Jazz Standard
Bye Bye Blackbird chords
Bye Bye Blackbird by Jazz Standard is an intermediate song in F, played with no capo. The whole sheet is 8 chords (F, C6, Cm6, G7, Dm7, Am7, E7, A7) across 4 sections: Verse → Chorus A → Chorus B → Turnaround. 4 of the 8 shapes are open chords. Shapes that use a barre: F, C6, Cm6, Dm7. It sits at roughly 120 BPM.
By Chiye · Updated
Hardest change in the sheet: F → C6, 6 times.
- Difficulty
- Intermediatebarre shape F
- Key
- Fwith no capo
- Tempo
- 120BPM
- Tuning
- Standard (E A D G B E)low to high
- Chords
- 84 open, 4 with a barre
- Sections
- 4each with its own progression
Chords in Bye Bye Blackbird
Frets read low E to high E, x means leave that string out.
Chord sheet
One chord per bar in this practice sheet. Follow the time signature shown beside each section; dots mark the remaining counts in the bar. Tap a bar to hear its chord, or loop the section to practise the changes.
Chord accompaniment only. Follow the section notes for this arrangement’s timing. Songs whose words are public domain →
Verse4/4 · ♩=120
Chorus A4/4 · ♩=120
Chorus B4/4 · ♩=120
Turnaround4/4 · ♩=120
Printable one-page chord chart
How to play Bye Bye Blackbird
In this F-key practice arrangement, the opening alternates F and C6. C6 has its own C bass; it is not an F shape moved five frets. Use the C6 diagram x-3-2-2-1-0, keeping the added A on the G string at fret 2 clear.
The second chorus row includes C6 and Cm6. Their harmonic difference is E becoming Eb, while C and A remain. The diagrams also arrange the upper strings differently, so compare each string instead of assuming only the G-string finger slides. The G string stays at fret 2 in both shown shapes.
A7 leads to Dm7 as the dominant of D minor. Open A7 is x-0-2-0-2-0; Dm7 is x-x-0-2-1-1. A major shape slid up two frets would produce B major, not a Bm7 substitute for this cadence.
Practise the printed four-bar rows with one chord per bar. When F to C6 is comfortable, add the Am7, Dm7, G7 and C6 turnaround. Keep the final C6 long enough to hear the return to F.
How to practise Bye Bye Blackbird
Four steps computed from this sheet: the order the shapes are easiest to learn in, the changes that really occur in the progressions above, where each chord turns up, and the tempo ladder up to the speed marked here.
Learn the shapes easiest first
G7 (3-2-0-0-0-1, beginner) → Am7 (x-0-2-0-1-0, beginner) → E7 (0-2-0-1-0-0, beginner) → A7 (x-0-2-0-2-0, beginner) → F (1-3-3-2-1-1, intermediate, needs a barre) → C6 (x-3-2-2-1-0, intermediate, needs a barre) → Cm6 (x-3-1-2-1-3, intermediate, needs a barre) → Dm7 (x-x-0-2-1-1, intermediate, needs a barre)
4 of the 8 shapes are open chords, so start there and leave F until the others change cleanly.
Drill the changes this sheet actually uses
F → C66×Dm7 → G73×G7 → C63×C6 → F2×
These counts come from the progressions on this page, so they are the changes you will actually play, not a generic list of pairs to practise.
Know where each chord turns up
- Fevery section
- C6every section
- Cm6Chorus A
- G7every section
- Dm7Chorus A, Chorus B, Turnaround
- Am7Turnaround
- E7Turnaround
- A7Chorus B
Climb the tempo ladder
Start at 72 BPM and move up only when a full pass is clean: 72 → 90 → 108 → 120 BPM. The tempo marked on this sheet is 120 BPM, and the last step is the one that always feels like a jump. Stay at 108 for longer than feels necessary.
Practise each section's chord changes slowly, then play the sheet through at a steady tempo without pausing between sections.
Playing Bye Bye Blackbird with a capo
This sheet needs no capo. Each card shows what you would finger at that capo position so the song still sounds exactly as written. Useful when the shapes above are awkward, or when you want to sing it higher without learning new chords.
No capoas written
F C6 Cm6 G7 Dm7 Am7 E7 A7
4 of 8 stay open
Fret 1
E B6 Bm6 F#7 C#m7 Abm7 Eb7 Ab7
2 of 8 stay open
Fret 2
Eb Bb6 Bbm6 F7 Cm7 Gm7 D7 G7
2 of 8 stay open
Fret 3
D A6 Am6 E7 Bm7 F#m7 C#7 F#7
4 of 8 stay open
Fret 4
C# Ab6 Abm6 Eb7 Bbm7 Fm7 C7 F7
1 of 8 stay open
Fret 5
C G6 Gm6 D7 Am7 Em7 B7 E7
8 of 8 stay open
Fret 6
B F#6 F#m6 C#7 Abm7 Ebm7 Bb7 Eb7
no open shapes left, all barre
Fret 7
Bb F6 Fm6 C7 Gm7 Dm7 A7 D7
3 of 8 stay open
Working out a different key? The capo calculatordoes the same arithmetic for any chord set.
More songs built on the same chords
If Bye Bye Blackbird clicks, these use the closest set of shapes, so the chords you just learned keep working.
More intermediate songs to learn after this one: Father and Son, Shallow, The One That Got Away, Treat You Better.
These chords across the songbookHow often each chord in Bye Bye Blackbird turns up across all 104 songs on this site, and what it most often moves to next. The counts come from the sheet library itself, not from theory.
114bars of this chord across the songbook
29songs use this shape
Most often followed by C, 38×.
13bars of this chord across the songbook
2songs use this shape
Most often followed by Cm6, 3×.
3bars of this chord across the songbook
2songs use this shape
Most often followed by Dm7, 2×.
33bars of this chord across the songbook
13songs use this shape
Most often followed by C, 11×.
29bars of this chord across the songbook
6songs use this shape
Most often followed by G7, 13×.
23bars of this chord across the songbook
6songs use this shape
Most often followed by Dm7, 4×.
31bars of this chord across the songbook
10songs use this shape
Most often followed by A7, 4×.
49bars of this chord across the songbook
15songs use this shape
Most often followed by Dm7, 10×.