Summertime

Words & Music by Dubose Howard & George Gershwin
From the musical "Porgy and Bess," 1935
Recorded by Ella Fitzgerald, 1960


Intro:  |  G  -  Am  |  C  -  B7  |  Em  -  Am  |  Em  -  B7  |
                                                                                                                                                                     
(B7 )  Em   B7 Em           A9        Em   Am    Em   Fm   F#m  Gm
Summertime,         and the livin' is ea - sy;

         Am        Am+7  Am7         C          B7   C   B7       
Fish are jumpin',            and the cotton is high.

(B7)  Em     B7   Em              A9         Em Am7   Em  Fm   F#m
Your daddy's rich       and your mama's good-lookin',

 
Am  G           Am    CM7  CM7/6   B7     Em    Am   Em   (C)     B7
So hush, little baby, don't           you cry.


B7           Em       B7 Em               A9      Em  Am  Em  Fm  F#m  Gm
One of these mornin's,       you're gonna rise up singin';

              Am          Am+7   Am7    
You're gonna spread your wings 

    C           B7    C  B7
And take to the sky.

B7             Em    B7  Em        A9         Em  Am   Em  Fm  F#m
But 'til that mornin',     ain't nothin' can harm you

Am    G   G/F#    Em     CM7  CM7/6 B7    Em   B+  Em7  Em6  Am7  B7  Em
With dad - dy and mammy stand -       in' by.


This chart replaces one that has been here for years now, and is a virtual duplicate of one used by good friends
of mine, a band called Exit 41 from Omaha, Nebraska. The chord sequence at the end of the first line of each verse
is not made up of full chords; it's more like an Em slid down the neck of the guitar. The Fm is nothing more than the
two fretted strings of the Em chord moved one fret up the neck; the F#m is two frets up from the Em, and the G three
frets up -- and only the two fretted strings need be played, so you can think of the sequence as x22xxx to x33xxx to
x44xxx to x55xxx. Another cool touch, not shown here but which I now use, is to use a bass string slide at the end
of the first verse, starting with the low E string at the 7th fret and sliding down to the 2nd in lieu of playing an actual
B7 chord. It also works very well at the end of the instrumental intro leading into the first verse.

Thanks to John, Julie and Terry for showing me a cooler way to play this song.



 
The lyric and guitar chord transcriptions on this site are the work of The Guitarguy and are intended for private study, research, or educational purposes only. Individual transcriptions are inspired by and and based upon the recorded versions cited, but are not necessarily exact replications of those recorded versions.