Song for My Father by The Horace Silver Quintet

Overview

Key: F minor · Chords used: 6 · Sections: 9

Form: Intro → Intro → Solo → Solo → B Section → B Section → A Section → A Section → Tag

Where these chords come from: a chord chart of this song written by a musician and shared on the iReal Pro forums, archived in the iReal Pro forum charts archived in ChoCo (de Berardinis et al., 2023). It's one musician's reading of the song, not a transcription checked against the recording. This page shows that chart 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 1

• Fm7 – E♭7 – D♭7 – C7sus4 – Fm7
  i7 – bVII7 – bVI7 – V7sus4 – i7

Intro 2

• Fm7 – E♭7 – D♭7 – C7sus4
  i7 – bVII7 – bVI7 – V7sus4
• Fm7 – E♭7 (×2)
  i7 – bVII7
• D♭7 – C7 – Fm7
  bVI7 – V7 – i7

Solo 1

• Fm7 – E♭7 (×2)
  i7 – bVII7
• D♭7 – C7 – Fm7
  bVI7 – V7 – i7

Solo 2

• Fm7
  i7

B Section 1

• Fm7 – E♭7 – D♭7 – C7sus4 – Fm7
  i7 – bVII7 – bVI7 – V7sus4 – i7

B Section 2

• Fm7 – E♭7 – D♭7 – C7sus4
  i7 – bVII7 – bVI7 – V7sus4
• Fm7 – E♭7 (×2)
  i7 – bVII7
• D♭7 – C7 – Fm7
  bVI7 – V7 – i7

A Section 1

• Fm7 – E♭7 – D♭7 – C7sus4 – Fm7
  i7 – bVII7 – bVI7 – V7sus4 – i7

A Section 2

• Fm7 – E♭7 – D♭7 – C7sus4
  i7 – bVII7 – bVI7 – V7sus4
• Fm7 – E♭7 – Fm7 – E♭7 – D♭7 – C7 (×2)
  i7 – bVII7 – i7 – bVII7 – bVI7 – V7

Tag

• Fm7 – D♭7 – C7 (×2)
  i7 – bVI7 – V7
• Fm6
  i6

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
Fm7	i7	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Solo, B Section, A Section, Tag
E♭7	bVII7	In the key	Intro, Solo, B Section, A Section
D♭7	bVI7	Outside the key (chromatic)	Intro, Solo, B Section, A Section, Tag
C7sus4	V7sus4	In the key	Intro, B Section, A Section
C7	V7	In the key	Intro, Solo, B Section, A Section, Tag
Fm6	i6	Outside the key (chromatic)	Tag

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the iReal Pro forum charts archived in ChoCo (de Berardinis et al., 2023). Community chord chart “Song For My Father-Rev JE” (credited “Silver Horace”, style Latin-Swing) from the forum file linked here, CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo. Performer/songwriter confirmed from Wikidata.
• Section names: from the chart's own markings: section names written on the chart (Intro, Verse, Chorus…) are kept, and rehearsal letters are shown as “A Section”, “B Section” and so on (the B of an AABA song is called the Bridge).
• Cross-check: the iReal Pro forum charts archived in ChoCo (de Berardinis et al., 2023). Community chord chart “Song For My Father 1” (credited “Silver Horace”, style Latin) from the forum file linked here, CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo. Performer/songwriter confirmed from Wikidata. A separately posted chart of the same song; its chords match this page's closely when both are read in the same key (similarity 92%).
• Chord charts are often written in a key that suits a particular singer or band, so this may not be the key of the original recording.
• About the song: Wikipedia.
• Verified: two community charts of this song, posted in different forum threads, agree on its harmony. They're still charts, not transcriptions checked against the recording.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.