Chords + Lyrics | Don’t Stop Believin’
Intro
| E5 (F# G#) | B5 (C# D#) | C#m (D# E) | A5 (D# E) |
| E5 (F# G#) | B5 (C# D#) | G#m | A5 (D# E) |
Verse 1
| E5 (F# G#) | B5 (C# D#) | C#m (D# E) | A5 (D# E) |
Just a small-town girl, livin’ in a lonely world.
| E5 (F# G#) | B5 (C# D#) | G#m | A5 (D# E) |
She took the midnight train going anywhere.
| E5 (F# G#) | B5 (C# D#) | C#m (D# E) | A5 (D# E) |
Just a city boy, born and raised in South Detroit.
| E5 (F# G#) | B5 (C# D#) | G#m | A5 |
He took the midnight train going anywhere.
Instrumental 1 (with licks)
| E5 (F# G#) | B5 (C# D#) | C#m (D# E) | A5 (D# E) |
| E5 (F# G#) | B5 (C# D#) | G#m | A5 (D# E) |
Verse 2 (as 2nd half of verse 1)
| E5 (F# G#) | B5 (C# D#) | C#m (D# E) | A5 (D# E) |
A singer in a smokey room, a smell of wine and cheap perfume.
| E5 (F# G#) | B5 (C# D#) | G#m | A5 |
For a smile they can share the night, it goes on and on and on and on.
Bridge 1
||: B/A A | B/A A | Eadd9 E | Eadd9 E :||
Strangers waitin’, up and down the boulevard.
Their shadows, searchin’ in the night.
Streetlights, people, livin’ just to find emotion.
| B/A A | B/A A | B5 E5 | B5 E5 A5 |
Hidin’, somewhere in the night.
Instrumental 2
| E5 (F# G#) | B5 (C# D#) | C#m (D# E) | A5 (D# E) |
Verse 3 (as verse 1)
Workin’ hard to get my fill, everybody wants a thrill.
Payin’ anything to roll the dice, just one more time.
Some’ll win, some will lose, some are born to sing the blues.
Whoa, the movie never ends, it goes on and on and on and on.
Bridge 2
Strangers waitin’, up and down the boulevard.
Their shadows, searchin’ in the night.
Streetlights, people, livin’ just to find emotion.
Hidin’, somewhere in the night.
Solo
| E5 (F# G#) | B5 (C# D#) | C#m (D# E) | A5 (D# E) |
| E5 (F# G#) | B5 (C# D#) | G#m | A5 |
Chorus
||: E5 (F# G#) | B5 (C# D#) | C#m (D# E) | A5 (D# E) |
| E5 (F# G#) | B5 (C# D#) | G#m | A5 (D# E) :||
Don’t stop believin’, hold on to that feelin’.
Streetlights, people.
Don’t stop believin’, hold on.
Streetlights, people.
Don’t stop believin’, hold on to that feelin’,
Streetlights, people.
Don’t Stop Believin’ Backing Tracks | Chord Analysis
Above, you’ll find backing tracks to use when learning Don’t Stop Believin’. I’ve used stem-seperation to extract the guitar while keeping the drums, bass, keys, strings, and vocals intact.
After studying the chords and TAB, use my backing tracks to prepare for playing this tune with a band.
Should you want to play along with the original recording instead, you need to tune your guitar sharp to 441Hz. In the backing tracks, I’ve done this job for you by tuning it to 440Hz.
Chord Progressions – What’s Going On?
The verse, instrumental, solo, and chorus sections of Don’t Stop Believin’ follow a straightforward chord progression: I – V – VI – IV (E – B – C#m – A).
To add variety, the VI chord is occasionally replaced with III, giving:
||: E | B | C#m | A |
| E | B | G#m | A :||
While these chords are diatonic to E major, the defining element is the bass line movement between them. Playing only the chords can sound static; it’s the bass that gives the progression its iconic drive. This pattern repeats throughout the song, except before the bridge, where the A chord is played without the bass movement.
Further down this guitar lesson, I provide TAB for seven different ways to play these sections.
Bridge
The bridge introduces a slightly unusual movement: B/A – A, followed by Eadd9 – E. It then transitions to:
| B5 – E5 | B5 – E5 – A5 |
Here’s the full bridge section:
||: B/A A | B/A A | Eadd9 E | Eadd9 E :||
| B/A A | B/A A | B5 E5 | B5 E5 A5 |
A clever feature of the song is that the chorus is sung over the verse chords, blending both sections seamlessly for the iconic climax.
Ultimately, Don’t Stop Believin’ is simple in chords but brilliant in how the bass line interweaves, creating the song’s unmistakable groove. Once you’ve mastered the TAB, the chord chart below will help you play along with the original recording—no keys player or second guitarist required.
Don’t Stop Believin’ Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro Download
You can download my chord chart as a static PDF or in the iReal Pro format. Using iReal Pro, you can easily adjust the layout to suit your needs.
Don’t Stop Believin’ | TAB
We’ll approach this as if you’re the only guitarist in the band—keyboard player fired! That means learning seven variations of the verse before moving on to the bridge and solo.
Verse + Instrumental + Chorus
Start with the intro and instrumental bass line, the foundation of the tune:
Notice how the first note of each bar is tied.
Here’s an early verse bass line—note the changed tie:
If you have keyboards, you can double up on this bass line. If not, the bass player can handle it while you play this top-line guitar:
Keys or not, play these early instrumental fills between the verse licks:
Once you’re confident, combine bass line and chugging guitar—on the record this is played by two guitars. The little dot before chord changes signals “play short” to help you switch smoothly:
After the bridge, many bands stumble here—it’s essentially half a verse before the full progression kicks back in:
Post-solo, the chorus follows the verse progression with a honky-tonk feel. Notice how both C#m (chord VI) and G#m (chord III) use flattened 6ths—Aeolian and Phrygian modes—creating that melodic signature:
That was all the verse and chorus progression variations, let’s move on!
Bridge
Here’s a one-guitar arrangement I invented that works with or without keyboards:
Solo
And here’s the solo. For the big bends at the end, listen to the original—they were overdubbed, so timing is key:
Once you can play all the TAB, return to the chord chart and practice along with Journey for full-band context.
Journey’s signature song
This epic rock anthem catapulted Journey to superstardom when it was released in 1981.
Keyboardist Jonathan Cain had just joined the band for their seventh album, Escape, bringing with him the song’s iconic riff and title—words of encouragement from his father, who urged him never to give up on music.
Recognised as one of the greatest rock songs ever, Don’t Stop Believin’ ranked #133 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Notable covers include the Glee cast’s version, which reignited its popularity, sending it back into the charts at #2 in the U.K. and #4 in the U.S.
For rock cover bands, this song is almost guaranteed to appear on the setlist—alongside classics like Sweet Home Alabama, Sex On Fire, Summer Of ’69, Livin’ On A Prayer, and Sweet Child O’ Mine.
Don’t Stop Believin’ Chords: Continue Learning
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