Le Petit Bal de la marine — chords & grille (gypsy jazz)
Le Petit Bal de la marine by Jean-Pierre Mottier & François Deguelt — key of A (musette), form Intro A A2 B A2. Below is the full chord grid; on Haute Gitanerie you can play along with a scrolling chord ribbon, transpose to any key, set the tempo, and switch on a rhythm backing (la pompe) to practise your solos over the changes.
About
Le Petit Bal de la marine is a French musette waltz by François Deguelt and Jean-Pierre Mottier, recorded by Deguelt in 1968 - a tender evocation of the little Parisian dance halls.
The sound - rooted in A minor, it turns on the i-VI-V move (Am, F, E7), with a B7 pulling toward E, and brightens on an A major cadence. The Dm6 lends the classic musette colour.
Practising it - work the A harmonic minor scale and the E7 arpeggio, voicing its ♭9 as you fall back to Am. Keep the three-beat lilt light and swinging.
Le Petit Bal de la marine chords — the grille
Intro : | Am | Am | F | F | E7 | E7 | Am | Am |
A : | Am | Am | Am | Am | Am | Am | Dm | Dm | Dm | Dm | Am | Am | B7 | B7 | E7 | E7 |
A2 : | Am | Am | Am | Am | Am | Am | Dm | Dm | Dm | Dm | Am | Am | B7 | E7 | Am | Am |
B : | AΔ | AΔ | AΔ | AΔ | AΔ | AΔ | F#7 | F#7 | Bm7 | Dm6 | AΔ | F#m7 | Bm7 | E7 | Am | Am |
Chords used
Am · F · E7 · Dm · B7 · AΔ · F#7 · Bm7 · Dm6 · F#m7
Play along
Open the interactive grille for Le Petit Bal de la marine: loop any section, transpose to any key, set the tempo, and play over a rhythm accompaniment — with a real recorded pompe on featured tunes. In the browser, free.