The Entertainer by Scott Joplin

Overview

Key: C major · Chords used: 9 · Sections: 5

Form: A Section → B Section → C Section → D Section → E 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

• C – C7 – F – C – G7 – C – C7 – F – C – D
  I – I7 – IV – I – V7 – I – I7 – IV – I – II

B Section

• G7 – C – C7 – F – C – G7 – C – C7 – F – Fm – C – G7
  V7 – I – I7 – IV – I – V7 – I – I7 – IV – iv – I – V7

C Section

• C – F – Fm – C – G7 – C – G – D7
  I – IV – iv – I – V7 – I – V – II7

D Section

• G7 – C – F – Fm – C – Dm7 – C – D7 – G7
  V7 – I – IV – iv – I – ii7 – I – II7 – V7

E Section

• C – C7 – F – C – G7 (×2)
  I – I7 – IV – I – V7
• C – G – C
  I – V – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• Fm (iv) is borrowed from the parallel key, C minor.
• C7 acts as V/IV: it resolves to F.
• D7 acts as V/V: it resolves to G7.

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.