I Wanna Be Your Man by The Beatles

Overview

Key: E major · Chords used: 5 · Sections: 8

Form: Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Break → Verse → 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

Verse 1

• E
  I

Chorus 1

• F♯ – B – E – C♯ – F♯ – B – E – D/E
  II – V – I – VI – II – V – I – bVII (bass E)

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Break

• E
  I

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Outro

• E
  I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• D/E (bVII (bass E)) is borrowed from the parallel key, E minor.
• F♯ acts as V/V: it resolves to B.

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.