Please Please Me by The Beatles

Overview

Key: E major · Chords used: 7 · Sections: 6

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse → Bridge → Verse → 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

• B – E
  V – I

Verse 1

• E – A – E – G – A – B
  I – IV – I – bIII – IV – V
• E – A (×2)
  I – IV
• F♯m – C♯m/G♯ – A
  ii – vi⁶₄ – IV
• E – A – B (×2)
  I – IV – V

Verse 2

• E – A – E – G – A – B
  I – IV – I – bIII – IV – V
• E – A (×2)
  I – IV
• F♯m – C♯m/G♯ – A – E – A – B – E
  ii – vi⁶₄ – IV – I – IV – V – I

Bridge

• A – B – E (×3)
  IV – V – I
• A – B
  IV – V

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Outro

• E – A – B – E – G – C – B – E
  I – IV – V – I – bIII – bVI – V – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• G (bIII) is borrowed from the parallel key, E minor.
• C (bVI) is borrowed from the parallel key, E 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.