Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel

Overview

Key: E♭ major · Chords used: 23 · Sections: 16

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

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. 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 1

• E♭/B♭ – B♭ – A♭ – Dm/A – Adim7 – E♭/B♭ – Cmaj7 – A♭ – A♭m
  I⁶₄ – V – IV – vii⁶₄ – #iv°7 – I⁶₄ – VImaj7 – IV – iv

Transition 1

• E♭ – A♭/E♭ (×2)
  I – IV⁶₄

Verse 1

• E♭ – A♭/E♭ – E♭ – A♭ – D♭ – A♭ – E♭maj7 – Fm
  I – IV⁶₄ – I – IV – bVII – IV – Imaj7 – ii
• E♭ – A♭ (×2)
  I – IV
• E♭
  I

Chorus 1

• B♭ – E♭ – E♭maj7/D – E♭7/D♭ – E♭7 – A♭ – F – B♭ – E♭ – B♭ – A♭ – Dm/A – Adim7 – E♭/B♭ – Cmaj7 – A♭ – Bdim7
  V – I – Imaj⁴₂ – I⁴₂ – I7 – IV – II – V – I – V – IV – vii⁶₄ – #iv°7 – I⁶₄ – VImaj7 – IV – #v°7

Chorus 2

• Cm – E♭ – B♭ – A♭ – Dm/A – Adim7 – E♭/B♭ – Cmaj7 – A♭ – Ddim7/C♭
  vi – I – V – IV – vii⁶₄ – #iv°7 – I⁶₄ – VImaj7 – IV – vii°⁴₂

Transition 2

• E♭ – A♭/E♭ (×3)
  I – IV⁶₄

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Chorus 4

• Cm – E♭ – B♭ – A♭ – Dm/A – Adim7 – E♭/B♭ – Cm7 – A♭ – G – Cm – Cm7/B♭ – F – E
  vi – I – V – IV – vii⁶₄ – #iv°7 – I⁶₄ – vi7 – IV – III – vi – vi⁴₂ – II – #I

Intro 2

• E♭/B♭ – B♭ – A♭ – Cm – A♭ – A♭m
  I⁶₄ – V – IV – vi – IV – iv

Transition 3

Same chords as Transition 2.

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 5

• B♭ – E♭ – E♭maj7/D – E♭7/D♭ – E♭7 – A♭ – F – B♭ – E♭ – B♭ – A♭ – Dm/A – Adim7 – E♭/B♭ – Cm7 – A♭ – Bdim7
  V – I – Imaj⁴₂ – I⁴₂ – I7 – IV – II – V – I – V – IV – vii⁶₄ – #iv°7 – I⁶₄ – vi7 – IV – #v°7

Chorus 6

Same chords as Chorus 4.

Intro 3

Same chords as Intro 2.

Outro

• E♭
  I

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
E♭/B♭	I⁶₄	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Chorus
B♭	V	In the key	Intro, Chorus
A♭	IV	In the key	Intro, Verse, Chorus
Dm/A	vii⁶₄	Outside the key (chromatic)	Intro, Chorus
Adim7	#iv°7	Outside the key (chromatic)	Intro, Chorus
Cmaj7	VImaj7	Outside the key (chromatic)	Intro, Chorus
A♭m	iv	Borrowed from E♭ minor	Intro
E♭	I	Home chord (tonic)	Transition, Verse, Chorus, Outro
A♭/E♭	IV⁶₄	In the key	Transition, Verse
D♭	bVII	Borrowed from E♭ minor	Verse
E♭maj7	Imaj7	Home chord (tonic)	Verse
Fm	ii	In the key	Verse
E♭maj7/D	Imaj⁴₂	Home chord (tonic)	Chorus
E♭7/D♭	I⁴₂	Outside the key (chromatic)	Chorus
E♭7	I7	Secondary dominant (V/IV)	Chorus
F	II	Secondary dominant (V/V)	Chorus
Bdim7	#v°7	Outside the key (chromatic)	Chorus
Cm	vi	In the key	Chorus, Intro
Ddim7/C♭	vii°⁴₂	Borrowed from E♭ minor	Chorus
Cm7	vi7	In the key	Chorus
G	III	Secondary dominant (V/vi)	Chorus
Cm7/B♭	vi⁴₂	In the key	Chorus
E	#I	Outside the key (chromatic)	Chorus

Harmonic highlights

• A♭m (iv) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• D♭ (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• Ddim7/C♭ (vii°⁴₂) is borrowed from the parallel key, E♭ minor.
• E♭7 acts as V/IV: it resolves to A♭.
• F acts as V/V: it resolves to B♭.
• G acts as V/vi: it resolves to Cm.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: 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.
• Cross-check: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by David Temperley. Independent by-ear analysis of the same recording. The two analysts agree on the chord (root and major/minor) for 95% of the song.
• Cross-check: the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). Chord annotation of the original recording (Collected Works - Disc 3), time-stamped by researchers; CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo. Independently transcribed; it matches this page's chords closely (similarity 69%).
• Verified: two independent expert transcriptions agree on this song's harmony.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.