Yellow by Coldplay

Overview

Key: B major · Chords used: 10 · Sections: 12

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)

• B – Bsus4 (×3)
  I – Isus4
• F♯ – F♯sus2
  V – Vsus2

Part 2 (0:22)

• E6 – E – B – Bsus4 – B – F♯6
  IV6 – IV – I – Isus4 – I – V6

Part 3 (0:44)

• Emaj7 – B – F♯6 – Emaj7
  IVmaj7 – I – V6 – IVmaj7

Part 4 (1:06)

• B – F♯6 – Emaj7 – B – Bsus4 – B
  I – V6 – IVmaj7 – I – Isus4 – I

Part 5 (1:28)

• E – G♯m – F♯ (×3)
  IV – vi – V
• E
  IV

Part 6 (1:50)

• B – Bsus4 – F♯ – F♯sus2 – E6 – E – B – Bsus4
  I – Isus4 – V – Vsus2 – IV6 – IV – I – Isus4

Part 7 (2:13)

• B – F♯6 – Emaj7 – B
  I – V6 – IVmaj7 – I

Part 8 (2:35)

• F♯6 – Emaj7 – B – Bsus4 – B – E – G♯m – F♯
  V6 – IVmaj7 – I – Isus4 – I – IV – vi – V

Part 9 (2:57)

• E – G♯m – F♯ (×2)
  IV – vi – V
• E – B – Bsus4
  IV – I – Isus4

Part 10 (3:19)

• F♯ – F♯sus2 – E6 – E
  V – Vsus2 – IV6 – IV
• B – Bsus4 (×2)
  I – Isus4

Part 11 (3:41)

• F♯ – F♯sus2 – E6 – E – B – Bsus4 – F♯ – F♯sus2
  V – Vsus2 – IV6 – IV – I – Isus4 – V – Vsus2

Part 12 (4:03)

• E6 – E – B – F♯madd11 – Emaj7
  IV6 – IV – I – vadd11 – IVmaj7

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• F♯madd11 (vadd11) is borrowed from the parallel key, B minor.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). Chord annotation of the original recording (Parachutes), 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 (Parachutes), 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.