Howard's Steely Dan guitar tabs: accurate guitar tablature and chords for over 25 Steely Dan and Donald Fagen songs

February 2013 update: The Second Arrangement

I've been a big fan of the music of Steely Dan for many years. As a guitar player who loves great-sounding progressions with interesting jazz-flavoured chords, working out guitar transcriptions for these songs has been an education as well as a pleasure. These songs are great fun to play on the guitar, and they're also a great way to extend and improve your playing. I hope you enjoy playing them!

All of the Steely Dan and Donald Fagen guitar transcriptions I've done are listed below. Some have guitar tablature, some just chords, and some have a mixture of the two. Links are provided to HTML formatted versions as well as plain text format versions of each transcription.

More info:

FAQs

Questions/feedback/requests

Guitar tab for keyboards

Transcription philosophy

Steely Dan guitar tablature

Latest update (Feb 2013): Guitar chords for The Second Arrangement

Previous updates/additions (2012): Guitar chords for I'm Not The Same Without You from Donald Fagen's latest album Sunken Condos

HTML format	Text format
Almost Gothic (chords)	Almost Gothic (chords)
Any Major Dude (chords and tab)	Any Major Dude (chords and tab)
Babylon Sisters (chords and tab)	Babylon Sisters (chords and tab)
Black Friday (chords and tab)	Black Friday (chords and tab)
Black Cow (chords and tab)	Black Cow (chords and tab)
Chain Lightning (chords and tab)	Chain Lightning (chords and tab)
Cousin Dupree (chords)	Cousin Dupree (chords)
Daddy Don't Live in that New York City No More (chords)	Daddy Don't Live in that New York City No More (chords)
Deacon Blues (chords)	Deacon Blues (chords)
Dr Wu (chords and tab)	Dr Wu (chords and tab)
FM (chords and tab)	FM (chords and tab)
Green Earrings - with solos (chords and tab)	Green Earrings - with solos (chords and tab)
Haitian Divorce (chords)	Haitian Divorce (chords)
Here at the Western World (chords and tab)	Here at the Western World (chords and tab)
I'm Not The Same Without You (chords) *Recent addition*	I'm Not The Same Without You (chords) *Recent addition*
Jack Of Speed (chords and tab)	Jack Of Speed (chords and tab)
Josie (chords and tab)	Josie (chords and tab)
Kid Charlemagne (chords and tab)	Kid Charlemagne (chords and tab)
Kid Charlemagne - guitar solo (tab)	Kid Charlemagne - guitar solo (tab)
Lunch With Gina (chords)	Lunch With Gina (chords)
My Old School (chords and tab)	My Old School (chords and tab)
Negative Girl (chords and tab)	Negative Girl (chords and tab)
New Frontier - with solo (chords and tab)	New Frontier - with solo (chords and tab)
Peg (chords)	Peg (chords)
Pretzel Logic (chords and tab)	Pretzel Logic (chords and tab)
Razor Boy (chords)	Razor Boy (chords)
Reelin' In the Years (chords)	Reelin' In the Years (chords)
Second Arrangement (chords) *Recent addition*	Second Arrangement (chords) *Recent addition*
Show Biz Kids (chords and tab)	Show Biz Kids (chords and tab)
Your Gold Teeth II (chords)	Your Gold Teeth II (chords)
Your Gold Teeth II - guitar solo (tab)	Your Gold Teeth II - guitar solo (tab)

Transcription philosophy

What I've tried to do with these transcriptions is to capture the "essence of the song" in a single guitar part. The chord shapes and voicings that I choose should reflect the main ideas from the rhythm instruments (piano/keyboards, guitar, bass) and perhaps also from the vocals and brass parts. Because Steely Dan songs use complex, jazz-influenced harmonies, a compromise sometimes has to be made between authenticity and playability. In most cases, however, the chords I've suggested are not difficult to play yet capture the key harmonic ideas of the song.

FAQs

Guitar tab for keyboard players

This page explains how keyboard players can interpret guitar tablature and chord shapes and convert this info into note names, allowing you to play the guitar transcriptions on the keyboard.

Feedback, questions, requests ...

I'm always happy to receive comments or questions relating to these Steely Dan transcriptions. Please note that all the Steely Dan and Donald Fagen guitar tabs I have done are listed here. The songs I work out and add to this page are usually ones that I enjoy listening to or playing along to the most. I try to add new transcriptions when I can, but it's getting harder to find the time these days.

Send any feedback or questions about these Steely Dan tabs here.

Last updated: February 2013