Yellow Submarine by The Beatles

Overview

Key: G major · Chords used: 5 · Sections: 8

Form: Verse → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Solo → Verse → Part

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

• C♯ – B – F♯ – D♯m – G♯m – C♯ – B (×2)
  #IV – III – VII – #v – #i – #IV – III

Verse 2

• C♯ – B – F♯ – D♯m – G♯m
  #IV – III – VII – #v – #i
• C♯ – B (×2)
  #IV – III
• F♯ – D♯m – G♯m – C♯
  VII – #v – #i – #IV

Chorus 1

• F♯ – C♯ (×2)
  VII – #IV
• F♯
  VII

Verse 3

• C♯ – B – F♯ – D♯m – G♯m
  #IV – III – VII – #v – #i
• C♯ – B (×2)
  #IV – III
• F♯ – C♯ – B
  VII – #IV – III

Chorus 2

Same chords as Chorus 1.

Solo

• C♯ – B – F♯ – D♯m – G♯m – C♯ – B (×2)
  #IV – III – VII – #v – #i – #IV – III

Verse 4

Same chords as Verse 2.

Part

• F♯ – C♯ (×4)
  VII – #IV

Chord vocabulary

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.