Chords + Lyrics | Hotel California (capo 7)
Intro
||: Em | B7/D# | Dsus2 D5/A | A9/C# |
| C | G/B G | Am Am/E | B7 :||
Verse 1
| Em | B7/D# |
On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair.
| Dsus2 D5/A | A9/C# |
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air.
| C | G/B G |
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light.
| Am Am/E | B7 |
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim, I had to stop for the night.
Verse 2
There she stood in the doorway, I heard the mission bell.
And I was thinking to myself, “This could be Heaven or this could be Hell”.
Then she lit up a candle, and she showed me the way.
There were voices down the corridor, I thought I heard them say.
Chorus 1
| C | G |
Welcome to the Hotel California.
| B7 | Em (E F# G A B) |
Such a lovely place (such a lovely place). Such a lovely face.
| C | G |
Plenty of room at the Hotel California.
| Am | B7 |
Any time of year (any time of year). You can find it here.
Verse 3
Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes Benz.
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends.
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget.
Verse 4
So I called up the Captain, “Please, bring me my wine”.
He said, ‘We haven’t had that spirit here since, 1969″.
And still those voices are calling from far away.
Wake you up in the middle of the night, just to hear them say.
Chorus 2
Welcome to the Hotel California.
Such a lovely place (such a lovely place). Such a lovely face.
They livin’ it up at the Hotel California.
What a nice surprise (what a nice surprise), Bring your alibis.
Verse 5
Mirrors on the ceiling, the pink champagne on ice.
And she said, “We are all just prisoners here of our own device”.
And in the master’s chambers, they gathered for the feast.
They stab it with their steely knives but they just can’t kill the beast.
Verse 6
Last thing I remember, I was running for the door.
I had to find the passage back to the place I was before.
“Relax,” said the night man, “We are programmed to receive.
| Am Am/E | B7 N.C |
You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave”.
Solo
||: Em | B7/D# | Dsus2 D5/A | A9/C# |
| C | G/B G | Am Am/E | B7 :|| to fade
Hotel California Backing Tracks | Chord Analysis
Above, you’ll find a backing track to use when learning Hotel California. I’ve used stem separation to extract the guitar while keeping the drums, bass, but no vocals intact. Eagles are notoriously difficult when it comes to copyright so I scrapped the backing track with the vocals to avoid trouble.
After studying the chords and TAB, use my backing track 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 down to 438Hz. In the backing track, I’ve done this job for you by tuning it to 440Hz.
Chord Progressions – What’s Going On?
One of the most legendary guitar tracks of all time, the Eagles Hotel California is not played in the key of Bm like most people would have you believe, or at least, it’s not that simple.
To get it right, you need to think in Em, using a capo on fret 7. Once you try it, you will instantly hear how the chords “sound right.”
Several little details can only be described accurately using TAB, so if you want to get to that right now, keep crolling down to th TAB section of this guitar lesson.
In the TAB, there’s the solo to look at as well, now we must remove the capo and think in Bm. I’ve transcribed the arpeggio part of the solo as this is the best part. But what’s even better is what we can learn from Hotel California‘s solo.
When you can see how the arpeggios follow the chords, you can start changing the shapes, and effectively map out the fretboard. This makes Hotel California a great arpeggio exercise!
Anyway, let’s focus on how the chord progression moves in and out of the key..
Verse
Using a capo on fret 7, thinking in the key of Em, the first four bars of Hotel California are:
| Em | B7/D# | Dsus2 D5/A | A9/C# |
That’s chord VI – IIIx/3. Classical musicians would call the IIIx a mediant major, the most common variation we have, it leans more heavily towards chord VI. Although in Hotel California, we are moving the other way, from VI – IIIx, very unusual!
The third bar is chord V, but without a 3rd (Dsus2), then with its 5th in the bass (D5/A).
The last chord is almost a C#dim7, only one note differs, which means we have to call it a IIx/3. That’s the II chord, which is major, with that 3rd in the bass (A9/C#).
Usually, this type of chord goes up to V. In Hotel California, we go down to the IV chord instead.
Here’s the (much simpler) 2nd line of Hotel California‘s verse chords:
| C | G/B G | Am Am/E | B7 |
Starting on chord IV, we go back to chord I using its 3rd in the bass first. Am and Am/E is chord II, now diatonic, not turned into a major. We finish on that mediant major again, or as I prefer to call it, the IIIx.
Chorus
The chorus is more straightforward, now we’re in the key of G, not Em anymore (compare this with Roxanne). Here’s the first line:
| C | G | B7 | Em (E F# G A B) |
We start on chord IV, making it feel as if we’re taking off harmonically, then go back to chord I. As this is bar two, we don’t feel rested or fully resolved.
The last two bars are as if in the key of Em again, using that IIIx chord to VI. Here’s the 2nd line.
| C | G | Am | B7 |
Start in the same way, and finish on chords II – IIIx. That last B7 sets us up for the verse again in the key of Em.
Here are two Hotel California chord charts I made for you, one is for capo and one without. This will be useful especially after you’ve learned the TAB and understood the solo!
Hotel California Chord Chart | PDF + i Real Pro Download
Perhaps it looks surprisingly easy, that chord chart, but that really is all there is to it. Well, until the solo, when you have to take the capo off and think in a different key, that is!
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Hotel California chord chart PDF.
This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: Hotel California iReal Pro.
Using this and the iReal Pro app, you can change the key, which is necessary as soon as the solo starts and the capo is off!
Hotel California | TAB
Here’s Hotel California’s intro TAB (what Don Felder plays). You can play this for all verses as well using a capo on fret 7.
The chorus is best played half strummed, half picked. You’ll find a natural part to do this if you learn the verse first and play along with the backing tracks.
Learn Hotel California’s solo arpeggios
When I was a teenager, this was one of those solos we all had to learn—it was like a benchmark, just like Stairway to Heaven and Bohemian Rhapsody.
I remember clearly how memorising the fret numbers felt pointless. I thought to myself, once I’ve memorised this, then learned another bunch of solos, I won’t remember it. If only I had something to connect it with.
Fast forward ten years and I discovered the CAGED system. Now it all made complete sense—I have to visualise the chord progression, as the solo is arpeggios!
Here’s the TAB. Make sure you can see those chord shapes and you’ll never forget it.
In the playlist at the top, Don Felder talks you through how to play all this himself. He does play it all a tone lower than the original (very annoying).
Looking at the TAB, you can see how initially the arpeggios are sharing shapes, using two strings. The last three bars are all in one shape.
Learn from Hotel California’s solo arpeggios!
If you modify the first half into being in just one chord shape, playing Hotel California’s arpeggio solo would be even easier!
Here’s the TAB for this experiment:
Can you do this in other parts of the fretboard, and what will this do for your playing in general?
You may have just stumbled upon a goldmine here… I’m going to shut up now and let you explore what this means. Take your time, and come back tomorrow—maybe even every day this week!
Hotel California Chords: Continue Learning
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