Shine — chords & grille (gypsy jazz)
Shine by Ford Dabney & Cecil Mack & Lew Brown — key of C (manouche), form A. 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
Shine began life in 1910 as That's Why They Call Me Shine, music by Ford Dabney, lyrics by Cecil Mack and Lew Brown - two Black songwriters turning a racist slur into defiant pride. It became one of the most-recorded jazz standards, and Django Reinhardt gave it a blazing manouche reading.
The sound - bright, fast C major driven by a chain of secondary dominants (E7 to Am, A7, G7) and a chromatic diminished passing chord.
Practising it - chase each secondary dominant with its arpeggio, targeting the third that pulls to the next chord. This is a tempo tune, so lock a steady pompe before pushing the speed.
Shine chords — the grille
A : | C | C | G7 | G7 | C | C | G7 | G7 | E7 | E7 | Am | Am | D7 | D7 | G7 | G7♯5 | C | C | G7 | G7 | E7 | E7 | Am | C7 | F | F#° | C | A7 | D7 | G7 | C | C |
Chords used
C · G7 · E7 · Am · D7 · G7♯5 · C7 · F · F#° · A7
Play along
Open the interactive grille for Shine: 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.