Do You Want to Know a Secret by The Beatles

Overview

Key: E major · Chords used: 13 · Sections: 8

Form: Intro → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Bridge → Verse → 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

Intro

• Em – F♯m7♭5 – Em – A – B – B13
  i – iiø7 – i – IV – V – V13

Verse 1

• E – G♯m – Gm – F♯m – B7 (×2)
  I – iii – biii – ii – V7
• E – G♯m – Gm – F♯m – B7♭9/C
  I – iii – biii – ii – V7b9 (bass C)
• E – G♯m – Gm – F♯m – B7 (×2)
  I – iii – biii – ii – V7
• A – B
  IV – V

Chorus 1

• C♯m – A – B
  vi – IV – V

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Bridge

• A – F♯m – C♯m – Bm (×2)
  IV – ii – vi – v
• F♯m – B7
  ii – V7

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 3

• C♯m – A – B (×3)
  vi – IV – V

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• Em (i) is borrowed from the parallel key, E minor.
• F♯m7♭5 (iiø7) is borrowed from the parallel key, E minor.
• B7♭9/C (V7b9 (bass C)) is borrowed from the parallel key, E minor.
• Bm (v) is borrowed from the parallel key, E minor.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0302, CC0), via ChoCo.
• Not verified: another expert transcription (the Isophonics reference annotations (Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary University of London)) 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.