Happiness Is a Warm Gun by The Beatles

Overview

Key: C major · Chords used: 13 · Sections: 4

Form: Intro → Part → Part → Part

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Isophonics reference annotations (Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary University of London). 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

• Am7 – Am6 – Emadd9 – Em (×2)
  vi7 – vi6 – iiiadd9 – iii
• Dm – Am (×4)
  ii – vi

Part 1

• A7 – C7 – Am (×2)
  VI7 – I7 – vi

Part 2

• A – C – A – G (×3)
  VI – I – VI – V

Part 3

• C – Am – F – G (×7)
  I – vi – IV – V
• Fm
  iv
• C – Am – F – G (×2)
  I – vi – IV – V
• C
  I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• Fm (iv) is borrowed from the parallel key, C minor.
• The Part 3 loops C – Am – F – G (I – vi – IV – V), a rotation of the ’50s progression (I–vi–IV–V family).

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the Isophonics reference annotations (Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary University of London). Expert chord and structure annotation of the original recording (CC BY 4.0 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.