More Than You Know — Free Lead Sheet PDF (Eb, Bb, Concert)

Music by Vincent Youmans · Published 1929 · Melody & chords only

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About More Than You Know

The Best Standard to Come Out of a Broadway Flop

More Than You Know was composed by Vincent Youmans, with lyrics by Billy Rose and Edward Eliscu, published in 1929 for Great Day!, a musical set in the American Deep South. The show opened at the Cosmopolitan Theatre on 17 October 1929 and closed after just 36 performances — one of Broadway's more notable flops, arriving right at the onset of the Great Depression.

Despite the show's failure, its score produced two standards that far outlived it: this tune and Without a Song. More Than You Know was introduced in the show by Mayo Methot — later known as Humphrey Bogart's third wife — and went on to become, in the words of critic and songwriter Alec Wilder, arguably Youmans's finest ballad.

The chart on this page offers the melody and chords, no lyrics. The tune was recorded almost immediately by the era's leading vocalists, including Helen Morgan, Ruth Etting and Libby Holman in 1929 alone, and it has remained a favourite ballad vehicle for singers and instrumentalists ever since.

The Form & Harmony

A Richly Chromatic Ballad, Far Ahead of Its Time

More Than You Know is a 32-bar standard in the key of C, verified against the engraved chart used for this page, and it is considerably more harmonically adventurous than most tunes from its era. The opening bars alone move through C6, an altered G7(#5), G‹7, C7 and F6 before reaching E‹7–A7–D‹7 and a startling F‹6 — a minor iv borrowed from the parallel minor, well outside the diatonic palette most 1929 show tunes worked within.

The bridge pushes further still, moving briefly toward E minor with an F#‹7(b5)–B7(#9) ii–V before a chain of secondary dominants, including a tritone substitution (A¨7 standing in for D7), pulls the harmony back toward C. Bar 27 briefly touches a D/F# slash chord over the same F‹6 colour from the opening, tying the form together with a consistent chromatic thread rather than a simple diatonic cadence.

This harmonic richness is exactly why critic Alec Wilder singled the tune out as Youmans's finest ballad, and why it has remained a favourite among jazz musicians looking for a standard with real substance to improvise over — the altered dominants and borrowed chords give a soloist far more to work with than the average 32-bar form of its period.

How to Play It on Saxophone

A Practical Approach to a Harmonically Rich Ballad

1. Learn the melody against the chords, not in isolation. The melody's chromatic movement only makes sense against the altered harmony underneath it. Learn small phrases together with their chords rather than memorising the tune as a standalone line.

2. Work rubato before you work in time. Practise the melody freely, shaping phrases the way a singer would, before locking it to a metronome. Ballads lose their character fast if they are drilled in strict time from the very first pass.

3. Drill the altered dominants on their own. Chords like G7(#5) and B7(#9) are the harmonic heart of this tune. Practise arpeggiating and outlining these alterations in isolation so your ear is secure before improvising over the full form.

4. Prioritise tone and dynamics over technique. At ballad tempo there is nowhere for a thin or unsteady tone to hide. Spend practice time on long tones, vibrato control and dynamic shading across the melody's phrases rather than on speed or technical facility.

5. Study Dexter Gordon's tenor saxophone recording of the tune. Listen to how Gordon leans into the chromatic harmony with a big, patient tone, treating the tune's harmonic richness as an opportunity for expression rather than a technical hurdle.

If you would like one-to-one guidance on ballad playing, tone development or building a wider jazz vocabulary, saxophone lessons in person in South East London or online are available. The free saxophone transcriptions on this site are also useful for hearing how great players navigate ballads and other standards.

Essential Recordings

Where to Start Listening

For a purely instrumental jazz treatment, seek out Dexter Gordon's 1975 recording of More Than You Know, the title track of his SteepleChase album of the same name, where his big, unhurried tenor sound gives the tune's chromatic harmony room to breathe over a seven-and-a-half-minute reading.

The tune's earliest recordings came almost immediately after the show's 1929 opening, with Helen Morgan, Ruth Etting and Libby Holman all releasing vocal versions that year, followed by big-band treatments including Count Basie and His Orchestra in 1941.

Mildred Bailey recorded the tune twice, in 1936 and again in 1942, each version showing a different side of its harmonic depth. Comparing an early vocal reading against Dexter Gordon's instrumental version is a good way to hear how much room this tune's chromaticism leaves for interpretation.

If you are working through the broader Great American Songbook repertoire, browse the online real book index for related tunes, all available as free lead sheet PDFs in Concert, Bb and Eb. If you are also studying Without a Song, both tunes are connected to the same short-lived 1929 production of Great Day!, making them an interesting pair to study together.