Yesterday by The Beatles

Overview

Key: F major · Chords used: 26 · Sections: 8

Form: Intro → Verse → Verse → Bridge → Verse → Bridge → Verse → 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

• F5
  I5

Verse 1

• F5 – Em – A7 – Dm – Dm/C – B♭maj7 – C7 – F – F/E – Dm – G – B♭ – F
  I5 – vii – III7 – vi – vi (bass C) – IVmaj7 – V7 – I – I (bass E) – vi – II – IV – I

Verse 2

• F – Asus4/E – A – Dm – Am/C – B♭ – C – B♭/F – F – Dm7 – G7 – B♭ – F
  I – IIIsus4 (bass E) – III – vi – iii⁶ – IV – V – IV⁶₄ – I – vi7 – II7 – IV – I

Bridge 1

• Em11 – A – Dm – Dm/C – B♭ – B♭/A – Gm – C – F (×2)
  vii11 – III – vi – vi (bass C) – IV – IV (bass A) – ii – V – I

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 2.

Bridge 2

• Em11 – A – Dm – Dm/C – B♭ – B♭/A – Gm – C – F – F7 – Em11 – A – Dm – Dm/C – B♭ – B♭/A – Gm – C – F
  vii11 – III – vi – vi (bass C) – IV – IV (bass A) – ii – V – I – I7 – vii11 – III – vi – vi (bass C) – IV – IV (bass A) – ii – V – I

Verse 4

• F – Em11 – A – Dm – Dm/C – B♭maj7 – C6 – B♭maj7/F – F – F/E – Dm – G – B♭ – F
  I – vii11 – III – vi – vi (bass C) – IVmaj7 – V6 – IVmaj⁴₃ – I – I (bass E) – vi – II – IV – I

Outro

• F/C – G/B – B♭ – F
  I⁶₄ – II⁶ – IV – I

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
F5	I5	Home chord (tonic)	Intro, Verse
Em	vii	Outside the key (chromatic)	Verse
A7	III7	Secondary dominant (V/vi)	Verse
Dm	vi	In the key	Verse, Bridge
Dm/C	vi (bass C)	In the key	Verse, Bridge
B♭maj7	IVmaj7	In the key	Verse
C7	V7	In the key	Verse
F	I	Home chord (tonic)	Verse, Bridge, Outro
F/E	I (bass E)	Home chord (tonic)	Verse
G	II	Outside the key (chromatic)	Verse
B♭	IV	In the key	Verse, Bridge, Outro
Asus4/E	IIIsus4 (bass E)	In the key	Verse
A	III	Secondary dominant (V/vi)	Verse, Bridge
Am/C	iii⁶	In the key	Verse
C	V	In the key	Verse, Bridge
B♭/F	IV⁶₄	In the key	Verse
Dm7	vi7	In the key	Verse
G7	II7	Outside the key (chromatic)	Verse
Em11	vii11	Outside the key (chromatic)	Bridge, Verse
B♭/A	IV (bass A)	In the key	Bridge
Gm	ii	In the key	Bridge
F7	I7	Outside the key (chromatic)	Bridge
C6	V6	In the key	Verse
B♭maj7/F	IVmaj⁴₃	In the key	Verse
F/C	I⁶₄	Home chord (tonic)	Outro
G/B	II⁶	Outside the key (chromatic)	Outro

Harmonic highlights

• A7 acts as V/vi: it resolves to Dm.
• A acts as V/vi: it resolves to Dm.

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).
• Cross-check: the Rock Corpus RS 200 (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011), analysis by Trevor de Clercq. Expert by-ear harmonic analysis of the original recording, shown on this page. Independently transcribed; it matches this page's chords closely (similarity 86%).
• Verified: two independent expert transcriptions agree on this song's harmony.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.