Blue Moon | Chords + Lyrics (Billie Holiday)
Verse 1
| Abmaj7 Fm7 | Bbm7 Eb7 | Abmaj7 Fm7 |
Blue moon, you saw me standing alone.
| Bbm7 Eb7 | Gb7b5 F7 | E7b9 Eb7 | Ab6 Fm7 | Bbm7 Eb7 |
Without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own.
Verse 2
| Abmaj7 Fm7 | Bbm7 Eb7 | Abmaj7 Fm7 |
Blue moon, you knew just what I was there for.
| Bbm7 Eb7 | Gb7b5 F7 | Bbm7 Eb11 | Ab6 Gb7 | Ab6 Adim7 |
You heard me saying a prayer for, someone I really could care for.
Bridge 1
| Bbm7 Eb7 | Ab6 F7 |
And then they suddenly appeared before me.
| Bbm7 Eb11 | Ab6 D7b9 |
The only one my arms will ever hold.
| Dbm7 Gb7 | Bmaj7 |
I heard somebody whisper “Please adore me”.
| Ebmaj7 Bb13 | Eb#5 Eb7 |
And when I looked the moon had turned to gold.
Verse 3 (as verse 1)
Blue moon, now I’m no longer alone.
Without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own.
Solo 1 (Sax)
| Abmaj7 Fm7 | Bbm7 Eb7 | Abmaj7 Fm7 |
| Bbm7 Eb7 | Gb7b5 F7 | E7b9 Eb7 | Ab6 Fm7 | Bbm7 Eb7 |
Solo 2 (Sax)
| Abmaj7 Fm7 | Bbm7 Eb7 | Abmaj7 Fm7 |
| Bbm7 Eb7 | Gb7b5 F7 | Bbm7 Eb11 | Ab6 Gb7 | Ab6 Adim7 |
Solo 3 (Trumpet)
| Bbm7 Eb7 | Ab6 F7 |
| Bbm7 Eb11 | Ab6 D7b9 |
| Dbm7 Gb7 | Bmaj7 |
| Ebmaj7 Bb13 | Eb#5 Eb7 |
Solo 4 (Sax)
| Abmaj7 Fm7 | Bbm7 Eb7 | Abmaj7 Fm7 |
| Bbm7 Eb7 | Gb7b5 F7 | E7b9 Eb7 | Ab6 Fm7 | Bbm7 Eb7 |
Verse 4 (as verse 1)
Blue moon, you saw me standing alone.
Without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own.
Verse 5 (as verse 2)
Blue moon, you knew just what I was there for.
You heard me saying a prayer for, someone I really could care for.
Bridge 2
And then they suddenly appeared before me.
The only one my arms will ever hold.
I heard somebody whisper “Please adore me”.
And when I looked the moon had turned to gold.
Outro
| Abmaj7 Fm7 | Bbm7 Eb7 | Abmaj7 Fm7 |
Blue moon, now I’m no longer alone.
| Bbm7 Eb7 | Gb7b5 F7 | E7b9 Eb7 | Ab6 Fm7 | Bbm7 Eb7 | Ab6 |
Without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own. Blue moon.
Blue Moon | Chords + Lyrics (key of Eb)
Verse 1
| Ebmaj7 Cm7 | Fm7 Bb7 | Ebmaj7 Cm7 |
Blue moon, you saw me standing alone.
| Fm7 Bb7 | Ebmaj7 Cm7 | Fm7 Fm7/Bb | Eb Ab/E | Eb Bb7 |
Without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own.
Verse 2
| Ebmaj7 Cm7 | Fm7 Bb7 | Ebmaj7 Cm7 |
Blue moon, you knew just what I was there for.
| Fm7 Bb7 | Ebmaj7 Cm7 | Fm7 Fm7/Bb | Eb Ab/E | Eb Cm7 |
You heard me saying a prayer for, someone I really could care for.
Bridge 1
| Fm7 Bb7 | Eb |
And then they suddenly appeared before me.
| Fm7 Bb7 | Eb |
The only one my arms will ever hold.
| Abm7 Db7 | Gbmaj7 |
I heard somebody whisper “Please adore me”.
| Bb/F F7 | Fm7/Bb Bb7 |
And when I looked the moon had turned to gold.
