Honey Don't by The Beatles

Overview

Key: E major · Chords used: 9 · Sections: 12

Form: Intro → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Solo → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Solo → Chorus → Outro

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

• E/B – E/A♯ – E/A – E
  I⁶₄ – I (bass A♯) – I (bass A) – I

Verse 1

• E – C (×2)
  I – bVI
• B9
  V9

Chorus 1

• E – A – E – B9 – E
  I – IV – I – V9 – I

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Solo 1

• E – C (×2)
  I – bVI
• B
  V

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 4

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Solo 2

• E – C (×2)
  I – bVI
• B9
  V9

Chorus 5

• E – A – E – B9 – E – B7 – E
  I – IV – I – V9 – I – V7 – I

Outro

• E
  I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• C (bVI) is borrowed from the parallel key, E minor.

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.