Cecilia by Simon & Garfunkel

Overview

Key: B major · Chords used: 3 · Sections: 7

Form: Chorus → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Interlude → 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

Chorus 1

• F♯
  V
• E – B (×3)
  IV – I
• F♯
  V

Chorus 2

• B – E (×2)
  I – IV
• B – F♯
  I – V
• E – B (×3)
  IV – I
• F♯ – B
  V – I

Verse

• B – F♯ (×2)
  I – V
• B
  I

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 2.

Interlude

• F♯
  V

Solo

• B – E (×2)
  I – IV
• B – F♯
  I – V
• E – B (×3)
  IV – I
• F♯
  V

Chorus 4

• B – E – B – E – B – F♯ – E (×6)
  I – IV – I – IV – I – V – IV
• B – E (×2)
  I – IV
• B – F♯
  I – V

Chord vocabulary

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0560, CC0), via ChoCo.
• Not verified: another expert transcription (the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University)) differs in places from this one, so this page isn't marked verified.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.