Penny Lane by The Beatles

Overview

Key: B major · Chords used: 17 · Sections: 10

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

Verse 1

• B – B/A♯ – B/G♯ – B/F♯ – E6 – C♯m7 – F♯sus4 – F♯ – B – B/A♯ – B/G♯ – B/F♯ – Bm – G♯m7♭5 – Gmaj7
  I – I (bass A♯) – I (bass G♯) – I⁶₄ – IV6 – ii7 – Vsus4 – V – I – I (bass A♯) – I (bass G♯) – I⁶₄ – i – viø7 – bVImaj7
• F♯sus4 – F♯ (×2)
  Vsus4 – V

Verse 2

• B – B/A♯ – B/G♯ – B/F♯ – E6 – C♯m7 – F♯sus4 – F♯ – B – B/A♯ – B/G♯ – B/F♯ – Bm – G♯m7♭5 – Gmaj7 – F♯sus4 – F♯ – E
  I – I (bass A♯) – I (bass G♯) – I⁶₄ – IV6 – ii7 – Vsus4 – V – I – I (bass A♯) – I (bass G♯) – I⁶₄ – i – viø7 – bVImaj7 – Vsus4 – V – IV

Chorus 1

• A – A/C♯ – D (×2)
  bVII – bVII⁶ – bIII
• F♯
  V

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Solo

• B – B/A♯ – B/G♯ – B/F♯ – E6 – C♯m7 – F♯sus4 – F♯ – B – B/A♯ – B/G♯ – B/F♯ – Bm – G♯m7♭5 – Gmaj7 – F♯sus4 – F♯ – E
  I – I (bass A♯) – I (bass G♯) – I⁶₄ – IV6 – ii7 – Vsus4 – V – I – I (bass A♯) – I (bass G♯) – I⁶₄ – i – viø7 – bVImaj7 – Vsus4 – V – IV

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 1.

Verse 5

Same chords as Verse 2.

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Outro

• B – B/D♯ – E (×2)
  I – I⁶ – IV
• E/B – B
  IV⁶₄ – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• Bm (i) is borrowed from the parallel key, B minor.
• Gmaj7 (bVImaj7) is borrowed from the parallel key, B minor.
• A (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, B minor.
• A/C♯ (bVII⁶) is borrowed from the parallel key, B minor.
• D (bIII) is borrowed from the parallel key, B minor.

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.