Without You by Mariah Carey

Overview

Key: F♯ major · Chords used: 17 · Sections: 14

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). 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.

Section by section

Part 1 (0:00)

• F♯sus2 – F♯
  Isus2 – I

Part 2 (0:04)

• F♯sus2 – F♯ (×2)
  Isus2 – I
• A♯madd9 – G♯madd9
  iiiadd9 – iiadd9

Part 3 (0:19)

• A♯7sus4 – A♯7 – D♯m – D♯m7/C♯ – G♯7/B♯ – F♯add9
  III7sus4 – III7 – vi – vi⁴₂ – II⁶₅ – Iadd9

Part 4 (0:35)

• C♯sus4 – C♯ – F♯add9 – A♯madd9 – G♯madd9
  Vsus4 – V – Iadd9 – iiiadd9 – iiadd9

Part 5 (0:51)

• A♯7sus4 – A♯7 – D♯m – D♯m7/C♯ – G♯7/B♯ – F♯
  III7sus4 – III7 – vi – vi⁴₂ – II⁶₅ – I

Part 6 (1:07)

• C♯13 – F♯ – D♯m – G♯m
  V13 – I – vi – ii

Part 7 (1:22)

• C♯13 – F♯ – D♯madd9 – G♯m
  V13 – I – viadd9 – ii

Part 8 (1:38)

• C♯13 – F♯add9 – A♯madd9 – G♯madd9
  V13 – Iadd9 – iiiadd9 – iiadd9

Part 9 (1:54)

• A♯sus4 – D♯m – D♯m7/C♯ – G♯7 – F♯
  IIIsus4 – vi – vi⁴₂ – II7 – I

Part 10 (2:10)

Same chords as Part 7 (1:22).

Part 11 (2:25)

Same chords as Part 7 (1:22).

Part 12 (2:41)

Same chords as Part 7 (1:22).

Part 13 (2:57)

Same chords as Part 7 (1:22).

Part 14 (3:13)

Same chords as Part 7 (1:22).

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• A♯7 acts as V/vi: it resolves to D♯m.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). Chord annotation of the original recording (Music Box), time-stamped by researchers; CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo.
• Section names: this annotation doesn't name verses or choruses, so they aren't guessed. Instead, code used the chord timings to find the bars and cut the song into 8-bar parts. Each part is labelled with the time it starts in the annotated recording (Music Box), and a part with exactly the same chords as an earlier one says so.
• The key was estimated by code from the chords; this annotation doesn't state it.
• 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.