Sometimes I'm Happy by Vincent Youmans

Overview

Key: F major · Chords used: 16 · Sections: 8

Form: A Section → B Section → A Section → C Section → A Section → B Section → A 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 1

• Fmaj7 – Gm7/C – Fmaj7 – C7 (×2)
  Imaj7 – ii7 (bass C) – Imaj7 – V7

B Section 1

• F – Fmaj7 – Cm7 – B7 – B♭maj7 – B♭m7 – E♭9 – F – E♭11 – D9 – Gm7 – D♭ – C9
  I – Imaj7 – v7 – #IV7 – IVmaj7 – iv7 – bVII9 – I – bVII11 – VI9 – ii7 – bVI – V9

A Section 2

Same chords as A Section 1.

C Section 1

• F – Fmaj7 – C7 – B7 – B♭maj7 – B♭m7 – F – Fmaj7 – Gm7 – C7♭9 – F6
  I – Imaj7 – V7 – #IV7 – IVmaj7 – iv7 – I – Imaj7 – ii7 – V7b9 – I6

A Section 3

Same chords as A Section 1.

B Section 2

Same chords as B Section 1.

A Section 4

Same chords as A Section 1.

C Section 2

Same chords as C Section 1.

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• Cm7 (v7) is borrowed from the parallel key, F minor.
• B♭m7 (iv7) is borrowed from the parallel key, F minor.
• E♭9 (bVII9) is borrowed from the parallel key, F minor.
• E♭11 (bVII11) is borrowed from the parallel key, F minor.
• D♭ (bVI) is borrowed from the parallel key, F minor.
• C7♭9 (V7b9) is borrowed from the parallel key, F minor.
• D9 acts as V/ii: it resolves to Gm7.

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.