Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys

Overview

Key: E♭ minor · Chords used: 14 · Sections: 8

Form: Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Bridge → Bridge → Chorus → Outro

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 G♭ major.
• Verse 2 moves to E♭ minor.
• Chorus 2 moves to G♭ major.
• Bridge 1 moves to B♭ major.
• Bridge 2 moves to F major.
• Chorus 3 moves to B♭ major.
• Outro moves to G♭ major.

Section by section

Verse 1

• E♭m – D♭ – B – B♭ (×2)
  i – bVII – #V – V
• D♭
  bVII

Chorus 1

• G♭7 – A♭7 – B♭7
  I7 – II7 – III7

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Bridge 1

• B♭ – E♭ – B♭
  I – IV – I

Bridge 2

• F – Gm – C (×5)
  I – ii – V
• F – F7
  I – I7

Chorus 3

• B♭7 – A♭7 – G♭7
  I7 – bVII7 – bVI7

Outro

• G♭ – A♭ – B♭ – A♭ – A♭7
  I – II – III – II – II7

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• A♭7 (bVII7) is borrowed from the parallel key, B♭ 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 62% of the song.
• Not verified: the two RS 200 analysts differ in places (see their agreement above).
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.