The Chords of Hotel California
Eight chords, looping forever. Hotel California (Eagles, 1976) circles through Bm – F♯7 – A – E – G – D – Em – F♯7 and never quite feels finished. Lesson 26 ran this loop through the five steps; now go deeper: hear how one raised note, the A♯ inside F♯7, turns the five chord of B minor into a leading tone that pulls home before every restart, see the roots move by fifths on the circle, and play the loop in B minor, with F♯m instead of F♯7, and in A minor. The first lesson of Hits Decoded, the road to lesson 100.
In this lesson you'll
- Decode the eight-chord loop of Hotel California in B minor: Bm – F♯7 – A – E – G – D – Em – F♯7, in numerals i – V7 – VII – IV – VI – III – iv – V7, and the notes of each chord.
- Hear the raised note: the B natural minor scale gives F♯m (A natural); raising A to A♯ (the harmonic minor, lesson 12) makes F♯7, whose A♯ is a leading tone a half step below B; with F♯m the pull disappears.
- See the roots move by fifths (A → E, G → D, and B → F♯ too, lesson 13), then play the loop slowly in B minor, with F♯m at the end and in A minor (Am – E7 – G – D – F – C – Dm – E7), and tell F♯7 from F♯m, restarting from stopping and fifth moves by ear.
Music in this lesson
- Hotel CaliforniaEagles · 1976 · Grammy Record of the Year 1978 · chord progression only
Remember
F♯7 is the five chord of B minor. It contains A♯, the raised seventh of the harmonic minor: a leading tone, a half step below B, pulling straight home.
A → E and G → D each move up a fifth, one step around the circle; B → F♯ is a fifth too, so three pairs make the same root move, each a step lower (B, A, G), before Em climbs to F♯7.
The loop starts dark (Bm), drifts through brighter major chords, then returns through F♯7: tension before every restart. Eight chords that never quite feel finished keep the song hypnotic.