For What It's Worth by Buffalo Springfield

Overview

Key: E major · Chords used: 4 · Sections: 15

Form: Transition → Verse → Chorus → Transition → Verse → Chorus → Transition → Verse → Chorus → Transition → Verse → Chorus ×4

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

Transition 1

• E – A (×2)
  I – IV

Verse 1

• E – A (×4)
  I – IV

Chorus 1

• E – D – A
  I – bVII – IV

Transition 2

Same chords as Transition 1.

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Transition 3

Same chords as Transition 1.

Verse 3

• E – A – G (×4)
  I – IV – bIII

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Transition 4

Same chords as Transition 1.

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 4

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Chorus 5

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Chorus 6

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Chorus 7

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
E	I	Home chord (tonic)	Transition, Verse, Chorus
A	IV	In the key	Transition, Verse, Chorus
D	bVII	Borrowed from E minor	Chorus
G	bIII	Borrowed from E minor	Verse

Harmonic highlights

• D (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, E minor.
• G (bIII) is borrowed from the parallel key, E minor.

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 91% 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.