I Want to Break Free by Queen

Overview

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

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

• A – B – C♯m – B (×2)
  IV – V – vi – V
• A – B – E – A – E – B – A
  IV – V – I – IV – I – V – IV

Verse 1

• E – A – E – B – A – E
  I – IV – I – V – IV – I

Verse 2

• E – A – E – B – A – E – E7
  I – IV – I – V – IV – I – I7

Bridge

• B – A (×2)
  V – IV
• C♯m7 – F♯7sus4 – F♯7
  vi7 – II7sus4 – II7
• A – B – C♯m – B (×2)
  IV – V – vi – V
• A – B – E
  IV – V – I

Solo 1

• E – A – E – B – A – E
  I – IV – I – V – IV – I

Solo 2

• E – A – E – B – A – E – E7 – B – A – E
  I – IV – I – V – IV – I – I7 – V – IV – I

Verse 3

• E – A – E – B – A – E – E7 – B – A – E
  I – IV – I – V – IV – I – I7 – V – IV – I

Outro

• E
  I

Chord vocabulary

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.