The Long and Winding Road by The Beatles

Overview

Key: E♭ major · Chords used: 13 · Sections: 7

Form: Verse → Verse → Bridge → Verse → Solo → 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.

Section by section

Verse 1

• Cm – A♭ – A♭add9/B♭ – E♭ – E♭7/D♭ – A♭ – Gm – Cm – Fm7 – B♭ – E♭7 – A♭ – Gm – Cm – Fm – B♭ – E♭
  vi – IV – IVadd9 (bass B♭) – I – I⁴₂ – IV – iii – vi – ii7 – V – I7 – IV – iii – vi – ii – V – I

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Bridge

• E♭/B♭ – A♭ – E♭/G – Fm – B♭ (×2)
  I⁶₄ – IV – I⁶ – ii – V

Verse 3

• Cm – A♭ – A♭add9/B♭ – E♭ – E♭7 – A♭ – Gm – Cm – Fm7 – B♭ – E♭7 – A♭ – Gm – Cm – Fm – B♭ – E♭
  vi – IV – IVadd9 (bass B♭) – I – I7 – IV – iii – vi – ii7 – V – I7 – IV – iii – vi – ii – V – I

Solo

• E♭/B♭ – A♭ – E♭/G – Fm – B♭ (×2)
  I⁶₄ – IV – I⁶ – ii – V

Verse 4

• Cm – A♭ – A♭add9/B♭ – E♭ – E♭7/D♭ – A♭ – Gm – Cm – Fm7 – B♭ – E♭7 – A♭ – Gm – Cm – Fm – B♭ – E♭ – A♭/E♭
  vi – IV – IVadd9 (bass B♭) – I – I⁴₂ – IV – iii – vi – ii7 – V – I7 – IV – iii – vi – ii – V – I – IV⁶₄

Outro

• A♭add9/B♭ – E♭
  IVadd9 (bass B♭) – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• E♭7/D♭ acts as V/IV: it resolves to A♭.
• E♭7 acts as V/IV: it resolves to A♭.

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.