What Goes On by The Beatles

Overview

Key: E major · Chords used: 7 · Sections: 9

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

• B – E (×2)
  V – I

Chorus 1

• E – A (×2)
  I – IV
• Bsus4 – B – E
  Vsus4 – V – I

Verse 1

• E – Am (×2)
  I – iv
• B – E – B
  V – I – V

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Verse 2

Same chords as Verse 1.

Solo

• E – A (×2)
  I – IV
• B – B7 – E
  V – V7 – I

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Chorus 3

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Outro

• E7 – E
  I7 – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• Am (iv) is borrowed from the parallel key, E 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.