Tell Me Why by The Beatles

Overview

Key: D major · Chords used: 10 · Sections: 8

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

• Em – A (×4)
  ii – V

Chorus 1

• D – Bm – Em – A (×4)
  I – vi – ii – V

Verse 1

• D – Bm – Em – A (×2)
  I – vi – ii – V

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 3

• D – Bm – Em – A (×3)
  I – vi – ii – V
• D – D7
  I – I7

Bridge

• G – A – Bm – Em – A – D – Bm – Em
  IV – V – vi – ii – V – I – vi – ii

Chorus 4

• D – Bm – Em – A (×3)
  I – vi – ii – V
• Bm – B♭ – B♭7 – Asus4 – A11 – D
  vi – bVI – bVI7 – Vsus4 – V11 – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• B♭ (bVI) is borrowed from the parallel key, D 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).
• 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.