The Fool on the Hill by The Beatles

Overview

Key: D major · Chords used: 17 · Sections: 10

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

• D6
  I6

Verse 1

• D6 – G6/B – D – G6/B – Em – A – D6 – Bm7 – Em – A
  I6 – IV6 (bass B) – I – IV6 (bass B) – ii – V – I6 – vi7 – ii – V

Chorus 1

• Dm – Gm/D – Dm – B♭/D – C/G – C – Dm – Dm7 – D6
  i – iv⁶₄ – i – bVI⁶ – bVII⁶₄ – bVII – i – i7 – I6

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Solo 1

• D6 – D6/A (×2)
  I6 – I6 (bass A)
• G6/D – G6/A (×2)
  IV6 (bass D) – IV6 (bass A)
• D – D/A (×2)
  I – I⁶₄
• G6/D – G6/A (×2)
  IV6 (bass D) – IV6 (bass A)
• Em – A – D6 – Bm7 – Em – A
  ii – V – I6 – vi7 – ii – V

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Solo 2

• D6 – D6/A (×2)
  I6 – I6 (bass A)
• G6/D – G6/A (×2)
  IV6 (bass D) – IV6 (bass A)
• D – D/A (×2)
  I – I⁶₄
• G6/D – G6 – Em – A – D6 – Bm7 – Em – A
  IV6 (bass D) – IV6 – ii – V – I6 – vi7 – ii – V

Chorus 4

• Dm – Gm/D – Dm – B♭/D – C/G – C – Dm – Dm7
  i – iv⁶₄ – i – bVI⁶ – bVII⁶₄ – bVII – i – i7

Outro

• D6 – D6/A (×2)
  I6 – I6 (bass A)
• G6/D – G6/A (×2)
  IV6 (bass D) – IV6 (bass A)
• D – D/A (×2)
  I – I⁶₄
• G6/D – G6/A – G6/D
  IV6 (bass D) – IV6 (bass A) – IV6 (bass D)

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• Dm (i) is borrowed from the parallel key, D minor.
• Gm/D (iv⁶₄) is borrowed from the parallel key, D minor.
• B♭/D (bVI⁶) is borrowed from the parallel key, D minor.
• C/G (bVII⁶₄) is borrowed from the parallel key, D minor.
• C (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, D minor.
• Dm7 (i7) 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.