Verse 3 (as verse 1)
Blue moon, now I’m no longer alone.
Without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own.
Solo
| Ebmaj7 Cm7 | Fm7 Bb7 | Ebmaj7 Cm7 |
| Fm7 Bb7 | Ebmaj7 Cm7 | Fm7 Fm7/Bb | Eb Ab/E | Eb Bb7 |
| Ebmaj7 Cm7 | Fm7 Bb7 | Ebmaj7 Cm7 |
| Fm7 Bb7 | Ebmaj7 Cm7 | Fm7 Fm7/Bb | Eb Ab/E | Eb Cm7 |
| Fm7 Bb7 | Eb | Fm7 Bb7 | Eb |
| Abm7 Db7 | Gbmaj7 | Bb/F F7 | Fm7/Bb Bb7 |
| Ebmaj7 Cm7 | Fm7 Bb7 | Ebmaj7 Cm7 |
| Bb7 Bb7/Ab | G7sus4 C7b9 | Fm7 Fm7/Bb | Eb Ab/E | Eb Fm7 Bb7 |
Verse 4 (as verse 1)
Blue moon, you saw me standing alone.
Without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own.
Verse 5 (as verse 2)
Blue moon, you knew just what I was there for.
You heard me saying a prayer for, someone I really could care for.
Bridge 2
And then they suddenly appeared before me.
The only one my arms will ever hold.
I heard somebody whisper “Please adore me”.
And when I looked the moon had turned to gold.
Outro
| Ebmaj7 Cm7 | Fm7 Bb7 | Ebmaj7 Cm7 |
Blue moon, now I’m no longer alone.
| Bb7 Bb7/Ab | G7sus4 C7b9 | Fm7 Fm7/Bb | Eb Ab/E | Eb Fm7 Bb7 | Eb6 |
Without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own. Blue moon.
Blue Moon | Chords + Lyrics (Key of C)
Verse 1
| Cmaj7 Am7 | Dm7 G7 | Cmaj7 Am7 |
Blue moon, you saw me standing alone.
| Dm7 G7 | Cmaj7 Am7 | Dm7 G7 | Cmaj7 Am7 | Dm7 G7 |
Without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own.
Verse 2
| Cmaj7 Am7 | Dm7 G7 | Cmaj7 Am7 |
Blue moon, you knew just what I was there for.
| Dm7 G7 | Cmaj7 Am7 | Dm7 G7 | Cmaj7 Fmaj7 | Cmaj7 C#dim7 |
You heard me saying a prayer for, someone I really could care for.
Bridge 1
| Dm7 G7 | Cmaj7 Am7 |
And then they suddenly appeared before me.
| Dm7 G7 | C6 |
The only one my arms will ever hold.
| Fm7 Bb | Eb Cm7 |
I heard somebody whisper “Please adore me”.
| G/D D7 | G G7 |
And when I looked the moon had turned to gold.
Verse 3 (as verse 1)
Blue moon, now I’m no longer alone.
Without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own.
Verse 4 (as verse 1)
Blue moon, you saw me standing alone.
Without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own.
Verse 5 (as verse 2)
Blue moon, you knew just what I was there for.
You heard me saying a prayer for, someone I really could care for.
Bridge 2
And then they suddenly appeared before me.
The only one my arms will ever hold.
I heard somebody whisper “Please adore me”.
And when I looked the moon had turned to gold.
Outro
| Cmaj7 Am7 | Dm7 G7 | Cmaj7 Am7 |
Blue moon, now I’m no longer alone.
| Dm7 G7 | Cmaj7 Am7 | Dm7 G7 | Cmaj7 Am7 | Dm7 G7 | C6 |
Without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own. Blue moon.
Blue Moon Chords: Learn the progressions
Being a jazz standard, it’s difficult to say what the original key of Blue Moon is, so many singers and instrumentalists have recorded the song!
Luckily, to get better at playing in this style, you need to play these songs in several keys anyway, as well as experiment with extending and manipulating the chords.
