Beat It by Michael Jackson

Overview

Key: E♭ minor · Chords used: 3 · Sections: 8

Form: Intro → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Instrumental → Solo → 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

Intro

• E♭m – D♭ (×4)
  i – bVII

Verse 1

• E♭m – D♭ – E♭m – D♭ – C♭ – D♭ – E♭m – D♭ (×2)
  i – bVII – i – bVII – bVI – bVII – i – bVII

Chorus 1

• E♭m – D♭ (×6)
  i – bVII

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

• E♭m – D♭ (×8)
  i – bVII

Instrumental

• E♭m
  i

Solo

• E♭m – D♭ – E♭m – D♭ – C♭ – D♭ – E♭m – D♭ (×2)
  i – bVII – i – bVII – bVI – bVII – i – bVII

Chorus 3

• E♭m – D♭ (×18)
  i – bVII

Chord vocabulary

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0629, 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.