Analyzing the Perfect Chords from 'We Are The Champions' by Queen

This video is a musical analysis of the chord progression in "We are the Champions" by Queen. We will see things like key changes/modulations, modal mixture, secondary dominants, and secondary leading tone chords. Lots of complex changes for a song that might seem basic on the surface.

The following topics are touched upon, and you can go further into any of these topics by watching the lessons I've taught on them:
Here are my previous videos on Perfect Progressions:

A few things to note, that did not make it into the video:
Many of you may "hear" or "feel" a i - bVII instead of a i - v for the intro like I pointed out. That's fine! There is no ONE way to interpret this chord, and often times, we have to choose a name based on our own experiences.
The second half of the verse is Eb - Ab/Eb. I forgot to talk about how nice and soft a I-IV can be when the bass note does not change- in this instance, Eb remains on the bass. It's about as soft and pleasing as two chords can get IMO.

This video is brough to you by my AMAZING Patreon supporters, especially the following fine folks:
Linas Orentas
Joe Buote
Nick White
Patrick Ryan
Christopher Swanson
John Arnold
Jon Reddish
Brandon Combs
Sebastian
Morgan M.
Lord of the Chords
Billyshes
Phillip Sharp
Don Watters
Bradley Bower
Marek Pawlowski
BuzzWasHere
Kip Ingram

Table of Contents:
00:00 Intro
00:29 The Intro Chords
06:21 The Chorus Chords
07:00 The Tone of the Chords
08:04 The Chorus Continued
11:48 Closing Out the Chorus
16:18 The Format of the Song
17:27 What I Learned From This Progression

[Outside]

I am a composer myself, writing music for a video game. I consider myself pretty well-versed when it comes to music, but this? Freddie was on a whole nother level.

[tcfween]

This is a great guitarist's interpretation of a song that was written on piano. This video kinda wanders up to the edge of an Adam Neely video. Another thing about the 'no time for losers' section. Since i was a kid I always thought that melody sounded like the sarcastic child's taunt "ner ner na ner ner'" (not sure if it was the quite the same in America but in England and Australia where I am it went just like that) which adds a layer of depth when you consider the lyrics. Great vid.

[xMTLKx]

Queen was so unique, I don't know any other band who made those kind of progression, this was THE sound of Queen

[MarkGarbettLlanigan]

with progressions like that they really were the champions

[_XRMissie]

This... This is exactly why I love music. There is so much power, feeling and just raw human emotion you can convey with just some wiggly air. It really does suck that all the music theory I know is self taught, but over time I slowly pick up powerful techniques and can apply them deliberately. I love it.


Also, I knew Queen's songs were harmonically diverse and complex just by listening to it with a "critical" mind, but this really hammers home the thought behind each note played and sang.

[VictorRodriguez-yglw]

I have no idea what he’s talking about but I couldn’t stop watching!

[firstname_lastname]

Hey, you’re the dude that I learned the 7 modes from

[benjaminfeddersen]

It's hard enough to even follow the train of thought, much less imagine sitting down at an instrument and coming up with this in the first place...and yet when presented in context, everything feels perfectly right. The Beatles were also great at this, you sit down to learn a song and get blown away by the complexity of something that seemed quite simple.

[colinbrash]

8:01 it’s the juxtaposition that is so powerful. Building from the misery into victory.

[chrisjamesr]

13:06 That example of the "lament bass" reminds me of "Dear Prudence" by the Beatles. Without looking it up, I bet that song uses those chords, if not in the same key.

[mimikal]

"Freddie Mercury sings triads"
Now that is next level

[mrelandi]

This made me go listen to the song with fresh ears. Noticed a few things:

1. Can we just appreciate Deacy’s playing (and at times lack of playing) in this song? Especially when it’s just him and Freddie/piano early in the chorus.

2. Didn’t realise til your video that the final chord of the song was that C7sus4. Leaves you waiting for that “...of the world” leading into the verse that just never comes. Seems like a highly unusual way to end a song, but works so damn well

Really awesome video bro

[georgepatterson]

Mind blowing how insightful this is. And more proof that Freddie Mercury was a genius.

[tagapiouplayz]

Have a look at don’t look back in anger by oasis. It’s in bread and butter c major but the modulations and chords are just perfect. Would be great to analyse.

[calm.aware.]

It seems that music that stands the test of time always has solid theory and tremendous amounts of skill in it - no matter what genre.

[ThatOtherRaccoon]

This is an amazing video. It's crazy how much modulating happened in Queen's music, yet was so fluidly connected. Great analysis Jake, I've learned things that I know I will use when I write music moving forward.

[martynspooner]

And here's me thinking I waa starting to understand theory only to realize I haven't even started. that just blew me away

[Josh_Fredman]

I love how you're not just on one instrument all the time. The different colors you get from your guitar / synth choices in various videos to me is the second most educational element of your teaching style (after your incredibly clear descriptions of chords, modes, and other aspects of theory). And I love these occasional times when you end up on an acoustic guitar. This video has a very "November" feel to it: nice and cozy.

[ellielovesbands]

02:33 when you played Eb and Ab for the first time, I got goosebumps just because the song is so good! the chromatic part at 05:50 made me just smile. Queen is my favorite band besides the Beatles. Long live Queen and their music :')

[pksdddw]

This chap is a very clever guy. He also gives you an idea of what a musical genius Freddie was.