What’s Going On | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
||: Emaj9 E6/9 | Emaj9 E6/9 :||
Verse 1
| Emaj9 | Emaj9 | C#m7 | C#m7 |
Mother, mother. There’s too many of you crying.
| Emaj9 | Emaj9 | C#m7 | C#m7 |
Brother, brother, brother. There’s far too many of you dying.
| F#m9 | F#m9 |
You know we’ve got to find a way.
| B13sus4 | B13 |
To bring some lovin’ here today, yeah.
Verse 2
Father, father. We don’t need to escalate.
You see, war is not the answer. For only love can conquer hate.
You know we’ve got to find a way.
To bring some lovin’ here today.
Bridge 1
| F#m7 | B9 | F#m7 | B9 |
Picket lines and picket signs. Don’t punish me with brutality.
| F#m7 | B9 |
Talk to me, so you can see.
Chorus 1
||: Emaj7 | C#m7 | Emaj7 | C#m7 :||
Oh, what’s going on (What’s going on). What’s going on (What’s going on).
Yeah, what’s going on (What’s going on). Oh, what’s going on (What’s going on).
Chorus Tag
||: Cmaj7/A | Cmaj7/A :|| x4
Right on, baby. Right on, baby. Right on.
||: B13 | B13 :||
Du dee do…
Verse 3
Mother, mother. Everybody thinks we’re wrong.
Oh, but who are they to judge us. Simply ’cause our hair is long.
Oh, you know we’ve got to find a way.
To bring some understanding here today.
Bridge 1
Picket lines and picket signs. Don’t punish me with brutality.
Come on talk to me, so you can see.
Chorus 2
What’s going on (What’s going on). Yeah, what’s going on (What’s going on).
Tell me what’s going on (What’s going on). I’ll tell you, what’s going on (What’s going on).
Chorus Tag
Ah, right on, baby, right on. Right on, baby.
Du dee do…
Outro
||: Cmaj7/A | Cmaj7/A :|| x4
Ah, Right on, baby, right on. Right on, baby.
||: B13 | B13 :||
Du dee do…
What’s Going On Chords: Learn the progressions
In the key of E, Marvin Gaye‘s What’s Going On‘s chords mainly achieve its slick sound through natural extensions.
Let’s examine all these chords, starting with the intro.
We begin with an Emaj9 chord which replaces the maj7 with a 6 towards the end of the bar, creating an E6/9 chord before it repeats.
You need the TAB showing what you could play for the intro, including both of these chords. Depending on whether you’re in a band or playing on your own (acoustic), the parts will differ.
Here’s a link to the TAB lesson which will clarify this: What’s Going On – Guitar Lesson with TAB.
The verse sticks with the concept of combining the Emaj9 with an E6/9, but goes between them more often. I guess I should have called the chord Emaj13. Sometimes no matter what, it’s not accurate.
The same happens between C#m7 and C#m. After deliberating how to write this, I decided to just put Emaj9 and C#m7 above with chords and lyrics, and save the fine details for the TAB.
This is followed by the II – V, Fm9 and B13.
On the keyboard, you could play first with an 11, then without. Both would be 13 chords. On the guitar, we can’t fit all those notes in so let’s first play a sus4, then the 3rd to achieve a similar effect. Again – TAB!
A great trick on the electric guitar is to first use lots of movement between Emaj9 – E6/9, then between C#m and C#m7. Once we get to F#m9, we keep that for the B13sus4 as they share the same notes, only changing one note to get the B13.
This creates the variation of being extremely busy, then very much the same (did I mention you need TAB?).
Here are all the chords for What’s Going On’s verse:
| Emaj9 (I) | Emaj9 | C#m7 (VI) | C#m7 |
| Emaj9 | Emaj9 | C#m7 | C#m7 |
| F#m9 (II) | F#m9 |
| B13sus4 (V) | B13 |
On the acoustic guitar, we must change more than on the electric as the bass notes are so important (there’s TAB for this too). We also move between extensions playing Emaj7 – E6/9 – Emaj9 – E6/9 to create movement, and in doing so, compensate for the lack of a band.
Next, we have the bridge. This is similar to how the verse finished, just smaller extensions in F#m7 – B9. The chords only have one bar each as well, like this:
||: F#m7 (II) | B9 (V) :|| x3
As with the verse, What’s Going On’s bridge chords will be played differently if on the electric in a band or acoustic on your own.
The chorus is similar to how the verse started (genius!), only with a chord per bar each and smaller in extensions using just Emaj7 – C#m7.
Lastly, the chorus tag, and this is the first time we go outside the key of E major. What we have here is a modal interchange, going from E Ionian to E Aeolian. You can even see a C-shaped Em chord in the Cmaj7/A!
Should you want to improvise over this section, try an A Dorian scale, or a C Lydian. These two scales share the same notes but will make you choose different target notes.
Having gone deep and studied how to play What’s Going On’s chords both for the electric and acoustic, this chord chart should serve as a nice reminder.
What’s Going On Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: What’s Going On Chord Chart PDF.
This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: What’s Going On iReal Pro. Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key.
As this is such an amazing tune to practice soloing over, try using the backing track feature on the app. That way, you can easily practice soloing in all 12 keys.
What’s Going On was voted the greatest album of all time!
What’s Going On (1971) was Marvin Gaye’s 11th studio album. He had spent his entire recording career in Detroit under Berry Gordy’s watchful eye.
By now, Marvin was a superstar but had grown tired of being told what to do so this album was the first he produced himself in collaboration with the band he knew better than few, Motown’s house band The Funk Brothers.
Together they’d spent a decade recording in Hitsville, creating the greatest musical treasure known to man.
What’s Going On was in many ways the peak of this era, later recognised as the best album of all time (Rolling Stones top 500 album list, 2020) it marked not just the peak of Motown but also the end of an era.
Released in May 1971, The Funk Brothers only had six months left before the doors of the hit factory closed in early 1972 with a note on the door saying, “No work today”.
Motown continued its operation in California but most of the musicians didn’t follow and things were never the same again.
What’s Going On Chords | Related Pages
What’s Going On | Guitar Lesson + TAB
In this guitar lesson, you get TAB for how to play What’s Going On for all sections – Designed both for acoustic (solo) and electric (band)!
| Emaj9 | Emaj9 | C#m7 | C#m7 |
Mother, mother. There’s too many of you crying…
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
- Easy chords by The Commodores
- I Say A Little Prayer chords by Aretha Franklin
- Just the Two Of Us chords by Grover Washington/Bill Withers
- Let’s Stay Together chords by Al Green
- Lovely Day chords by Bill Withers
Marvin Gaye tunes
Marvin Gaye helped shape the Motown sound as a drummer, session singer, writer, lead singer, and producer in the 60s and 70s.
Marvin’s hits include I Heard It Through The Grapevine, Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, Can I Get A Witness, and politically fueled What’s Going On.
Marvin Gaye on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about What’s Going On chords, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.
