Tomorrow Never Knows by The Beatles

Overview

Key: C major · Chords used: 4 · Sections: 10

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse → Verse → Instrumental → Verse → Verse → Verse ×2 → 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

• C
  I

Verse 1

• B♭add9/C – C
  bVIIadd9 (bass C) – I

Verse 2

• C – B♭add9/C – C
  I – bVIIadd9 (bass C) – I

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 2.

Instrumental

• C – B/C♯
  I – VII (bass C♯)
• C – B♭/C (×3)
  I – bVII (bass C)
• C
  I

Verse 4

• C – B♭add9/C
  I – bVIIadd9 (bass C)

Verse 5

• C – B♭/C – C – B♭add9/C – C
  I – bVII (bass C) – I – bVIIadd9 (bass C) – I

Verse 6

Same chords as Verse 2.

Verse 7

Same chords as Verse 2.

Outro

• B♭add9/C – C (×3)
  bVIIadd9 (bass C) – I
• B♭add9/C
  bVIIadd9 (bass C)

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• B♭add9/C (bVIIadd9 (bass C)) is borrowed from the parallel key, C minor.
• B♭/C (bVII (bass C)) is borrowed from the parallel key, C 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.