Roll Over Beethoven by Chuck Berry

Overview

Key: E♭ major · Chords used: 3 · Sections: 1

Form: Intro

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

• E♭ – A♭ – E♭ – B♭ – A♭ – E♭ – A♭ (×4)
  I – IV – I – V – IV – I – IV
• E♭ – B♭ – A♭ – E♭ – A♭ (×2)
  I – V – IV – I – IV
• E♭ – A♭ – E♭ – B♭ – A♭ – E♭ – A♭ (×2)
  I – IV – I – V – IV – I – IV
• E♭ – B♭ – A♭ – E♭
  I – V – IV – I

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
E♭	I	Home chord (tonic)	Intro
A♭	IV	In the key	Intro
B♭	V	In the key	Intro

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 96% 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.