Chains by The Beatles

Overview

Key: B♭ major · Chords used: 8 · Sections: 8

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse → Bridge → Verse → Bridge → Verse → Outro

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Isophonics reference annotations (Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary University of London). 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

• B♭
  I

Verse 1

• B♭ – E♭7 – B♭ – F9 – E♭9 – B♭ – F
  I – IV7 – I – V9 – IV9 – I – V

Verse 2

• B♭ – E♭7 – B♭ – F9 – E♭9 – B♭ – B♭7
  I – IV7 – I – V9 – IV9 – I – I7

Bridge 1

• E♭ – B♭ – E♭ – F
  IV – I – IV – V

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 2.

Bridge 2

Same chords as Bridge 1.

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 1.

Outro

• B♭ – E♭ – E♭m
  I – IV – iv

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• E♭m (iv) is borrowed from the parallel key, B♭ minor.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the Isophonics reference annotations (Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary University of London). Expert chord and structure annotation of the original recording (CC BY 4.0 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.