Roll Over Beethoven chords by Chuck Berry


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Roll Over Beethoven | Chords + Lyrics


Intro

| N.C | D N.C | N.C | D N.C | N.C |
| G | G | D | D |
| A7 | A7 | D | D |

Verse 1

| D7 | G7 | D7 | D7 |
Well, I’ma write a little letter, I’m gonna mail it to my local DJ.
| G7 | G7 | D7 | D7 |
Yeah, it’s a jumping little record I want my jockey to play.
| A7 | A7 | D7 | D7 |
Roll over Beethoven, I gotta hear it again today.

Verse 2

| D7 | G7 | D7 | D7 |
You know my temperature rising, the jukebox blowin’ a fuse.
| G7 | G7 | D7 | D7 |
My heart’s beating rhythm and my soul keep a-singing the blues.
| A7 | A7 | D7 | D7 |
Ah, roll over Beethoven, tell Tchaikovsky the news.

Verse 3

| D7 | G7 | D7 | D7 |
I got the rockin’ pneumonia, I need a shot of rhythm and blues.
| G7 | G7 | D7 | D7 |
I caught the rollin’ arthritis sittin’ down at a rhythm review.
| A7 | A7 | D7 | D7 |
Ah, roll over Beethoven, they rockin’ in two by two.

Verse 4

| D7 | G7 | D7 | D7 |
Well if you feel it and like it, go get your lover, then reel and rock it. Roll it over then.
| G7 | G7 | D7 | D7 |
Move on up, and yes-a, try for further and reel and rock with, one another.
| A7 | A7 | D7 | D7 |
Roll over Beethoven, dig this rhythm and blues.

Solo

| D7 | D7 | D7 | D7 |
| G7 | G7 | D7 | D7 |
| A7 | A7 | D7 | D7 |

Verse 5

| D7 | G7 | D7 | D7 |
Well early in the mornin’, I’m giving you my mornin’ don’t you step on my blue suede shoes.
| G7 | G7 | D7 | D7 |
Hey diddle-diddle, I’m-a play you my fiddle, ain’t got nothing to lose.
| A7 | A7 | D7 | D7 |
Roll over Beethoven, tell Tchaikovsky the news.

Verse 6

| D7 | G7 | D7 | D7 |
You know she wiggle like a glow worm, dance like a spinnin’ top.
| G7 | G7 | D7 | D7 |
She got a crazy partner, you oughta see ‘em reel and rock.
| A7 | A7 | D7 | D7 |
Long as she got a dime, the music will never stop.

Outro

| D7 | D7 | D7 | D7 |
Ah, roll over Beethoven, ah roll over Beethoven.
| G7 | G7 | D7 | D7 |
Roll over Beethoven, roll over Beethoven.
| A7 | N.C | N.C | D9 |
Roll over Beethoven and dig these rhythm and blues.



Roll Over Beethoven Chords: Learn the progressions


This Chuck Berry tune is played in the key of D. However, if you try to play along with the original recording, you soon find that you’re out of tune with Mr. Berry. He’s not in D or D#, he’s somewhere in between.

What has happened here is that the tape when played back was set too fast, making the pitch higher than originally intended. The only other possibility is that Chuck and his bandmates weren’t in concert pitch when tuning up.

Either way, for you to get in tune so you can play along with Roll Over Beethoven’s chords, you must change your tuning. My free online guitar tuner can do this for you. In the case of Roll Over Beethoven, set it to 458Hz.

Once you’re ready to go you’ll find that the chords in general are this:

||: D7 (I) | G7 (IV) | D7 | D7 |
| G7 | G7 | D7 | D7 |
| A7 (V) | A7 | D7 | D7 :||

In bar two we go to chord IV, this is called a quick change. The turnaround just goes to V – I, the simplest of all choices.

During the intro, we play using two stops, use a D chord here, no quick change, no extensions. Only the A is a dom7.

The solo is the same as the verse but without a quick change. The same goes for the outro where we also get a D9 to finish it all.

I’ve written most chords as dom7 for Roll Over Beethoven, and even though this is true for one guitar and the piano, the other guitar needs to honky-tonk, playing D5D6D5D6.

This honky-tonk style of comping is found in most Chuck Berry tunes but plenty of other artists have copied it. I go over this in detail during the I Can’t Stand The Rain lessons in the intermediate acoustic course.



Roll Over Beethoven Chords | Related Pages


Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics

When you can play Roll Over Beethoven's chords, try these five tunes from the songbook.

Chuck Berry tunes

Chuck Berry wrote Roll Over Beethoven.

The father of Rock n Roll, Chuck Berry came to prominence in the ’50s as he would make Rhythm ‘N’ Blues fun.

His best tunes include Maybellene, Johnny B. Goode, Sweet Little Sixteen, No Particular Place To Go, and You Never Can Tell.


Chuck Berry on the web

Listen to Chuck Berry on Spotify.


About me | Dan Lundholm

Dan Lundholm wrote this guitar lesson about Roll Over Beethoven chords.

This was a guitar lesson about Roll Over Beethoven’s 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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