Run for Your Life by The Beatles

Overview

Key: D major · Chords used: 8 · Sections: 9

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

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
  I

Verse 1

• D – Bm (×2)
  I – vi
• E – Bm (×2)
  II – vi
• Em/G – F♯ – Bm
  ii⁶ – III – vi

Chorus 1

• D
  I

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Solo

• D6 – G – D – A – D
  I6 – IV – I – V – I

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• F♯ acts as V/vi: it resolves to Bm.

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.