Take a Bow by Madonna

Overview

Key: A♭ major · Chords used: 15 · Sections: 14

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 (0:00)

• Fm – A♭ – B♭m7
  vi – I – ii7

Part 2 (0:17)

• E♭7
  V7
• A♭ – E – B♭m11/E♭ (×2)
  I – #V – ii11 (bass E♭)
• A♭ – A♭7/G♭ – Fm7
  I – I⁴₂ – vi7

Part 3 (0:41)

• E – A♭/E♭ – B♭9/D – D♭m7 – E♭7sus4 – A♭ – A♭7/G♭ – Fm7
  #V – I⁶₄ – II9 (bass D) – iv7 – V7sus4 – I – I⁴₂ – vi7

Part 4 (1:05)

• E – A♭/E♭ – B♭9/D – D♭m7 – A♭/C – B♭m7 – E♭7sus4 – A♭
  #V – I⁶₄ – II9 (bass D) – iv7 – I⁶ – ii7 – V7sus4 – I

Part 5 (1:29)

• B♭m7 – E♭7 – A♭ – E – B♭m11/E♭ – A♭ – E
  ii7 – V7 – I – #V – ii11 (bass E♭) – I – #V

Part 6 (1:52)

• B♭m11/E♭ – A♭ – A♭7/G♭ – Fm7 – E – A♭/E♭ – B♭9/D – B♭m7 – E♭7sus4
  ii11 (bass E♭) – I – I⁴₂ – vi7 – #V – I⁶₄ – II9 (bass D) – ii7 – V7sus4

Part 7 (2:16)

• A♭ – A♭7/G♭ – Fm7 – E – A♭/E♭ – B♭9/D – D♭m7 – A♭/C – B♭m7
  I – I⁴₂ – vi7 – #V – I⁶₄ – II9 (bass D) – iv7 – I⁶ – ii7

Part 8 (2:40)

• E♭7sus4 – A♭ – B♭m7 – E♭7 – A♭
  V7sus4 – I – ii7 – V7 – I

Part 9 (3:04)

• B♭m7 – E♭7 – A♭
  ii7 – V7 – I

Part 10 (3:28)

• E – B♭m11/E♭ – A♭ – E – B♭m11/E♭
  #V – ii11 (bass E♭) – I – #V – ii11 (bass E♭)
• D♭m7 – A♭ (×2)
  iv7 – I

Part 11 (3:50)

• D♭m7 – A♭ – F7 – G♭m7 – E♭7 – A♭ – B♭m7
  iv7 – I – VI7 – bvii7 – V7 – I – ii7

Part 12 (4:14)

• E♭7 – A♭ – B♭m7
  V7 – I – ii7

Part 13 (4:38)

• E♭7
  V7
• A♭ – E – B♭m11/E♭ (×2)
  I – #V – ii11 (bass E♭)

Part 14 (5:03)

• A♭
  I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• E (#V) is borrowed from the parallel key, A♭ minor.
• D♭m7 (iv7) is borrowed from the parallel key, A♭ minor.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). Chord annotation of the original recording (Bedtime Stories), 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 (Bedtime Stories), 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.