El Condor Pasa by Simon & Garfunkel

Overview

Key: E minor · Chords used: 6 · Sections: 7

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse → Chorus → Verse ×2 → 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/G – Am/C – Em/B
  i⁶ – iv⁶ – i⁶₄

Verse 1

• G – Em
  bIII – i

Verse 2

• Em – G – Em
  i – bIII – i

Chorus 1

• C6 – G (×2)
  bVI6 – bIII
• Em
  i

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 2.

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 2.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Chord vocabulary

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 1261, 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.