The Beatles – Maxwells Silver Hammer – Verse 5
Maxwells Silver Hammer < All Analyses
Chord Progression
[‘D’, ‘B7’, ‘Em’, ‘A7’, ‘D’, ‘A’]
Chord Progression Analysis
Here’s the analysis for the chord progression you provided:
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D (I), B7 (VI7), Em (ii), A7 (V7), D (I), A (IV)
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These roman numerals are all based on the D Major scale.
Similar Chord Progressions
The Beatles themselves have similar chord progressions in songs like “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You”. The ii-V-I progression is also a staple of jazz music, so you’ll find it in countless songs in that genre, like Miles Davis’s “So What” and John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps”.
Here are the progressions in those songs:
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“I Want to Hold Your Hand”: G (I), Em (vi), Bm (iii), D (V)
“She Loves You”: E (I), B7 (V7), G#m (vi), C#m (iii)
“So What”: Dm7 (ii), G7 (V7), CMaj7 (I), Fm7 (ii), Bb7 (V7), EbMaj7 (I)
“Giant Steps”: BMaj7 (I), D7 (V/ii), GMaj7 (II), Bb7 (V/IV), EbMaj7 (IV)
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Please remember that these progressions are in a simplified form. You would have to adjust each song to key of D to match the progression in “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”.
Musical Analysis
The D serves as the tonic of the key. The B7 acts as a secondary dominant, resolving into the Em, which itself then resolves into the A7, another dominant chord. The A7 resolves into the D, completing a ii-V-I progression. The A at the end serves as the main dominant, leading back into the D tonic.
Overall Analysis
“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” by The Beatles features a popular song structure and a mix of common chord progression techniques. The distinct progressions within the verse repeat throughout the song, but the chords and structures themselves are fairly common within rock and pop music. It mixes the standard I-IV-V (in this case, D-A-G) progression with the ii-V-I progression (in this case, Em-A-D), both of which are staples of songwriting in a variety of genres.
Style Analysis
The Beatles often used secondary dominants and ii-V-I progressions in their songwriting, and you can see that here. The B7-Em-A7-D progression appears in many of their songs, and is a fairly common progression in general in pop music. The use of both a secondary dominant (B7) and a dominant seventh chord (A7) give the song its characteristic ‘bouncing’ feel.
What are the chords in: The Beatles – Maxwells Silver Hammer – Verse 5?
[‘D’, ‘B7’, ‘Em’, ‘A7’, ‘D’, ‘A’]
