War Pigs by Black Sabbath

Overview

Key: A minor · Chords used: 12 · Sections: 23

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). 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

Part 1 (0:00)

• E5
  V5

Part 2 (0:03)

• E
  V

Part 3 (0:23)

• E – E5 – D5
  V – V5 – IV5

Part 4 (0:44)

• E5 – D5 – E5
  V5 – IV5 – V5

Part 5 (1:06)

Same chords as Part 1 (0:00).

Part 6 (1:28)

• E5 – F5
  V5 – bVI5

Part 7 (1:50)

• E5 – F5 (×3)
  V5 – bVI5
• E5 – Em7
  V5 – v7

Part 8 (2:11)

• Em7
  v7

Part 9 (2:32)

Same chords as Part 8 (2:11).

Part 10 (2:53)

• E5 – F5 – E5
  V5 – bVI5 – V5

Part 11 (3:15)

• E5 – F5 (×3)
  V5 – bVI5
• E5 – E
  V5 – V

Part 12 (3:36)

Same chords as Part 2 (0:03).

Part 13 (3:57)

Same chords as Part 2 (0:03).

Part 14 (4:18)

• E5 – D5 (×2)
  V5 – IV5
• E5
  V5

Part 15 (4:40)

Same chords as Part 1 (0:00).

Part 16 (5:01)

Same chords as Part 1 (0:00).

Part 17 (5:23)

• E5 – F5 (×4)
  V5 – bVI5
• E5
  V5

Part 18 (5:43)

• E7(no3) – E5 – D5 – E7(no3) – E5 – E7(no3) – D5 – E7(no3)
  V7(no3) – V5 – IV5 – V7(no3) – V5 – V7(no3) – IV5 – V7(no3)

Part 19 (6:05)

• E5 – E7(no3) – D7(no3) – C7(no3)
  V5 – V7(no3) – IV7(no3) – bIII7(no3)

Part 20 (6:26)

• B5 – C5 – B5
  II5 – bIII5 – II5
• Em – D (×2)
  v – IV
• Em
  v

Part 21 (6:48)

• D – Em – D
  IV – v – IV

Part 22 (7:09)

• Em – D (×2)
  v – IV
• Em
  v

Part 23 (7:31)

• D – Em – D – E7(no3)
  IV – v – IV – V7(no3)

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• B5 (II5) is borrowed from the parallel key, A major.
• D (IV) is borrowed from the parallel key, A major.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). Chord annotation of the original recording (Paranoid), time-stamped by researchers; CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo.
• Section names: this annotation doesn't name verses or choruses, so they aren't guessed. Instead, code used the chord timings to find the bars and cut the song into 8-bar parts. Each part is labelled with the time it starts in the annotated recording (Paranoid), and a part with exactly the same chords as an earlier one says so.
• The key was estimated by code from the chords; this annotation doesn't state it.
• 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.