Yesterday, by John Lennon
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Thought I would start off with the McCartney classic, Yesterday. It is hard to define a clear “verse” or “chorus” as both parts of the song have a very verse-like feel, with little repetition apart from the title or tagline, “Yesterday”. The most striking harmonic feature is the second chord of the song. Have a look at the following chart showing the jump from F to em…
Yesterday(1965)
![Yesterday](/content/Images/Beatles/4-Yesterday.jpg)
An immediate and unexpected leap from F to em. Of course the harmony then falls through the fifths as we would expect. This is in fact a common jump (chromatic descending), but unusual so early in a progression.
The descending fifth sequence is then used again in the next part of the song.
![Yesterday](/content/Images/Beatles/5-Yesterday.jpg)
Classic use of the descending fifths progression. This leads the ear to the root chord of F, giving a very satisfying sound when we get there. Notice that the end of this phrase ia a perfect cadence (C-F). This nicely finishes the chord progression. Earlier in the song (oh I believe in Yesterday) he used a plagal cadence (Bb-F) which has a harder edge.
Such simple chords, such a simple device, jumping up to the 7 chord, and falling back down through the fifths, such a sublime result.
For more Beatles song analysis and Beatles chords progressions follow this link