Call It Stormy Monday | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
| Ab9 (Cm7b5) G9 (Bm7b5) | Ab9 (Cm7b5) G9 (Bm7b5) |
Verse 1
| G9 | C9 | G9 | G9 |
They call it stormy Monday, but Tuesday’s just as bad.
| C9 | C9 | G9 | G9 |
They call it stormy Monday, but Tuesday’s just as bad.
| D9 | C9 | G9 | G9 |
Wednesday’s worse, and Thursday’s also sad.
Verse 2
| G9 | C9 | G9 | G9 |
Yes, the eagle flies on Friday, and Saturday I go out to play.
| C9 | C9 | G9 | G9 |
Eagle flies on Friday, and Saturday I go out to play.
| D9 | C9 | G9 | G9 |
Sunday I go to church, then I kneel down and pray.
Solo
| G9 | C9 | G9 | G9 |
| C9 | C9 | G9 | G9 |
| D9 | C9 | G9 | G9 |
Verse 3
| G9 C#9 | C9 | G9 | G9 |
Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy on me.
| C9 | C9 | G9 | G9 |
Lord have mercy, my heart’s in misery.
| D9 | C9 | G9 C9 | G9 Ab9 G9 | G9 ||
Crazy about my Baby, yes, send her back to me.
Call It Stormy Monday’s chords and progressions
The slightly odd-looking chords you see sliding around in Call It Stormy Monday are in fact 9 chords.
The theoretical jazz chord police might go as far as to say that T-bone Walker was using chord substitution, playing a Bm7b5 in an Am shape instead of a G9.
The trick is repeated for the IV chord. Instead of a C9, play an Em7b5, now in a Dm shape.
The same goes for those chromatic approach chords, Ab9 is played like a Cm7b5, and C#9 is played like an Fm7b5.
All you have to do is visualize whatever 9-chord you want to play, then start the m7b5 chord shape on the 3rd.
Call It Stormy Monday’s chord progression is that of a standard 12-bar blues, just using 9 chords, like this:
||: G9 | C9 | G9 | G9 | C9 | C9 |
| G9 | G9 | D9 | C9 | G9 | G9 :||
The founding father of the guitar solo
T-Bone Walker is perhaps the most influential of all blues players since he invented Blues lead playing on the electric guitar!
Unfortunately, he is often overlooked by the more recent guitarists, such as B.B. King or Jimi Hendrix.
Walker’s popularization of the minor pentatonic scale (which ironically is now considered by some to be somewhat basic) was revolutionary during his day.
In the video guitar lesson above you can learn how to play Call It Stormy Monday, T-Bone Walker’s signature song.
Call It Stormy Monday chords | Related pages
Call It Stormy Monday – 5 similar tunes
- Ain’t No Sunshine chords
- Georgia On My Mind chords
- Need Your Love So Bad chords
- Papa Ain’t Salty chords
- Why Don’t You Do Right chords
T-Bone Walker
This is it, the root, the granddaddy, the first electric guitar soloist: Mr. T-Bone Walker.
It was as early as 1929 when T-bone started to record, but as he says: “I’ve been doing it for a long time before that came around”.
T-bone Walker on the web
