Rick Beato makes a case that's been strangely absent from music theory discussions: Paul McCartney's songwriting secrets aren't about catchy hooks or simple pop structures — they're hiding in the chord progressions most musicians avoid. Drawing on his analysis of "Maybe I'm Amazed" and decades of ear training expertise, Beato unpacks why McCartney uses interval jumps that most professional singers can't replicate, and how those very difficulties became the signature of the Beatles' sound.
The Lydian Mystery
Most pop songs stick to familiar chord progressions. Paul McCartney didn't — and "Maybe I'm Amazed" proves it.
The song is in the key of F major. When you look at the opening melody, it uses an E natural — that's the sharp four, or what musicians call the Lydian mode. That interval alone separates this track from most pop songwriting.
Beato points out that the first chord is B-flat major 7, which functions as the four chord in F major. The melody immediately signals something unusual: using that Lydian note E creates a harmonic texture that most songwriters never attempt because it requires actual knowledge of theory — not just intuition.
The Half-Diminished Chord That Changes Everything
The real magic happens when McCartney resolves to the chorus.
Most songs in F major would simply move from B-flat to A minor. That's what Beato calls "boring" — a standard two-chord progression that does exactly what listeners expect. Instead, Paul uses something else: a half-diminished chord, specifically B minor 7 flat 5.
This is the analysis he walked through in real-time during his lecture:
"I don't know why that popped into my head. I just thought the way that it leads up to that is amazing. It's really the chord has so much anticipation to it."
The half-diminished chord creates tension and release that most pop songs simply don't attempt. Beato identifies this as a secondary dominant — specifically D9 resolving to the two chord, which then resolves to three, four, one. The progression uses entirely seventh chords: four major 7, three minor 7, then that unusual flat-five resolution.
The voice leading is what makes it work. There's a common tone A in the B minor 7 flat 5 chord — and when D resolves down to C while B resolves up, you get perfect voice leading. Two common tones of the F major chord remain stable while the melody shifts underneath.
The Bridge Section
The bridge confirms what makes McCartney different from most musicians writing in 1973.
It moves to G minor — that's the three chord in F major. But instead of playing a standard C chord, Paul uses C major with E in the bass (first inversion), which leads nicely up to F. Then he adds an A7 (the five of six) resolving to the four chord.
This is more common in jazz than pop — two, five, one, then five of six resolving to four, five, one. The bottom line stays exactly the same each time through. It's a bass player's thinking: anticipating where the harmony will go before the melody arrives.
Why These Jumps Matter
Beato notes that most people don't write melodies with these large interval jumps because they're hard to sing accurately.
The chorus contains a massive six-interval jump, plus a flat-seven-to-minor-seventh resolution. That's difficult for any singer — even professionals struggle with descending minor seventh intervals. But Paul does something else: he uses falsetto on high notes that sound like full voice, making these impossible runs seem effortless.
"Listen how easily he sings it though. No sweat."
The vocal tone is different here — darker than his earlier work on "Maybe I'm Amazed" from the Ram album. This isn't full-on singing; it's controlled and tonally varied in a way that most analysis misses entirely.
Critics might note that analyzing McCartney's technique through chord progressions risks reducing his genius to theory — missing what made millions of people hear these songs for the first time. But Beato's point isn't about abstract music theory: it's about how deliberately unusual choices create lasting impact. The very difficulty that makes these interval jumps hard to sing is exactly what makes them memorable.
Bottom Line
Beato's strongest insight is identifying why McCartney's songwriting bypasses typical pop formulas — those half-diminished chords and massive interval jumps aren't accidents, they're calculated choices that separate the Beatles from most groups. His vulnerability is practical: explaining this technical analysis to casual listeners misses the emotional truth of why the music works. The best part of his argument isn't the chord progressions he identifies — it's why Paul chose them in the first place.