Don't Bother Me by The Beatles

Overview

Key: E minor · Chords used: 8 · Sections: 9

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse → Bridge → Verse → Solo → 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

• D – Em
  bVII – i

Verse 1

• Bm – A – G – E – Bm – A – G – Em – A – Em
  v – IV – bIII – I – v – IV – bIII – i – IV – i

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Bridge 1

• D – Em (×2)
  bVII – i
• Bm – Am – C – Em
  v – iv – bVI – i

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Solo

• Bm – A – G – E – Bm – A – G – Em – A – Em
  v – IV – bIII – I – v – IV – bIII – i – IV – i

Bridge 2

Same chords as Bridge 1.

Verse 4

• Bm – A – G – E – Bm – A – G
  v – IV – bIII – I – v – IV – bIII
• Em – A (×2)
  i – IV

Outro

• Em – A (×3)
  i – IV

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• A (IV) is borrowed from the parallel key, E major.
• E (I) is borrowed from the parallel key, E major.

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.