In My Life by The Beatles

Overview

Key: A major · Chords used: 8 · Sections: 9

Form: Intro → Verse → Bridge → Part → Verse → Bridge → Solo → Bridge → 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 – E (×2)
  I – V

Verse 1

• A – E – F♯m – A7 – D – Dm (×2)
  I – V – vi – I7 – IV – iv
• A
  I

Bridge 1

• F♯m – D – G – A – F♯m – B – Dm – A
  vi – IV – bVII – I – vi – II – iv – I

Part

• A – E
  I – V

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Bridge 2

Same chords as Bridge 1.

Solo

• A – E – F♯m – A7 – D – Dm (×2)
  I – V – vi – I7 – IV – iv
• A
  I

Bridge 3

Same chords as Bridge 1.

Outro

• A – E – Dm – A – E – A
  I – V – iv – I – V – I

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
A	I	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Verse, Bridge, Part, Solo, Outro
E	V	In the key	Intro, Verse, Part, Solo, Outro
F♯m	vi	In the key	Verse, Bridge, Solo
A7	I7	Secondary dominant (V/IV)	Verse, Solo
D	IV	In the key	Verse, Bridge, Solo
Dm	iv	Borrowed from A minor	Verse, Bridge, Solo, Outro
G	bVII	Borrowed from A minor	Bridge
B	II	Outside the key (chromatic)	Bridge

Harmonic highlights

• Dm (iv) is borrowed from the parallel key, A minor.
• G (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, A minor.
• A7 acts as V/IV: it resolves to D.

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).
• Cross-check: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. Expert by-ear harmonic analysis of the original recording, shown on this page. Independently transcribed; it matches this page's chords closely (similarity 100%).
• Verified: two independent expert transcriptions agree on this song's harmony.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.