Summertime Chords

Summertime with chords

The three parts are played in the same way.

We will therefore only look at introduction and verse 1.

Introduction of the jazz song

Before starting the song, you can play about two repetitive chords. You can start over the grid as many times as you want :

The grid is read from left to right, from top to bottom. Each square represents a measure of 4 beats (one, two, three, four, if you count the rhythm).

If a square is divided in two OR if two, three or four chords appear, you will know that you have to play them in a four beat measure. If you don’t succeed, watch my videos or listen to the music, as it is sung/played at this time and do the same.

Part 1 of Summertime

Here are the new chords you will need to know for part 1 (and the other).

There are a lot of them, so I advise you to learn them and play them a little before you start following the tab :

When you master those chords, you can look the next framework to play part 1 and, following the lyrics, the whole song :

Remember that the chords are written above the lyrics so that you can play them at the right time. Therefore, it’s better to play while singing. Chords that are to the right of a phrase (not above a word) are played between the two phrases.

Summertime video with tab

Play other jazz song or Gypsy Jazz Guitar Chords on Decibel Score like the song of Disney Everybody Wants to Be a Cat.

Summertime Jazz history

Summertime is a jazz standard written by George Gershwin in 1935. Composed as a lullaby, it quickly becomes a classic of the jazz scenes.

The music is played in jazz from the end of the 30’s by Sidney Bechet (1939) and then played by the greats like Chet Backer, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Bill Evans, Stan Getz or George Benson and sung by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone or Ray Charles.

The success turns Summertime into a universal song, sung in Rock by The Beatles or Janis Joplin, played in Gipsy Jazz by Django Reinhardt, Stéphane Grappelli or Biréli Lagrène and even in Bossa Nova by Caetano Veloso.

Summertime lyrics

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