Across the Universe by The Beatles

Overview

Key: D major · Chords used: 10 · Sections: 14

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse → Part → Chorus → Verse ×2 → Part → Chorus → Verse → Verse → Part → Chorus → 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.

Section by section

Intro

• D♭ – D♭maj7 – Fm – A♭6
  bI – bImaj7 – biii – bV6

Verse 1

• D♭ – B♭m – Fm – E♭m7 – A♭ – A♭7
  bI – bvi – biii – bii7 – bV – bV7

Verse 2

• D♭ – B♭m – Fm – E♭m7 – G♭m
  bI – bvi – biii – bii7 – biv

Part 1

• D♭ – A♭
  bI – bV

Chorus 1

• A♭ – G♭ – D♭ (×2)
  bV – bIV – bI

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 1.

Part 2

Same chords as Part 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Verse 5

Same chords as Verse 2.

Verse 6

Same chords as Verse 1.

Part 3

Same chords as Part 1.

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Outro

• D♭
  bI

Chord vocabulary

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).
• 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.