A Day in the Life by The Beatles

Overview

Key: G major · Chords used: 27 · Sections: 10

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse → Verse → Bridge → Part → Instrumental → Verse → Bridge → Outro

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Isophonics reference annotations (Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary University of London). 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.

Key changes

• Part moves to E major.
• Verse 4 moves to G major.
• Outro moves to E major.

Section by section

Intro

• G – Bm – Em7 – C
  I – iii – vi7 – IV

Verse 1

• G – Bm/F♯ – Em7 – Em7/D – C – Em/B – Am – G – Bm – Em7
  I – iii⁶₄ – vi7 – vi⁴₂ – IV – vi⁶₄ – ii – I – iii – vi7
• Em7/D – C – F – Em (×2)
  vi⁴₂ – IV – bVII – vi
• C – D
  IV – V

Verse 2

• G – Bm/F♯ – Em7/D – C – Em/B – Am – G – Bm – Em7 – Em7/D – C – F – Em – Em7/D – C
  I – iii⁶₄ – vi⁴₂ – IV – vi⁶₄ – ii – I – iii – vi7 – vi⁴₂ – IV – bVII – vi – vi⁴₂ – IV

Verse 3

• G – Bm/F♯ – Em7 – Em7/D – C – Em/B – Am – Am/E – G – Bm – Em7 – Em7/D – C – F – Em – Em7/D – C
  I – iii⁶₄ – vi7 – vi⁴₂ – IV – vi⁶₄ – ii – ii⁶₄ – I – iii – vi7 – vi⁴₂ – IV – bVII – vi – vi⁴₂ – IV

Bridge 1

• F♯7sus4(no5) – Em/G – Amadd9 – Em/B – C♯maj7 – Em(no5)/D – Em(no5)
  VII7sus4(no5) – vi⁶ – iiadd9 – vi⁶₄ – #IVmaj7 – vi(no5) (bass D) – vi(no5)

Part

• E – D – E – B – E – B (×2)
  I – bVII – I – V – I – V

Instrumental

• C – G – D – A – E – C – G – D – A
  bVI – bIII – bVII – IV – I – bVI – bIII – bVII – IV

Verse 4

• G – Bm/F♯ – Em7 – Em7/D – C – Em/B – Am – F♯m7♭5 – G – Bm – Em7 – Em7/D – C – F – Em – Em7/D – C
  I – iii⁶₄ – vi7 – vi⁴₂ – IV – vi⁶₄ – ii – viiø7 – I – iii – vi7 – vi⁴₂ – IV – bVII – vi – vi⁴₂ – IV

Bridge 2

• F♯sus4(no5) – Em/G – Amadd9 – E5/B – Cmaj7(no5) – Em7(no5)/D – Esus2
  VIIsus4(no5) – vi⁶ – iiadd9 – VI5 (bass B) – IVmaj7(no5) – vi7(no5) (bass D) – VIsus2

Outro

• E
  I

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
G	I	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Verse
Bm	iii	In the key	Intro, Verse
Em7	vi7	In the key	Intro, Verse
C	IV	In the key	Intro, Verse
Bm/F♯	iii⁶₄	In the key	Verse
Em7/D	vi⁴₂	In the key	Verse
Em/B	vi⁶₄	In the key	Verse, Bridge
Am	ii	In the key	Verse
F	bVII	Borrowed from G minor	Verse
Em	vi	In the key	Verse
D	V	In the key	Verse
Am/E	ii⁶₄	In the key	Verse
F♯7sus4(no5)	VII7sus4(no5)	In the key	Bridge
Em/G	vi⁶	In the key	Bridge
Amadd9	iiadd9	In the key	Bridge
C♯maj7	#IVmaj7	Outside the key (chromatic)	Bridge
Em(no5)/D	vi(no5) (bass D)	In the key	Bridge
Em(no5)	vi(no5)	In the key	Bridge
E	I (in E major)	Home chord (tonic)	Part, Instrumental, Outro
D	bVII (in E major)	Borrowed from E minor	Part, Instrumental
B	V (in E major)	In the key	Part
C	bVI (in E major)	Borrowed from E minor	Instrumental
G	bIII (in E major)	Borrowed from E minor	Instrumental
A	IV (in E major)	In the key	Instrumental
F♯m7♭5	viiø7	In the key	Verse
F♯sus4(no5)	VIIsus4(no5)	In the key	Bridge
E5/B	VI5 (bass B)	In the key	Bridge
Cmaj7(no5)	IVmaj7(no5)	In the key	Bridge
Em7(no5)/D	vi7(no5) (bass D)	In the key	Bridge
Esus2	VIsus2	In the key	Bridge

Harmonic highlights

• F (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, G minor.
• D (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, E minor.
• C (bVI) is borrowed from the parallel key, E minor.
• G (bIII) is borrowed from the parallel key, E minor.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the Isophonics reference annotations (Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary University of London). Expert chord and structure annotation of the original recording (CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo).
• Cross-check: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. Expert by-ear harmonic analysis of the original recording, shown on this page. Independently transcribed; it matches this page's chords closely (similarity 75%).
• Verified: two independent expert transcriptions agree on this song's harmony.
• 2 chords were simplified to the closest symbol our player supports (for example, an unusual added tone dropped).
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.