When Irish Eyes Are Smiling by Ernest Ball

Overview

Key: D major · Chords used: 8 · Sections: 8

Form: A Section → B Section → A Section → B Section → A Section → B Section → A Section → B 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 1

• D – Dmaj9 – D – D7 – G – D
  I – Imaj9 – I – I7 – IV – I

B Section 1

• G – D – B7 – E7 – A7
  IV – I – VI7 – II7 – V7

A Section 2

Same chords as A Section 1.

B Section 2

• G – G♯dim – D – B7 – E7 – A7 – D
  IV – #iv° – I – VI7 – II7 – V7 – I

A Section 3

Same chords as A Section 1.

B Section 3

Same chords as B Section 1.

A Section 4

Same chords as A Section 1.

B Section 4

Same chords as B Section 2.

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• D7 acts as V/IV: it resolves to G.
• E7 acts as V/V: it resolves to A7.

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.