The Star-Spangled Banner

Words & Music:

Francis Scott Key & John Stafford Smith

 

You can find an acoustic transcription of this in the December 2001 issue of Guitar World.

 

    Bb      F/A Gm   D/F#   Gm        C7 F

Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light,

F7/A    Bb    Adim/C Bb/D  F         Fdim/Eb Bb/D Bb

What so proud-ly---- we--- hailed at the---- twi--light's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming.

Bb           Adim/C  Bb/D       Adim/C Bb    F/A   Bb  Adim/C  F

And the rock--ets'-- red glare, the--- bombs burst-ing in----- air

     Bb    F/A     Edim/G  F/C   F9       Bb       Edim/G  F

Gave proof through the---- night that our flag was still-- there.

F7  Bb  Cm7  Bb   Eb       G/B  Cm         Bb   F

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,

F7       Bb      F7  Bb7  Eb  Ebm6  Bb   Eb F   Bb

O'er the land of the free and the-- home of the brave?

 

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep

Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses.

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,

In full glory reflected now shines on the stream.

'Tis the star-spangled banner!  Oh, long may it wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

 

Oh, thus be it ever when the free shall stand

Between their loved home and the war's desolation!

Blessed with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land

Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto:  "In God is our trust!"

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!