With that in mind, I have above shown you three different ways you could play Blue Moon. In the keys of Ab (Billie Holiday), Eb (Real Book), as well as a simplified version in C.
To get somewhere with this, you should think of Blue Moon’s chord progression as Roman Numerals. That way, you can play the chords for Blue Moon in any key.
Let’s take a verse in the key of C as an example:
||: Cmaj7 (I) Am7 (VI) | Dm7 (II) G7 (V) :||
Before you start playing in all keys, the melody, develop the melody and improvise, make sure you can play these four chords using the closest possible shape.
I’ve designed some TAB detailing exactly how, here’s a link to that part of the lesson: Blue Moon – Guitar Lesson with TAB.
When you can play in the key of C, you should take Blue Moon’s basic chords through all keys. The chords are the foundation for your arpeggios and modes so if you can’t play them, you’ll only do damage by moving on.
Playing all chords in several areas and all keys paired with “thinking in Roman Numerals” is essential when soloing in jazz as each number comes with a major mode, a minor mode and an arpeggio.
For the chords above that’s:
- Cmaj7 – (Ionian & maj7 arpeggio)
- Am7 – (Aeolian & min7 arpeggio)
- Dm7 – (Dorian & min7 arpeggio)
- G7 – (Mixolydian dom7 arpeggio)
Jazz goes way, way beyond this as you can substitute and superimpose. But what you need to do is to first be able to phrase using what I just described above in all five areas using the CAGED system, in all 12 keys.
Most guitar players make the mistake of moving on too soon before they’ve completed the basics.
Here are the bridge chords for Blue Moon:
| Dm7 (II) G7 (V) | Cmaj7 (I) Am7 (VI) |
| Dm7 (II) G7 (V) | C6 (I) |
Not much to worry about here, just make sure you can actually do it in all areas and 12 keys! Next, we change the key to Eb, like this:
| Fm (II) Bb (V) | Eb (I) Cm7 (VI) |
As you can see, it’s simple, just the II – V – I – VI. But it’s in a new key, this is why as long as you did play in all five areas and all twelve keys earlier, this change would have been easy.
The final two bars go from D7 to G7, setting us up to go back to the verse and key of C again, like this:
| G/D D7 | G G7 |
Jazz catches you out immediately if you haven’t done your homework. That homework must start with playing the chords of Blue Moon using the concept of the closest possible shape.
When you can do this, a chord chart is all you need for comping, and soloing! Here’s one I made for you.
Blue Moon Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Blue Moon Chord Chart PDF.
This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: Blue Moon iReal Pro. Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key.
Blue Moon background and legacy
Blue Moon was written in 1939 by the Broadway songwriting team Rodgers & Hart.
As one of their more well-known songs, it has grown into a jazz standard so common that seemingly every jazz singer made their own version.
Most famously sung by Billie Holiday (1952), Ella Fitzgerald (1956), Frank Sinatra (1961), and Dean Martin (1964).
In a doo-wop style, The Marcels had a #1 hit with it in 1961. Elvis‘s much slower version was released 6 years earlier in 1956 and made the top 10.
For Cream’s hit, Sunshine Of Your Love (1967), Clapton can be heard referencing the melody at the beginning of his solo.
But Blue Moon’s legacy didn’t end in the ‘60s, as the years go by, it keeps getting recorded. As late as 2018, Willie Nelson released his version. Even acoustic guitar maestro Tommy Emmanuel often plays his instrumental arrangement at gigs.
To start learning to play Blue Moon yourself, study the chords and lyrics, and since it’s a jazz standard, do it in three keys or more!
Blue Moon Chords | Related Pages
Blue Moon | Guitar Lesson + TAB
With this guitar lesson, you can learn to play Blue Moon by Billie Holiday using TAB and chord analysis.
| Abmaj7 Fm7 | Bbm7 Eb7 | Abmaj7 Fm7 |
Blue moon, you saw me standing alone…
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
Billie Holiday tunes
As the first female jazz singer to record in the ’30s, Billie Holiday is up there with the greats who defined the genre of Jazz.
Her hits include Summertime, Blue Moon, Solitude, Pennies From Heaven, and the controversial Strange Fruit.
Billie Holiday on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about Blue Moon chords, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.
