I Won't Back Down by Tom Petty

Overview

Key: G major · Chords used: 7 · Sections: 10

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). 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

Part 1 (0:00)

• Em(no5) – D(no5) – G(no5) (×4)
  vi(no5) – V(no5) – I(no5)

Part 2 (0:17)

Same chords as Part 1 (0:00).

Part 3 (0:34)

• Em(no5) – D(no5) – G(no5) (×3)
  vi(no5) – V(no5) – I(no5)
• G – C – G – D – G
  I – IV – I – V – I

Part 4 (0:50)

• C – G – D – G – C – G – D
  IV – I – V – I – IV – I – V
• Em – D – G (×2)
  vi – V – I

Part 5 (1:07)

• Em – D – G (×2)
  vi – V – I
• Em – D – C – Em – D – G
  vi – V – IV – vi – V – I

Part 6 (1:24)

• Em
  vi
• D – G – C – G (×3)
  V – I – IV – I
• D
  V

Part 7 (1:41)

• Em – D – G (×4)
  vi – V – I

Part 8 (1:58)

• Em – D – C
  vi – V – IV
• Em – D – G (×2)
  vi – V – I
• C – G – D – G
  IV – I – V – I

Part 9 (2:14)

• C – G – D – G – C – G – D – Em – D – G – C – G – D – G
  IV – I – V – I – IV – I – V – vi – V – I – IV – I – V – I

Part 10 (2:31)

• C – G – D – G – C – G – D
  IV – I – V – I – IV – I – V
• Em – D – G (×2)
  vi – V – I
• Em – D – G(no5)
  vi – V – I(no5)

Chord vocabulary

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). Chord annotation of the original recording (Full Moon Fever), time-stamped by researchers; CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo.
• Section names: this annotation doesn't name verses or choruses, so they aren't guessed. Instead, code used the chord timings to find the bars and cut the song into 8-bar parts. Each part is labelled with the time it starts in the annotated recording (Full Moon Fever), and a part with exactly the same chords as an earlier one says so.
• The key was estimated by code from the chords; this annotation doesn't state it.
• 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.