50 Ways to Leave Your Lover by Paul Simon

Overview

Key: E minor · Chords used: 12 · Sections: 5

Form: Verse → Chorus → Transition → Verse → Chorus

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). 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

Verse 1

• Em/G – Bm – Cmaj7 – B7♭9 – Em – B7/D♯ – B7/F♯ – B7♭9 – Em – Bm/D – Cmaj7 – B7♭9 – Em – Am7 – Em – Em/G – Bm/D – Cmaj7 – B7♭9 – Em – B7/D♯ – B7/F♯ – B7♭9 – Em – Bm/D – Cmaj7 – B7♭9
  i⁶ – v – bVImaj7 – V7b9 – i – V⁶₅ – V⁴₃ – V7b9 – i – v⁶ – bVImaj7 – V7b9 – i – iv7 – i – i⁶ – v⁶ – bVImaj7 – V7b9 – i – V⁶₅ – V⁴₃ – V7b9 – i – v⁶ – bVImaj7 – V7b9
• Em – Am7 (×2)
  i – iv7
• Em
  i

Chorus 1

• G – B♭6 – C (×4)
  bIII – bV6 – bVI

Transition

• G
  bIII

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Chord vocabulary

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0824, CC0), via ChoCo.
• 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.