Brick House Chords | The Commodores Guitar Lesson


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Brick House | Chords + Lyrics


Intro

||: Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 | Am7 D C :|| x4
Uh! Uh-hu-hu (whistles).

Chorus 1

||: Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 | Am7 D C :||
Ow, she’s a brick house. She’s mighty-mighty, just lettin’ it all hang out.
She’s a brick house. That lady’s stacked and that’s a fact, ain’t holding nothing back.
Ow, she’s a brick house. Well put together, everybody knows, this is how the story goes.

Verse 1

||: Am Am7 Am Am7 :||
She knows she got everything. That a woman needs to get a man, yeah, yeah.
How can she lose with the stuff she use. Thirty-six, twenty-four, thirty-six oh what a winning hand.

Chorus 2

||: Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 | Am7 D C :||
‘Cause she’s a brick house. She’s mighty-mighty, just lettin’ it all hang out.
She’s a brick house. Ow, that lady stacked and that’s a fact, ain’t holding nothing back.
Ow, she’s a brick house. Yeah, she’s the one, the only one, built like an amazon.

Verse 2

||: Am Am7 Am Am7 :||
The clothes she wears, her sexy ways. Make a old man wish for younger days, yeah, yeah.
She knows she’s built and knows how to please. Sure enough to knock a strong man to his knees.

Chorus 3

||: Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 | Am7 D C :||
‘Cause she’s a brick house. Yeah, she’s mighty mighty, just lettin’ it all hang out.
Hey, brick house. That lady’s stacked and that’s a fact, ain’t holding nothing back. Yeah aw.

Breakdown 1

||: Am N.C :||
Shake it down, shake it down now, shake it down, shake it down now.
Shake it down, shake it down now, shake it down, shake it down, down, down.
Shake it down, shake it down now, shake it down, shake it down now.
Shake it down, shake it down now, shake it down, shake it aww!

Chorus 4

||: Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 | Am7 D C :||
Brick house. Yeah, she’s mighty mighty, just lettin’ it all hang out.
Aww brick house. Yeah, she’s the one, the only one, built like an amazon, yeah.

Breakdown 2

||: Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 | Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 | Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 | Am7 D C :||
Shake it down, shake it down, shake it down now, shake it down, shake it down, shake it down now
Shake it down, shake it down, shake it down now, shake it down, shake it down, shake it, shake it
Shake it down, shake it down, shake it down now, shake it down, shake it down, shake it down now
Shake it down, shake it down, shake it down now, shake it down, shake it down, shake it!

Outro

| Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 | Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 | Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 | Am7 N.C |

||: Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 | Am7 D C :||
Ow, a brick house.



Brick House Chords: Learn the progressions


The chorus progression for Brick House is often written as Am7 – Gmaj7 – G#m7b5, but the last two chords are essentially the same, with only the bass note shifting up a semitone from G to G#. This leads into Am7 – D – C.

If we view the G#m7b5 as part of a chromatic bass movement rather than a separate chord, the entire progression stays within the A Dorian mode.

The verse is even simpler—just Am – Am7. In funk and R&B, a static min7 chord often indicates a Dorian tonality, as it adds groove and harmonic flexibility.

For improvisation, Brick House provides an excellent loop to “blow over,” as sax players would say, making it a great practice track for exploring the A Dorian scale.



Brick House is one of the 30 best Funk tunes ever!

Released in 1977 as a single from their self-titled fifth studio album, Brick House became one of The Commodores’ signature hits.

By this time, Motown had fully relocated to Los Angeles, having left Detroit behind five years earlier. The song itself was born out of an unplanned break in the studio due to equipment failure. During this downtime, the band’s bass player came up with the initial idea, and guitarist William King later played the demo for his wife, Shirley Hanna-King, who wrote the lyrics—modifying the phrase “built like a brick shithouse.”

Drummer Clyde Orange took on lead vocals for the track, while Lionel Richie’s involvement in its creation remains unclear.

Reaching the top five in both the U.S. and the U.K., Brick House cemented its place in funk history. Billboard later ranked it among the 30 best funk songs of all time.



Brick House Chords | Related Pages


Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics

When you can play Brick House' chords, try these five tunes from the song book.

Lionel Richie tunes

Lionel Richie's band Commodores wrote Brick House.

Starting out with Commodores, Lionel Richie had several worldwide smash-hits in Easy, Brick House, and Three Times A Lady.

As a solo artist, he released Hello, All Night Long, and Dancing On The Ceiling, firmly establishing himself as one of the all-time greats.


Lionel Richie on the web

Listen to Lionel Richie on Spotify.


About me | Dan Lundholm

Dan Lundholm wrote this guitar lesson on Brick House chords.

This was a guitar lesson about Brick House 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 by practising scales or studying theory in isolation.


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