Beautiful by Gordon Lightfoot

Overview

Key: B major · Chords used: 7 · Sections: 9

Form: Intro → Verse → Transition → Verse → Transition → Verse → Transition → Chorus → Outro

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

• Bmaj7 – Gmaj9 (×2)
  Imaj7 – bVImaj9

Verse 1

• Bmaj7 – Bm7 – Emaj7 – Em7 (×2)
  Imaj7 – i7 – IVmaj7 – iv7

Transition 1

• Bmaj7 – Gmaj9
  Imaj7 – bVImaj9

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Transition 2

Same chords as Transition 1.

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Transition 3

• Bmaj7 – Bm7
  Imaj7 – i7

Chorus

• Emaj7 – Bmaj7 – E/B – F♯7sus4
  IVmaj7 – Imaj7 – IV⁶₄ – V7sus4

Outro

• Bmaj7 – Gmaj9 (×2)
  Imaj7 – bVImaj9
• Bmaj7
  Imaj7

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• Gmaj9 (bVImaj9) is borrowed from the parallel key, B minor.
• Bm7 (i7) is borrowed from the parallel key, B minor.
• Em7 (iv7) is borrowed from the parallel key, B minor.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0180, 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.