Don't Stand So Close to Me by The Police

Overview

Key: E♭ major · Chords used: 7 · Sections: 9

Form: Intro → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Instrumental → 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

• E♭ – Gm (×2)
  I – iii

Verse 1

• E♭ – Gm (×4)
  I – iii

Chorus 1

• D – A – D – A – Bm7 – Bm7/A – D/A – A (×2)
  VII – #IV – VII – #IV – #v7 – #v⁴₂ – VII⁶₄ – #IV
• D/A – A
  VII⁶₄ – #IV

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 3

• D – A – D – A – Bm7 – Bm7/A – D/A – A (×2)
  VII – #IV – VII – #IV – #v7 – #v⁴₂ – VII⁶₄ – #IV
• D/A – A (×3)
  VII⁶₄ – #IV

Instrumental

• E♭ – Gm (×4)
  I – iii

Chorus 4

• D – A – D – A – Bm7 – Bm7/A – D/A – A (×6)
  VII – #IV – VII – #IV – #v7 – #v⁴₂ – VII⁶₄ – #IV
• D – A
  VII – #IV

Chord vocabulary

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0492, CC0), 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.