Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden

Overview

Key: A♭ minor · Chords used: 18 · Sections: 18

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). 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

Part 1 (0:00)

• A♭sus4
  Isus4

Part 2 (0:02)

• C♭69 – G♭5 – F5 – Esus4 – E♭7(no3) – A♭6 – C♭6
  bIII69 – bVII5 – VI5 – #Vsus4 – V7(no3) – I6 – bIII6

Part 3 (0:21)

• G♭5 – Fm – E – E♭sus4 – A♭6 – G♭6 – A – A♭6 – C♭6
  bVII5 – vi – #V – Vsus4 – I6 – bVII6 – #I – I6 – bIII6

Part 4 (0:39)

• G♭5 – Fm – E – E♭sus4 – A♭6 – G♭6 – A – Esus4
  bVII5 – vi – #V – Vsus4 – I6 – bVII6 – #I – #Vsus4

Part 5 (0:57)

• E♭7(no3) – A♭5 – A♭7(no3) – C♭ – Esus4 – E♭7(no3) – D♭ – E♭
  V7(no3) – I5 – I7(no3) – bIII – #Vsus4 – V7(no3) – IV – V

Part 6 (1:15)

• A♭6 – C♭6 – G♭5 – Fm – E – E♭sus4 – A♭6 – G♭6 – A
  I6 – bIII6 – bVII5 – vi – #V – Vsus4 – I6 – bVII6 – #I

Part 7 (1:34)

Same chords as Part 6 (1:15).

Part 8 (1:52)

• Esus4 – E♭7(no3) – A♭5 – A♭7(no3) – C♭ – Esus4 – E♭7(no3) – D♭
  #Vsus4 – V7(no3) – I5 – I7(no3) – bIII – #Vsus4 – V7(no3) – IV

Part 9 (2:10)

• C♭ – Esus4 – E♭7(no3) – A♭5 – A♭7(no3) – C♭ – Esus4 – E♭7(no3) – D♭
  bIII – #Vsus4 – V7(no3) – I5 – I7(no3) – bIII – #Vsus4 – V7(no3) – IV

Part 10 (2:28)

• C♭ – E♭ – D♭ (×2)
  bIII – V – IV
• C♭ – E♭
  bIII – V

Part 11 (2:46)

• D♭ – C♭ – E♭ – G♭5
  IV – bIII – V – bVII5

Part 12 (3:05)

• G♭5 – A♭5
  bVII5 – I5

Part 13 (3:25)

• A♭6 – C♭6 – G♭5 – Fm – Esus4 – E♭7(no3)
  I6 – bIII6 – bVII5 – vi – #Vsus4 – V7(no3)

Part 14 (3:43)

• A♭5 – A♭7(no3) – C♭ – Esus4 – E♭7(no3) – D♭ – C♭ – Esus4 – E♭7(no3)
  I5 – I7(no3) – bIII – #Vsus4 – V7(no3) – IV – bIII – #Vsus4 – V7(no3)

Part 15 (4:01)

• A♭5 – A♭7(no3) – C♭ – Esus4 – E♭7(no3) – D♭ – C♭ – E♭ – D♭
  I5 – I7(no3) – bIII – #Vsus4 – V7(no3) – IV – bIII – V – IV

Part 16 (4:19)

Same chords as Part 10 (2:28).

Part 17 (4:36)

• D♭ – C♭ – E♭ (×2)
  IV – bIII – V
• D♭ – C♭
  IV – bIII

Part 18 (4:54)

• E♭ – D♭ – C♭ – E♭ – G♭5 – A♭5
  V – IV – bIII – V – bVII5 – I5

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• F5 (VI5) is borrowed from the parallel key, A♭ major.
• A♭6 (I6) is borrowed from the parallel key, A♭ major.
• Fm (vi) is borrowed from the parallel key, A♭ major.
• D♭ (IV) is borrowed from the parallel key, A♭ major.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). Chord annotation of the original recording (Superunknown), time-stamped by researchers; CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo.
• Section names: this annotation doesn't name verses or choruses, so they aren't guessed. Instead, code used the chord timings to find the bars and cut the song into 8-bar parts. Each part is labelled with the time it starts in the annotated recording (Superunknown), and a part with exactly the same chords as an earlier one says so.
• The key was estimated by code from the chords; this annotation doesn't state it.
• Not verified: only one expert transcription of this song is available so far.
• 11 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.