Harmonic analysis
Read in G major, the key of the tune. Taken on its own, with nothing around it, this excerpt is just as easy to hear in D major — a few bars are often not enough to fix a tonic, and that ambiguity is a real property of the music rather than a gap in the analysis.
| Chord | Roman numeral | Function | What it is doing | Confidence |
|---|
| G | I | Tonic | G is the tonic of G. It is where the progression is at rest. | High |
| G | I | Tonic | G is the tonic of G. It is where the progression is at rest. | High |
| E7 | V7/ii | Dominant | E7 is functioning as V7/ii: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of A, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at ii instead. | Low |
| E7 | V7/ii | Dominant | E7 is functioning as V7/ii: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of A, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at ii instead. | High |
| A7 | V7/V | Dominant | A7 is functioning as V7/V: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of D, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at V instead. | Low |
| A7 | V7/V | Dominant | A7 is functioning as V7/V: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of D, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at V instead. | Low |
| A7 | V7/V | Dominant | A7 is functioning as V7/V: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of D, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at V instead. | High |
| D7 | V7 | Dominant | D7 is the dominant of G. Its third and seventh form a tritone, and that tritone is what makes the tonic feel due. | High |
What the analyzer found in it
half cadenceD7
The progression stops on the dominant of G — a half cadence. It is unfinished on purpose.
High, medium and low next to each numeral are judgements about musical context, not probabilities. A low rating marks a bar that can honestly be read more than one way. How the ratings are decided →
The complete analysis of It Had to Be You — every chord of the whole form, with its Roman numeral and its ii–V–Is marked on the chart — is in JamShed with the Practice Pass, ready to print. Open it in JamShed →
Project 03 · Harmony
Project 07 · Jazz guitar
Project 10 · Jazz guitar
