The Teddy Bears' Picnic by John W. Bratton

Overview

Key: E♭ major · Chords used: 17 · Sections: 4

Form: A Section → Verse → Interlude → Trio

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

• Cm – Cmmaj7 – Cm6 – Cdim – Cm – Cmmaj7 – Cm6
  vi – vimaj7 – vi6 – vi° – vi – vimaj7 – vi6
• G7 – Cm (×2)
  III7 – vi
• G7 – A♭7 – G7
  III7 – IV7 – III7

Verse

• Cm – Bdim (×3)
  vi – #v°
• Cm
  vi
• E♭ – Ddim (×3)
  I – vii°
• E♭ – Fm7 – Gdim – Fm7 – B♭7
  I – ii7 – iii° – ii7 – V7
• E♭ – A♭ (×2)
  I – IV
• E♭ – B♭7 – E♭
  I – V7 – I
• Cm – Bdim (×3)
  vi – #v°
• Cm
  vi
• E♭ – Ddim (×3)
  I – vii°
• E♭ – Fm7 – Gdim – Fm7 – B♭7
  I – ii7 – iii° – ii7 – V7
• E♭ – A♭ (×2)
  I – IV
• E♭ – B♭7 – E♭
  I – V7 – I

Interlude

• B♭7 – Gdim
  V7 – iii°
• B♭7 – E♭ (×2)
  V7 – I
• B♭7 – Gdim – B♭7 – E♭ – A♭7 – Cm – A♭7 – G7
  V7 – iii° – V7 – I – IV7 – vi – IV7 – III7

Trio

• E♭ – E♭dim – E♭ – Edim – Fm7
  I – i° – I – #i° – ii7
• B♭7 – Gdim (×2)
  V7 – iii°
• B♭7 – E♭ – Gdim – B♭7
  V7 – I – iii° – V7
• E♭ – Cdim (×2)
  I – vi°
• E♭ – E♭7 – A♭ – Cdim – E♭ – G7 – Fm – B♭7 – E♭
  I – I7 – IV – vi° – I – III7 – ii – V7 – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• G7 acts as V/vi: it resolves to Cm.
• E♭7 acts as V/IV: it resolves to A♭.

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.