Don't Worry Baby by The Beach Boys

Overview

Key: E major · Chords used: 7 · Sections: 8

Form: Intro → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Solo → Verse → Chorus

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. 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.

Key changes

• Chorus 1 moves to F♯ major.
• Verse 2 moves to E major.
• Chorus 2 moves to F♯ major.
• Solo moves to E major.
• Chorus 3 moves to F♯ major.

Section by section

Intro

• E – A – B (×2)
  I – IV – V

Verse 1

• E – A – B (×2)
  I – IV – V
• F♯m – B – G♯m – C♯
  ii – V – iii – VI

Chorus 1

• F♯ – G♯m – C♯ (×2)
  I – ii – V
• B
  IV

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Solo

• E – A – B (×2)
  I – IV – V

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 3

• F♯ – G♯m – C♯ (×3)
  I – ii – V

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
E	I	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Verse, Solo
A	IV	In the key	Intro, Verse, Solo
B	V	In the key	Intro, Verse, Solo
F♯m	ii	In the key	Verse
G♯m	iii	In the key	Verse
C♯	VI	Outside the key (chromatic)	Verse
F♯	I (in F♯ major)	Home chord (tonic)	Chorus
G♯m	ii (in F♯ major)	In the key	Chorus
C♯	V (in F♯ major)	In the key	Chorus
B	IV (in F♯ major)	In the key	Chorus

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. Expert by-ear harmonic analysis of the original recording, shown on this page.
• Cross-check: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by David Temperley. Independent by-ear analysis of the same recording. The two analysts agree on the chord (root and major/minor) for 100% of the song.
• Verified: two independent expert transcriptions agree on this song's harmony.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.