I

Part 4 (0:56)

• Fm7 – Emaj7 – C♯m7 – F♯11 – B – G♯m – G7 – F♯7 – B
  bv7 – IVmaj7 – ii7 – V11 – I – vi – bVI7 – V7 – I

Part 5 (1:31)

• G♯m – G7 – F♯7 – F7 – E9 – E♭9 – D9 – D♭9 – D9 – E9 – E♭9 – D9
  vi – bVI7 – V7 – bV7 – IV9 – bIV9 – bIII9 – II9 – bIII9 – IV9 – bIV9 – bIII9

Part 6 (1:45)

• D♭9 – F♯9 – B – Fm7 – Emaj7 – C♯m7 – F♯11 – B – Fm7 – Emaj7
  II9 – V9 – I – bv7 – IVmaj7 – ii7 – V11 – I – bv7 – IVmaj7

Part 7 (2:04)

• C♯m7 – F♯11 – B – Fm7 – Emaj7 (×2)
  ii7 – V11 – I – bv7 – IVmaj7

Part 8 (2:22)

Same chords as Part 7 (2:04).

Part 9 (2:57)

Same chords as Part 7 (2:04).

Part 10 (3:15)

• C♯m7 – F♯11 – B – Fm7 – Emaj7 (×2)
  ii7 – V11 – I – bv7 – IVmaj7
• C♯m7 – F♯11
  ii7 – V11

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• D♭9 acts as V/V: it resolves to F♯9.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). Chord annotation of the original recording (Songs In The Key Of Life Disc 1), 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 (Songs In The Key Of Life Disc 1), 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.