Grapthar's Song of the Day: The Beatles 'Glass Onion' + Chord Progression/Theory Analysis!

The Beatles - Glass Onion

I know I've shared a Beatles song

and a McCartney solo tune recently, but I just learned the guitar for this song today, and I figured it would be fun to go through it, because it's AWESOME. The Beatles aren't known specifically for being a "technical" sort of band, but their songwriting abilities and ear for interesting sounds is definitely legendary, and takes a serious level of skill, even if it's not "academically" trained.

Listen to Glass Onion by The Beatles here.

This song begins by moving between

Aminor and F7 two times, which gives us the feeling of being in Aminor. However, the F7 has an Eb in it, which is our tritone in A, so it has a super dark sort of sound. However, after the first 2x, we move from Aminor to Gminor, which is actually a key change, despite how smooth it feels. We are now essentially in F major, or F mixolydian because of the Eb in F7. We then go back and forth between Gminor and Cmajor, which really cements the new key. However, next we move between D7 and F7, which again sort of changes keys, and could be Aminor again, but the major 3rd in D7 again adds another layer of dissonance. Finally, we end on F7, and a staccato G, before the little chromatic G, to G#, then repeating the whole section.

Listen to Glass Onion by The Beatles here.

That is the majority of the song,

with the break being the main part with any major change. It drones on an Aminor, but the high E in the chord begins ascending chromatically, to F, then F#, then holds on a G, giving us an Aminor 7 feeling, before playing the same ending as the main progression, F7 to a staccato G, then back into the main progression.

I hope you've enjoyed this look into the chords and theory behind the song! Thanks for checking out my blog!

---

---

||| EP 1 - Bandcamp | EP 2 - Bandcamp | EP 3 - Bandcamp |||

||| EP 4 - Bandcamp | EP 5 - Bandcamp | EP 6- Bandcamp |||

---