Guitar Man by Elvis Presley

Overview

Key: D♭ major · Chords used: 7 · Sections: 7

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

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

• D♭ – D♭dim – A♭7/D♭ – D♭ – A♭7
  I – i° – V7 (bass D♭) – I – V7

Verse 1

• D♭7 – G♭7 – D♭7 – A♭7 – G♭7 – D♭ – D♭dim – A♭7/D♭ – D♭ – A♭7
  I7 – IV7 – I7 – V7 – IV7 – I – i° – V7 (bass D♭) – I – V7

Verse 2

• D♭7 – G♭7 – D♭7 – A♭7 – G♭7 – D♭ – D♭dim – A♭7/D♭ – D♭7
  I7 – IV7 – I7 – V7 – IV7 – I – i° – V7 (bass D♭) – I7

Bridge

• G♭7 – D♭7 – G♭7 – E♭7 – A♭7
  IV7 – I7 – IV7 – II7 – V7

Solo 1

• D♭7 – G♭7 (×2)
  I7 – IV7
• D♭7 – A♭7 – G♭7 – D♭7 – D♭ – A♭7
  I7 – V7 – IV7 – I7 – I – V7

Verse 3

• D♭7 – G♭7 – D♭7 – A♭7 – G♭7
  I7 – IV7 – I7 – V7 – IV7

Solo 2

• D♭7 – G♭7 (×2)
  I7 – IV7
• D♭7 – A♭7 – G♭7 – D♭7 – G♭7 (×3)
  I7 – V7 – IV7 – I7 – IV7
• D♭7 – A♭7 – G♭7 – D♭7
  I7 – V7 – IV7 – I7

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• E♭7 acts as V/V: it resolves to A♭7.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0289, 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.