Queen
Tone: F
Cm Gm7/C
I ve paid my dues
Cm Gm7/C
And time after time
Cm Gm7/C
I ve done my sentence
Cm Gm7/C
But commited no crime
Eb Ab
And bad mistakes
Eb Ab
I ve made a few
Eb Bb/D Cm
I ve had my share of sand kicked in my face
F7 Bb C
But I ve come through
F Am Dm Bb C
We are the champions, my friend
F Am Bb D/F#
And we ll keep on fighting till the end
Gm Bbm Bbo
We are the champions, we are the champions
F Eb/G Ab6 Bb7 Cm7
No time for loosers cause we are the champions
( Fm7 Gm7/C )
Of the world
Cm Gm7/C
I ve taken my bows
Cm Gm7/C
And my curtain calls
Cm
You brought me fame and fortune
Gm7/C
And everything that goes with it
Cm Gm7/C
I thank you all
Eb Ab
But it s been no bed of roses
Eb Ab
No pleasure cruise
Eb
I consider it a challenge
Bb/D Cm
Before the whole human race
F7 Bb C
And I ain t gonna lose
LESSON POINTS
1. The key center for the whole song is actually best thought of as C major.
2. Simply think of the I-chord as a "minor'd one chord" and the Gm as a "minor'd V-chord". That way, you won't have to transpose anything in your head but rather simply think of the minored chords as subsitutes for the major.
3. From C, the Eb and Ab are simply the common rock-oriented flat III and flat VI chords. The Bb/D is a Bb chord first inversion and it's thought of as a common rock-oriented bVII.
4. The chorus is indeed transposed, there's no way around it. Note that F is I, Am is iii, Dm is vi, Bb is IV and C is V.
The D/F# is a majored VI chord.
The Bbm is an altered Bb chord.
Both of these are quite common.
Eb and Ab are bVII and bIII respectively, again commonly used.
The Cm is a transition back to key center C.
5. Note the vocal is done first, then the instrumental.
6. Note I'm using a vocoder AND that my pitch is lower than the original making it possible for the audience to sing along. Professional singers are mostly singing too high and this makes most recordings impossible for regular people to sing along. It's crazy. I'm not a trained vocalist-- just an ordinary person trying to sing as I think most people should get training in.
7. Note too that I'm not a "duelling piano" player which I find to be anathema to the piano business. Piano vocals in the tradition of the bars in the early 20th century are of interest to me but not two pianos and shouting as at the Shout House and similar venues.
