Tell Me What You Want Me to Do by Tevin Campbell

Overview

Key: D♭ major · Chords used: 26 · Sections: 9

Form: Intro → Verse → Pre-Chorus → Chorus → Verse → Pre-Chorus → Chorus → Bridge → Chorus

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.

Key changes

• Chorus 3 moves to D major.

Section by section

Intro

• D♭add9 – A♭/C – B♭m11 – G♭69 – A♭7sus4 – D♭add9
  Iadd9 – V⁶ – vi11 – IV69 – V7sus4 – Iadd9

Verse 1

• D♭add9 – A♭/C – B♭m11 – G♭maj13 – Fm7 – E♭7sus4 – A♭7sus4 – D♭add9 – A♭/C – B♭m11 – G♭maj13 – Fm7 – E♭m7
  Iadd9 – V⁶ – vi11 – IVmaj13 – iii7 – II7sus4 – V7sus4 – Iadd9 – V⁶ – vi11 – IVmaj13 – iii7 – ii7

Pre-Chorus 1

• Fm11 – B♭m9 – E♭m9 – A♭9sus4
  iii11 – vi9 – ii9 – V9sus4

Chorus 1

• D♭add9 – A♭/C – B♭m11 – B♭m11/A♭ – G♭69 – A♭7sus4 – D♭add9
  Iadd9 – V⁶ – vi11 – vi11 (bass A♭) – IV69 – V7sus4 – Iadd9

Verse 2

• D♭add9 – A♭/C – B♭m11 – G♭maj13 – Fm7 – E♭7sus4 – A♭9sus4 – D♭add9 – A♭/C – B♭m11 – G♭maj13 – Fm7 – E♭m7
  Iadd9 – V⁶ – vi11 – IVmaj13 – iii7 – II7sus4 – V9sus4 – Iadd9 – V⁶ – vi11 – IVmaj13 – iii7 – ii7

Pre-Chorus 2

Same chords as Pre-Chorus 1.

Chorus 2

• D♭add9 – A♭/C – B♭m11 – B♭m11/A♭ – G♭69 – A♭7sus4 (×2)
  Iadd9 – V⁶ – vi11 – vi11 (bass A♭) – IV69 – V7sus4
• D♭add9 – D♭/C♭
  Iadd9 – I (bass C♭)

Bridge

• G♭maj13 – Fm7 – B♭m7 – A♭
  IVmaj13 – iii7 – vi7 – V
• G♭maj13 – Fm7 – B♭m7 (×2)
  IVmaj13 – iii7 – vi7
• A♭9sus4 – A♭ (×2)
  V9sus4 – V
• A7sus4 – A – A7sus4
  #V7sus4 – #V – #V7sus4

Chorus 3

• Dadd9 – A/C♯ – Bm11 – Bm11/A – G69 – Em7 – A7sus4 – Dadd9 – A/C♯ – Bm11 – Bm11/A – G69 – Em7 – A9sus4 – Dadd9
  Iadd9 – V⁶ – vi11 – vi11 (bass A) – IV69 – ii7 – V7sus4 – Iadd9 – V⁶ – vi11 – vi11 (bass A) – IV69 – ii7 – V9sus4 – Iadd9

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

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

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 1145, 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.