Richard Rodgers
My Funny Valentine chords
My Funny Valentine by Richard Rodgers is an advanced song in Cm, played with no capo. The whole sheet is 7 chords (Cm, Dm7b5, Cm9, Fm7, Bb7, Ebmaj7, G7) across 3 sections: A1 → A2 → B. 1 of the 7 shapes is an open chord. Shapes that use a barre: Cm, Dm7b5, Cm9, Fm7, Bb7, Ebmaj7. It sits at roughly 66 BPM.
By Chiye · Updated
Hardest change in the sheet: Cm9 → Dm7b5, 3 times.
- Difficulty
- Advancedbarre shape Dm7b5
- Key
- Cmwith no capo
- Tempo
- 66BPM
- Tuning
- Standard (E A D G B E)low to high
- Chords
- 71 open, 6 with a barre
- Sections
- 3each with its own progression
Chords in My Funny Valentine
Frets read low E to high E, x means leave that string out.
Chord sheet
One chord per bar in this practice sheet. Follow the time signature shown beside each section; dots mark the remaining counts in the bar. Tap a bar to hear its chord, or loop the section to practise the changes.
Chord accompaniment only. Follow the section notes for this arrangement’s timing. Songs whose words are public domain →
A14/4 · ♩=66
A24/4 · ♩=66
B4/4 · ♩=66
Printable one-page chord chart
How to play My Funny Valentine
The first section of this C-minor arrangement alternates Cm, Dm7b5 and Cm9 before a passage in the relative major, Eb. These are different chords rather than a single unchanged Cm grip with one descending note.
Dm7b5 is D, F, Ab and C. The open diagram x-x-0-1-1-1 includes D on the fourth string, so it does not omit the root. Cm9 uses C on the A string at fret 3, Eb on the D string at fret 1 and a small upper-string barre at fret 3. Compare the grips before choosing how to connect them.
Fm7, Bb7 and Ebmaj7 form ii–V–I in Eb major. Fm7 and Bb7 use different chord qualities and root strings; sliding Fm7 two frets would give Gm7, not Bb7. Practise the three-chord cadence as a unit, using each diagram’s bass.
The B section uses G7 to lead back into C minor. Its B natural is the raised leading note. Start slowly with one chord per printed bar, then add quiet comping strokes while preserving the full length of every cell.
How to practise My Funny Valentine
Four steps computed from this sheet: the order the shapes are easiest to learn in, the changes that really occur in the progressions above, where each chord turns up, and the tempo ladder up to the speed marked here.
Learn the shapes easiest first
G7 (3-2-0-0-0-1, beginner) → Cm (x-3-5-5-4-3, intermediate, needs a barre) → Cm9 (x-3-1-3-3-3, intermediate, needs a barre) → Fm7 (1-3-1-1-1-1, intermediate, needs a barre) → Bb7 (x-1-3-1-3-1, intermediate, needs a barre) → Ebmaj7 (x-6-8-7-8-6, intermediate, needs a barre) → Dm7b5 (x-x-0-1-1-1, advanced, needs a barre)
1 of the 7 shapes is an open chord, so start there and leave Dm7b5 until the others change cleanly.
Drill the changes this sheet actually uses
Cm9 → Dm7b53×Bb7 → Ebmaj72×Cm → Dm7b52×Fm7 → Bb72×
These counts come from the progressions on this page, so they are the changes you will actually play, not a generic list of pairs to practise.
Know where each chord turns up
- CmA1, A2
- Dm7b5every section
- Cm9every section
- Fm7A1, A2
- Bb7every section
- Ebmaj7every section
- G7B
Climb the tempo ladder
Start at 40 BPM and move up only when a full pass is clean: 40 → 50 → 59 → 66 BPM. The tempo marked on this sheet is 66 BPM, and the last step is the one that always feels like a jump. Stay at 59 for longer than feels necessary.
Practise each section's chord changes slowly, then play the sheet through at a steady tempo without pausing between sections.
Playing My Funny Valentine with a capo
This sheet needs no capo. At every other capo position, at least one of these chords would need a fingering our chord library does not carry, so a full chart would be incomplete. We would rather show nothing than a row with a gap in it. Play it as written, or use the transpose buttons in the toolbar above to move the song into a key whose shapes you already know.
Working out a different key? The capo calculatordoes the same arithmetic for any chord set.
More songs built on the same chords
If My Funny Valentine clicks, these use the closest set of shapes, so the chords you just learned keep working.
More advanced songs to learn after this one: While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Father and Son, 500 Miles, Shallow.
These chords across the songbookHow often each chord in My Funny Valentine turns up across all 104 songs on this site, and what it most often moves to next. The counts come from the sheet library itself, not from theory.
9bars of this chord across the songbook
2songs use this shape
Most often followed by Dm7b5, 2×.
6bars of this chord across the songbook
2songs use this shape
Most often followed by Cm, 1×.
7bars of this chord across the songbook
2songs use this shape
Most often followed by Dm7b5, 3×.
5bars of this chord across the songbook
3songs use this shape
Most often followed by Bb7, 3×.
10bars of this chord across the songbook
3songs use this shape
Most often followed by A7, 3×.
10bars of this chord across the songbook
3songs use this shape
Most often followed by Bb7, 1×.
33bars of this chord across the songbook
13songs use this shape
Most often followed by C, 11×.