Magical Mystery Tour by The Beatles

Overview

Key: D major · Chords used: 12 · Sections: 10

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

• D – A – E
  I – V – II

Verse 1

• E – G – A (×4)
  II – IV – V

Chorus 1

• D – D/C – G/B – Gmadd9/B♭ – D/A – A
  I – I (bass C) – IV⁶ – ivadd9 (bass B♭) – I⁶₄ – V

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Solo

• B – F♯m7 (×2)
  VI – iii7
• A – B
  V – VI

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 3

• D – D/C – G/B – B♭ – D/A – A
  I – I (bass C) – IV⁶ – bVI – I⁶₄ – V

Chorus 4

Same chords as Chorus 3.

Outro

• D – Dm
  I – i

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• Gmadd9/B♭ (ivadd9 (bass B♭)) is borrowed from the parallel key, D minor.
• B♭ (bVI) is borrowed from the parallel key, D minor.
• Dm (i) is borrowed from the parallel key, D minor.
• D/C acts as V/IV: it resolves to G/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.