Chords for Night Life Intro

[Larry Strawn]

I've been playing this wrong for a lot of years, thought I'd learn to play it right.

Will some one please post the chords for the intro for me?

Thanks
Larry

[John Roche]

Code: Select all

Instrumental Intro
    D   Bm   Emaj7   A A7  D

    D                         Bm
1.  When the evenin' sun goes down

    G                         F
    You will find me hangin' 'round

    D              Bm    Emaj7   A    A7
    The night life ain't no good life

             D        Bm    Emaj7  A7
    But it's my life! 


2.  Many people just like me,
    Dreamin' of old used-to-be.
    The night life ain't no good life,
    But it's my life!

Bridge:

    D                            D7     
    Listen to the blues, they're playin'
          
    
    G7                 A7        D7      Emaj7  A  A7
    Listen to what the blues are sayin'
          
    

3.  Mine is just another scene,
    From the world of broken dreams.
    The night life ain't no good life,
    But it's my life!

Instrumental break

Repeat 3.

Tag:
            D     Bm            Emaj7     A7
    Oh, the night life ain't no good life,
            A7            D     G A7 D                 
    But its my ---------- life!
 
                               ____

[Larry Strawn]

John,

Thanks for the response, but I'm having trouble here.

The progression you posted is what I'm playing except in the key of G.

G/Em/AM7/D/D7/G, but it has never sounded right.

Hmmmm back to the woodshed!

Larry

[Michael Douchette]

In numbers, the intro is 1 3b 5#maj7 5

So, in G, it's G Bb Ebmaj7 D7...

That up 'er on 'em lyrics just ain't right!

[Donny Hinson]

Buddy's original tab (from 1969) gives intro chords (in the key of "D") as follows...

Dmaj7 - F9 - Bbmaj7 - Ebaug11 - Dmaj7

[Michael Douchette]

Oh... so it's a 1# aug 11 sub for a 5... cool...

[Bo Borland]

I play 1 b313 5#maj7 1#aug11 (or 1# b9b5)
A C13 Fmaj7 Eaug11 B in the bass
it's a old blues turn around I used to use for the tune "Sunny"

[Larry Strawn]

But I haven't given up guys, thanks for the help!

I'll be checkin back!

Larry

[Greg Cutshaw]

I have it tabbed out here. The first chord can be an F#m7 or just a D major.

Night Life, 8th tab down

Greg

[Larry Strawn]

Dang Greg,
I must be having computer problems to, I can't get your link to work.

Larry

[Greg Cutshaw]

Larry,

I just tried the link in Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox and both work ok here!

Greg

[Larry Strawn]

Greg,

I finally got your link open.

And found it's tabbed in C6th like it's supposed to be.

Since I've got a single E9 I quess it's back to the woodshed!

Thanks for the try

Larry

[Michael Douchette]

Larry... try this... I don't get tab, but... if it's gotta be in G...

Go from 10th fret, 5,6,8,10 with AB...
to fret 13,14,15 coming off AB and drop the 8 string...
pick sixth string, engaging B and head back to 13th fret with AB, let the 8 string come back up, 5,6,8,10...
come off A to play strings 6 then 5, and grab 9,7,6,5, still at 13th fret...
then go back to 10th fret, no pedals, 9,6,4...

That should give you a good enough E9 approximation...

[John Steele]

For heaven's sake.....


Donny's chords from Buddy are correct.
This intro/turnaround first appeared written by Tad Dameron for his tune "Ladybird". All the jazz guys know it as the "Ladybird intro". It also appears in the piano intro to Charlie Parker's "Parker's Mood".

On E9, this is about as close as you're going to get to Buddy's original chords:
[tab]
DM7 F9 BbM7 Eb7#11 DM9
1—0~0R-------------|-----------|-----------|------|-0---
2------------------|-----------|--------4--|----4-|-----
3-------0B---------|-----------|-----------|------|-----
4-------0----------|-6L--------|-----------|-4R---|-0---
5-----------5A~6A--|--------8--|--8A—4A----|------|-0A--
6------------------|-6B—-8B----|--8B-------|-4B---|-0B--
7-------0----------|-----------|-----------|------|-0---
8------------------|-----------|-----------|------|-0---
9------------------|-----------|--8--------|------|-0---
10-----------------|-6---------|-----------|-4----|-----
[/tab]

-John

[Greg Cutshaw]

If you have the knee lever that drops the 9th string 1/2 tone you can get pretty much all the C6th intro notes inlcuding the Aug11.

4th Tab Up From Bottom = E9th Nice Chord Sequence

Listen to the last 4 chords I have tabbed out. You can sub a maj7th chord for the 3rd one and that is also available on E9th. In fact, if your willing to move the bar a lot, all of these notes can be played without lowering the 9th string but the execution and overall sound suffers a lot.

Greg

[John Steele]

I give up.

-John

[Larry Strawn]

All right guys, it's coming together for me now thanks to all the help ya'll have given me.

It's a pain in the butt to be so harded headed and dense as I am sometimes!

Thanks every one.

Larry

[b0b]

What is an aug11 chord? What are the notes, and which of them are actually played in this intro?

[Jody Cameron]

b0b, the aug. 11th is made up of the same notes as the flat 5 (dominant), but voiced so that the flat 5 is on top.

jc

[Earnest Bovine]

Aug 11 chord would contain 1 3 b7 9 +11. The 5th is omitted.
Buddy Emmons played a nice +11 as the 4th chord in the intro to Night Life. In the key of D, it is Eb+11, a nice substitute for the normal dominant 7th (A7 or A7+5).
A
F
Db
G
Eb

[John Steele]

The beauty of the intro lies in the fact that the note on top stays the same through all the chord changes. In the key of D, that note is A. That's why the fourth chord in the progression is Eb7#11: Because that #11 note (in an Eb chord) is A.
It's the same chord used in the third bar of "Take the A Train".... and in the third bar of "Desifinado"... or the thirteenth bar of "Laura"... or the twelfth bar of "A Night In Tunisia.... I could go on.
Alot of people seem to think it's some exotic chord, but it's built into alot of standard melodies.

b0b, I'm smiling as I read your query, because we've talked about this chord before. I remember asking you, when you were called on to play "Happy Birthday" at a gig, what chord did you play over the first syllable of the person's name ?

-John

p.s. Before someone tells me their chart of "A Train" notates a b5, they're the same thing... as scale theory evolved, it was discovered that the bebopper's favourite "b5" was actually #11.

[b0b]

If you're jamming and the progression goes to an aug11 chord, does the whole tone scale work there?

[John Steele]

Yes. Although the most common choice would be the lydian mode of the melodic minor (for dominant #11 chords).
-John

[P Gleespen]

lydian mode of the melodic minor

In the key of C, that'd be C D E F# G A Bb, right?

In my schoolin' days, we used to call that "Lydian flat 7" (although it'd probably be better to call it something more like "Dominant #4"...), which is also called the lydian dominant scale.

The reason I'm asking/mentioning it is since there's also a melodic minor mode called "lydian augmented", things can be a little confusing.

In fact, I suspect that the use of the term "augmented" in the chord name Ebaug11 is leading to a little confusion. I know that when I see the word augmented, my knee jerk reaction is to think #5.

Isn't a little more clear to call it Eb7#11? Or is there a difference there that I'm not aware of?

[Rick Schmidt]

as scale theory evolved, it was discovered that the bebopper's favourite "b5" was actually #11.

Hi John....as hard as I try to change old habits, I still find myself saying "Flat 5 Cat's Man...Beautiful" in my best beatnick accent whenever I'm feeling a little altered.