You Can't Do That by The Beatles

Overview

Key: G major · Chords used: 11 · Sections: 9

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

• G – G7
  I – I7

Verse 1

• G7
  I7
• C7 – G7 – D7 (×2)
  IV7 – I7 – V7

Verse 2

• G7 – C7 – G7 – D7 – C7 – G7
  I7 – IV7 – I7 – V7 – IV7 – I7

Bridge 1

• B – Em – Am – Bm – G – B – Em – Am – Bm – D
  III – vi – ii – iii – I – III – vi – ii – iii – V

Verse 3

Same chords as Verse 1.

Solo

• G7 – C7 – G7 – D7 – C7 – G7
  I7 – IV7 – I7 – V7 – IV7 – I7

Bridge 2

Same chords as Bridge 1.

Verse 4

• G7 – C7 – G7 – D7 – C7 – G
  I7 – IV7 – I7 – V7 – IV7 – I

Outro

• F – F♯ – G
  bVII – VII – I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• F (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, G minor.
• B acts as V/vi: it resolves to Em.

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.