Mr. Tambourine Man (Byrds) by Bob Dylan

Overview

Key: D major · Chords used: 3 · Sections: 8

Form: Intro → Chorus → Chorus → Bridge → Bridge → Chorus ×2 → Outro

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. 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 (×2)
  I – V

Chorus 1

• G – A
  IV – V
• D – G (×2)
  I – IV
• A
  V

Chorus 2

• G – A
  IV – V
• D – G (×2)
  I – IV
• A – D
  V – I

Bridge 1

• G – A
  IV – V
• D – G (×5)
  I – IV
• A
  V

Bridge 2

• G – A
  IV – V
• D – G (×3)
  I – IV
• A
  V

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Chorus 4

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Outro

• D – A (×6)
  I – V

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
D	I	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Chorus, Bridge, Outro
A	V	In the key	Intro, Chorus, Bridge, Outro
G	IV	In the key	Chorus, Bridge

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: 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.
• Cross-check: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by David Temperley. Independent by-ear analysis of the same recording. The two analysts agree on the chord (root and major/minor) for 100% of the song.
• Verified: two independent expert transcriptions agree on this song's harmony.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.