Empire State Of Mind | Chords + Lyrics (no capo)
Intro
||: F# | F# | Bmaj7 | Bmaj7 :||
Oh, New York. Oh, New York.
Verse 1
||: F# | F# | Bmaj7 | Bmaj7 :||
Grew up in a town that is famous as a place of movie scenes.
Noise is always loud, there are sirens all around and the streets are mean.
If I can make it here, I can make it anywhere, that’s what they say.
Seeing my face in lights or my name in marquees found down on Broadway.
| A# | A# |
Even if it ain’t all it seems, I got a pocketful of dreams, baby, I’m from,
Chorus 1
| Bmaj7 | Bmaj7 | F# | C# |
New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of, there’s nothing you can’t do, now you’re in,
| Bmaj7 | Bmaj7 | F# | C# | Bmaj7 | Bmaj7 |
New York, these streets will make you feel brand new, big lights will inspire you, hear it for New York, New York, New York.
Verse 2
On the avenue, there ain’t ever a curfew, ladies work so hard.
Such a melting pot, on the corner selling rock, preachers pray to God.
Hail a gypsy cab, takes me down from Harlem to the Brooklyn bridge.
Someone sleeps tonight with a hunger far more than an empty fridge.
I’m gonna make it by any means, I got a pocketful of dreams, baby, I’m from,
Chorus 2
New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of, there’s nothing you can’t do, now you’re in,
New York, these streets will make you feel brand new, big lights will inspire you, hear it for New York, New York, New York.
Middle 8
| Bmaj7 | Bmaj7 |
One hand in the air for the big city. Street lights, big dreams, all looking pretty.
| C#no3 | D#m | A# | A# |
No place in the world that can compare, put your lighters in the air, everybody say, yeah, yeah! Yeah, yeah!
Chorus 3
In New York, Concrete jungle where dreams are made of, there’s nothing you can’t do, now you’re in New York.
These streets will make you feel brand new, big lights will inspire you, hear it for New York.
End
| F# |
Empire State Of Mind | Chords + Lyrics (capo 2)
Intro
||: E | E | Amaj7 | Amaj7 :||
Oh, New York. Oh, New York.
Verse 1
||: E | E | Amaj7 | Amaj7 :||
Grew up in a town that is famous as a place of movie scenes.
Noise is always loud, there are sirens all around and the streets are mean.
If I can make it here, I can make it anywhere, that’s what they say.
Seeing my face in lights or my name in marquees found down on Broadway.
| G# | G# |
Even if it ain’t all it seems, I got a pocketful of dreams, baby, I’m from,
Chorus 1
| Amaj7 | Amaj7 | E | B |
New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of, there’s nothing you can’t do, now you’re in,
| Amaj7 | Amaj7 | E | B | Amaj7 | Amaj7 |
New York, these streets will make you feel brand new, big lights will inspire you, hear it for New York, New York, New York.
Verse 2
On the avenue, there ain’t ever a curfew, ladies work so hard.
Such a melting pot, on the corner selling rock, preachers pray to God.
Hail a gypsy cab, takes me down from Harlem to the Brooklyn bridge.
Someone sleeps tonight with a hunger far more than an empty fridge.
I’m gonna make it by any means, I got a pocketful of dreams, baby, I’m from,
Chorus 2
New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of, there’s nothing you can’t do, now you’re in,
New York, these streets will make you feel brand new, big lights will inspire you, hear it for New York, New York, New York.
Middle 8
| Amaj7 | Amaj7 |
One hand in the air for the big city. Street lights, big dreams, all looking pretty.
| Bno3 | C#m | G# | G# |
No place in the world that can compare, put your lighters in the air, everybody say: Yeah, yeah! Yeah, yeah!
Chorus 3
In New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of, there’s nothing you can’t do, now you’re in New York.
These streets will make you feel brand new, big lights will inspire you, hear it for New York.
End
| E |
Empire State Of Mind Chords: Learn the progressions
Originally performed on the piano in the key of F#, I’ve adapted Empire State Of Mind’s chords to work on the guitar by adding a capo to fret two and thinking of this as if in the key of E.
It’s a great lesson in itself to take a song, originally performed on a different instrument, and build your arrangement.
The verse/bridge uses chords I, IV, and IIIx, like this:
||: E (I) | E | Amaj7 (IV) | Amaj7 :||
| G# (IIIx) | G# |
I’ve designed some TAB for how you could play this, you can find it here: Empire State Of Mind – Guitar Lesson with TAB.
The chorus starts on chord IV, goes back to chord I, and finishes on chord V, like this:
||: Amaj7 (IV) | Amaj7 | E (I) | B5 (V) :|| x2
| Amaj7 | Amaj7 |
Empire State Of Mind’s middle 8 section (some people prefer to call it a bridge) introduces chord VI (a C#m), like this:
| Amaj7 (IV) | Amaj7 | B5 (V) |
| C#m (VI) | G# (IIIx) | G# |
The outro is the same as a chorus although I’ve changed the extensions here using add9 and add4, like this:
||: Aadd9 (IV) | Aadd9 | E (I) | Badd4 (V) :|| x2
| Aadd9 | Aadd9 | E |
As several of Empire State Of Mind’s chords have been extended, let’s look at these one by one in a bit more detail:
- Amaj7 – This chord is created by adding a maj7th interval to an A major triad.
- B5 – This chord only has roots and 5ths inside it, it is neither major nor minor.
- Aadd9 – This chord is created by adding a 9th interval (a B) to a normal A major triad.
- Badd11 – This chord is created by adding an 11th interval (an E) to a normal B major triad.
I’ve got TAB for how to play all sections for you, start with that before you alter it to suit your arrangement.
In the end, all you’ll need to play Empire State Of Mind is a simple chord chart, like this one.
Empire State Of Mind Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Empire State Of Mind Chord Chart PDF.
This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: Empire State Of Mind iReal Pro. Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key.
Empire State Of Mind wasn’t supposed to be a single for Alicia!
Cowritten with Jay-Z, Empire State Of Mind was supposed to be his tune, featuring Alicia Keys.
As the single dropped, Keys announced that there would soon be a “broken down version” with mainly her singing on her next studio album The Element Of Freedom (2009).
The initial version had Jay-Z rapping for one verse but this was scrapped with having only Alicia singing.
At first, it was not even released as a single, the new version, dubbed Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down sold so many digital copies the label decided it had to be a single in the U.K.
From this point, the success of Empire State Of Mind bloomed as it charted in over 16 territories.
On various gigs, Alicia can be heard changing the lyrics to whatever city or region she’s performing in, for example, North Wales which is as far from New York as you can get.
Empire State Of Mind Chords | Related Pages
Empire State Of Mind | Guitar Lesson + TAB
With this guitar lesson, you can learn to play Empire State Of Mind by Alicia Keys using TAB and chord analysis.
| E | E | Amaj7 | Amaj7 |
Grew up in a town that is famous as a place of movie scenes…
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
Alicia Keys tunes
Alicia Keys had instant success with her debut album Songs In Am, mainly down to its single Fallin’.
Following this, she has firmly established herself with hits such as If I Ain’t Got You, This Girl Is On Fire, and Empire State Of Mind.
Alicia Keys on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about Empire State Of Mind 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.
