Without a Song by Vincent Youmans

Overview

Key: E♭ major · Chords used: 24 · Sections: 5

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

• B♭7 – B♭aug7 – E♭maj7 – A♭/E♭ – E♭maj7 – A♭6 – A♭ – E♭/B♭ – B♭7 – B♭11 – E♭
  V7 – V+7 – Imaj7 – IV⁶₄ – Imaj7 – IV6 – IV – I⁶₄ – V7 – V11 – I

A Section 2

• Fm7 – B♭7 – B♭aug7 – E♭maj7 – A♭/E♭ – E♭maj7 – A♭6 – A♭ – E♭/B♭ – B♭7 – E♭ – E♭6
  ii7 – V7 – V+7 – Imaj7 – IV⁶₄ – Imaj7 – IV6 – IV – I⁶₄ – V7 – I – I6

B Section

• B♭m7
  v7
• E♭7 – A♭ (×4)
  I7 – IV
• B♭7 – E♭ (×2)
  V7 – I
• F9 – Gm – D7/F♯ – Gm7/F – C7/E – E♭ – Gm/D – F9 – B♭7 – E♭ – B♭9
  II9 – iii – VII⁶₅ – iii⁴₂ – VI⁶₅ – I – iii⁶₄ – II9 – V7 – I – V9

C Section

• E♭maj7 – Fm7 – B♭aug7 – E♭maj7 – A♭/E♭ – Fm7 – E♭maj7 – A♭6 – A♭ – E♭maj7 – B♭7 – B♭11 – E♭ – E♭maj7
  Imaj7 – ii7 – V+7 – Imaj7 – IV⁶₄ – ii7 – Imaj7 – IV6 – IV – Imaj7 – V7 – V11 – I – Imaj7

D Section

• E♭9 – E♭aug – A♭6 – F9 – E♭/B♭ – B♭7 – Adim – B♭9 – B7 – E♭6
  I9 – I+ – IV6 – II9 – I⁶₄ – V7 – #iv° – V9 – #V7 – I6

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• B♭aug7 (V+7) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• B♭m7 (v7) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• E♭7 acts as V/IV: it resolves to A♭.
• F9 acts as V/V: it resolves to B♭7.
• D7/F♯ acts as V/iii: it resolves to Gm7/F.

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.