Strawberry Fields Forever by The Beatles

Overview

Key: B♭ major · Chords used: 28 · Sections: 9

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

Intro

• F – Am/E – Adim/E♭ – E♭ – Adim7/C – Gm/D – F/C – E♭/B♭ – B♭
  V – vii⁶₄ – vii°⁶₄ – IV – vii°⁶₅ – vi⁶₄ – V⁶₄ – IV⁶₄ – I

Chorus 1

• Fm – G7 – E♭ – G – E♭ – B♭
  v – VI7 – IV – VI – IV – I

Verse 1

• F – Fmaj7 – F7 – F♯dim – Gm – F – E♭ – F – B♭ – F/A – Gm
  V – Vmaj7 – V7 – #v° – vi – V – IV – V – I – V⁶ – vi
• F – E♭ (×2)
  V – IV
• B♭
  I

Chorus 2

• Fm – Fm/E♭ – Ddim – E♭ – F – G – E♭ – B♭
  v – v (bass E♭) – iii° – IV – V – VI – IV – I

Verse 2

• F – Am/E – F7/E♭ – E♭ – E♭dim – Gm/D – Gm/F – E♭ – E♭/G – E♭ – F – B♭ – E♭/G – E♭/F – E♭ – F – E♭ – B♭
  V – vii⁶₄ – V⁴₂ – IV – iv° – vi⁶₄ – vi (bass F) – IV – IV⁶ – IV – V – I – IV⁶ – IV (bass F) – IV – V – IV – I

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 2.

Verse 3

• F – Am/E – Adim/C – E♭ – E♭dim – Gm/D – Gm/F – E♭ – F – B♭ – E♭ – F – E♭ – B♭
  V – vii⁶₄ – vii°⁶ – IV – iv° – vi⁶₄ – vi (bass F) – IV – V – I – IV – V – IV – I

Chorus 4

• Fm – Fm7 – G/D – E♭ – F – G – E♭ – B♭ – Gm – E♭
  v – v7 – VI⁶₄ – IV – V – VI – IV – I – vi – IV

Outro

• B♭ – E♭ – F – E♭ – B♭ – B♭/A♭ – B♭
  I – IV – V – IV – I – I (bass A♭) – I

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
F	V	In the key	Intro, Verse, Chorus, Outro
Am/E	vii⁶₄	Outside the key (chromatic)	Intro, Verse
Adim/E♭	vii°⁶₄	In the key	Intro
E♭	IV	In the key	Intro, Chorus, Verse, Outro
Adim7/C	vii°⁶₅	Borrowed from B♭ minor	Intro
Gm/D	vi⁶₄	In the key	Intro, Verse
F/C	V⁶₄	In the key	Intro
E♭/B♭	IV⁶₄	In the key	Intro
B♭	I	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Chorus, Verse, Outro
Fm	v	Borrowed from B♭ minor	Chorus
G7	VI7	Outside the key (chromatic)	Chorus
G	VI	Outside the key (chromatic)	Chorus
Fmaj7	Vmaj7	Outside the key (chromatic)	Verse
F7	V7	In the key	Verse
F♯dim	#v°	Outside the key (chromatic)	Verse
Gm	vi	In the key	Verse, Chorus
F/A	V⁶	In the key	Verse
Fm/E♭	v (bass E♭)	Borrowed from B♭ minor	Chorus
Ddim	iii°	Outside the key (chromatic)	Chorus
F7/E♭	V⁴₂	In the key	Verse
E♭dim	iv°	Outside the key (chromatic)	Verse
Gm/F	vi (bass F)	In the key	Verse
E♭/G	IV⁶	In the key	Verse
E♭/F	IV (bass F)	In the key	Verse
Adim/C	vii°⁶	In the key	Verse
Fm7	v7	Borrowed from B♭ minor	Chorus
G/D	VI⁶₄	Outside the key (chromatic)	Chorus
B♭/A♭	I (bass A♭)	Outside the key (chromatic)	Outro

Harmonic highlights

• Adim7/C (vii°⁶₅) is borrowed from the parallel key, B♭ minor.
• Fm (v) is borrowed from the parallel key, B♭ minor.
• Fm/E♭ (v (bass E♭)) is borrowed from the parallel key, B♭ minor.
• Fm7 (v7) 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).
• Cross-check: 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. Independently transcribed; it matches this page's chords closely (similarity 62%).
• Verified: two independent expert transcriptions agree on this song's harmony.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.