Seven Seas of Rhye by Queen

Overview

Key: D major · Chords used: 16 · Sections: 8

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

Key changes

• Solo moves to B♭ major.
• Bridge moves to G major.
• Verse 3 moves to D major.

Section by section

Intro

• D – G – D – Em – Em9 – A7
  I – IV – I – ii – ii9 – V7

Verse 1

• D – G/D (×2)
  I – IV⁶₄
• D – G – D – Em7 – A7 – D
  I – IV – I – ii7 – V7 – I

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus

• D – C – G7 (×2)
  I – bVII – IV7
• D – Em – F♯m – G – F♯m7 – Em7 – Em9 – D
  I – ii – iii – IV – iii7 – ii7 – ii9 – I

Solo

• B♭ – E♭7 (×4)
  I – IV7
• B♭ – D
  I – III

Bridge

• G – C – Em/B – Am – Em/B – C – A7/C♯ – D
  I – IV – vi⁶₄ – ii – vi⁶₄ – IV – II⁶₅ – V

Verse 3

• D – G/D (×2)
  I – IV⁶₄
• D – G – D – Em7 – F♯m7 – G7 – G
  I – IV – I – ii7 – iii7 – IV7 – IV

Outro

• D – G (×8)
  I – IV

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• C (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, D minor.
• A7/C♯ acts as V/V: it resolves to D.

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.