Sweet Little Rock N' Roll by Chuck Berry

Overview

Key: G major · Chords used: 4 · Sections: 8

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

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). 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

• G7
  I7

Verse 1

• G7 – D7/A (×2)
  I7 – V⁴₃
• C7 – G7
  IV7 – I7

Verse 2

• G7 – C7 – G7 – D7 – C7 – G7
  I7 – IV7 – I7 – V7 – IV7 – I7

Chorus 1

• G7 – C7 – G7 – D7 – C7 – G7
  I7 – IV7 – I7 – V7 – IV7 – I7

Instrumental

• G7 – C7 – G7 – D7 – C7 – G7
  I7 – IV7 – I7 – V7 – IV7 – I7

Verse 3

• G7 – C7 (×2)
  I7 – IV7
• G7 – D7 – C7 – G7
  I7 – V7 – IV7 – I7

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 2.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Chord vocabulary

Sources & accuracy

• Chords and sections: the McGill Billboard Project (Burgoyne, Wild & Fujinaga, 2011). Expert transcription by trained musicians (song 0115, CC0), 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.