Chords + Lyrics | Get Lucky
Intro
||: Bm | D | F#m | E :||
Verse 1
||: Bm | D | F#m | E :||
Like the legend of the Phoenix, huh. All ends with beginnings.
What keeps the planet spinning, ah. The force from the beginning, hm, love.
Bridge 1
||: Bm | D | F#m | E :||
We’ve come too far, to give up who we are.
So let’s raise the bar and our cups to the stars.
Chorus 1
| Bm | D |
She’s up all night ’til the sun, I’m up all night to get some.
| F#m | E |
She’s up all night for good fun, I’m up all night to get lucky.
| Bm | D |
We’re up all night ’til the sun. We’re up all night to get some.
| F#m | E |
We’re up all night for good fun. We’re up all night to get lucky.
| Bm | D |
We’re up all night to get lucky. We’re up all night to get lucky.
| F#m | E |
We’re up all night to get lucky. We’re up all night to get lucky.
Instrumental
| Bm | D | F#m | E |
Verse 2
The present has no rhythm, your gift keeps on givin’.
What is this I’m feeling? If you wanna leave I’m with it, ah.
Bridge 2
We’ve come too far, to give up who we are.
So let’s raise the bar and our cups to the stars.
Chorus 2 (short)
| Bm | D |
She’s up all night ’til the sun, I’m up all night to get some.
| F#m | E |
She’s up all night for good fun, I’m up all night to get lucky.
Chorus 3 (breakdown)
| Bm | D |
We’re up all night ’til the sun, we’re up all night to get some.
| F#m | E |
We’re up all night for good fun, we’re up all night to get lucky.
| Bm | D |
We’re up all night to get lucky. We’re up all night to get lucky.
| F#m | E |
We’re up all night to get lucky. We’re up all night to get lucky.
Chorus 4 (breakdown 2)
||: Bm | D | F#m | E :||
||: We’re up all night to get… We’re up all night to get… :|| x4
||: We’re up all night to get lucky. We’re up all night to get lucky :|| x4
Bridge 3
We’ve come too far to give up who we are (we’re up all night to get lucky x4).
So let’s raise the bar and our cups to the stars (we’re up all night to get lucky x4).
Chorus 5
||: Bm | D | F#m | E :||
She’s up all night ’til the sun, I’m up all night to get some.
She’s up all night for good fun. I’m up all night to get lucky.
We’re up all night ’til the sun, we’re up all night to get some.
We’re up all night for good fun, we’re up all night to get lucky.
||: We’re up all night to get lucky. We’re up all night to get lucky. :|| x8
Outro
||: Bm | D | F#m | E :||
Get Lucky Backing Tracks | Chord Analysis
Above, you’ll find backing tracks to use when learning December, 1963 (Oh What A Night!). I’ve used stem separation to extract the guitar while keeping the drums, bass, keys, and vocals intact.
After studying the chords and TAB, use my backing tracks to prepare for playing this tune with a band.
Chord Progression – What’s Going On?
Get Lucky’s chords form a diatonic chord progression, meaning, all chords could be found in the key of A or F#m. Bm is II, D is IV, F#m is VI, and E is V, like this:
||: Bm (II) | D (IV) | F#m (VI) | E (V) :||
However, neither A nor F#m is the home, instead, Bm is home and since that’s chord II, Get Lucky is “in Dorian”, just like I Wish, Good Times, Scarborough Fair, and Mad World.
As the chord progression never stops looping the four chords Bm – D – F#m – E, the band can focus on playing well together and use dynamics in the arrangement, instead of remembering what chords to play.
I’ve made some TAB for Get Lucky which is an exercise in playing the chords all over the fretboard. Practice this to become free and able to improvise the way you play Get Lucky’s chords.
You’ll find the TAB further down this guitar lesson.
Below is a chord chart (same as in the backing tracks above), its main job is to display the structure of the tune, you remember the chords, right?
Get Lucky Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro Download
Should you want to download my chart, here’s a PDF: Get Lucky chord chart PDF.
This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: Get Lucky iReal Pro. Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key although I have never had to do this.
Get Lucky | TAB
Playing Nile Rodgers‘s guitar parts can quickly feel intimidating due to the variations he brings to his style. A good approach is to transcribe a few bars, repeat them, and then start making variations.
An even better strategy is to focus on what feels like the main rhythm, using the CAGED system and TAB to explore the entire fretboard. This way, you get a great exercise, ensure you’ll never get bored during the gig, and create a solid foundation to play like Nile rather than simply copying him.
In Get Lucky, we only have four chords, so let’s find the main rhythm and practice playing it on three strings all over the fretboard. Here’s the first and most obvious area.
You could play the entire tune here, starting with the Em shape. Here’s some TAB to show how this can be done:
A few important points to note here:
- The 8th notes are played like 16th notes. A small dot above the stem indicates this. We use this notation because it’s easier to read 8th notes.
- We’re looking for the closest possible shape.
- We play only on strings 4, 3, and 2.
- The rhythm remains identical throughout.
Next, we move on to the Gm shape as our starting point. Two shapes overlap with the previous example. Notice how the rhythm stays consistent.
That initial Gm shape may feel like a box-ticking exercise, but if you stick with it, you’ll soon appreciate this unique shape.
Now, let’s keep moving down the neck to find the Am shape, which looks like this:
All shapes are new here, but one has changed the chord—E has become an E5. This happens because:
- We’re sticking to using only strings 4, 3, and 2, and because it’s a D shape, there is no 3rd when playing these strings.
- We don’t want to move down to an open E chord, as open strings are not funky enough for this style.
Let’s move up the fretboard to start with the Dm shape.
Now, the Bm has become a B5, for the same reason E became an E5 earlier.
The E chord is the same as in the first example, although we now think of it as a G shape rather than an A shape. We also play it with a different finger—the index, not the ring finger.
Lastly, the Cm shape looks like this:
We’re perhaps a bit too high up here, especially with that final E chord.
Remember, this is an exercise designed to create a platform from which you can improvise a part when playing Get Lucky. Once you’ve mastered this, moving around the fretboard between the shapes becomes easy.
Your next step should be incorporating the top string, still playing no more than three strings in each part. You could also experiment with varying the rhythm.
Song of the Year in 2013
2013 was the year we all couldn’t stop dancing to Get Lucky by Daft Punk. The song went to #1 in over 20 countries!
It sold 6.5 million copies in the U.S. and the U.K. and got Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards.
Written by Daft Punk, Nile Rodgers, and Pharell Williams over 18 months, it wasn’t until everyone rerecorded their parts to fit around Nile’s guitar that it all fell into place.
Considering how popular this tune has remained, perhaps Get Lucky is not just the song of 2013, but the song of the decade!
Get Lucky Chords: Continue Learning
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