Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash

Overview

Key: F major · Chords used: 3 · Sections: 8

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

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.

Section by section

Intro 1

• C – F
  V – I

Verse 1

• F – B♭ – F – C – F
  I – IV – I – V – I

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Solo 1

• F – B♭ – F – C – F
  I – IV – I – V – I

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Solo 2

Same chords as Solo 1.

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 1.

Intro 2

Same chords as Intro 1.

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
C	V	In the key	Intro, Verse, Solo
F	I	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Verse, Solo
B♭	IV	In the key	Verse, Solo

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.