This is a fantastic tune to play as a soloist or with an instrumental group. The song is fantastic as a bar chord study as well as a great tune to improvise on.

Let’s begin with the fake book charts and the chord and scale sheets. Below you will also find the jam tracks and performance notes.

Click here to view, print or download the Hotel California pg1 fake chart

Click here to view, print or download the Hotel California pg2 fake book chart

Here are the Hotel California jam tracks. Use the B minor scale for all the chords except the E major chord (key of A major). Also use B harmonic minor for the F# chords. I’ll go into more detail below the jam tracks.

Hotel California Jam Track Audio with Melody

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Hotel California Jam Track Audio no Melody

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Hotel California Jam Track Audio with Bass & Drums

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Right click here to save and download the Jam Track to your computer

Here is the chords and scales to use to play the rhythm and improvise on Hotel California. You really have to be aware of what chord you are soloing on in this tune.

The Key of B minor has the chords Bm (I), Em (IV), F#m (V) & the related major chords D (I), G (IV), A (V)

The F# chord has 1 note that doesn’t belong the the B minor scale. So we need to raise the 7th note of the B minor scale to match the chord. The rule is… If the V chord of a minor is major you must use the harmonic minor scale.

This is were all the cool Arabic sounds come from that we love so much in Flamenco and Heavy metal, etc…

The E chord is also out of key and again it has one wrong note that doesn’t belong. This E chord belongs to the key of A major. In theory, the key of B minor is related to the key of D major which has 2 sharp notes F# & C#. The E chord has a G# note in it so if we add a G# note to our scale we our now playing an A major scale.

If all this is leaving your head spinning it’s best to hit the theory lessons as it will really help you improvise on this type of tune. You will also find the chord scale relationship lesson will help as well.

The easiest way to play on this tune right away is by memorizing the scales and start using them over the appropriate chords. I’ll post a video soon to help you.

Click here to view, print and download the Hotel California – Chords & Scales sheet

Here’s the tab for the intro the way I played it on the jam track…

Click here to view, print or download the Hotel California Intro tab

Next is how to perform Hotel California as a solo guitar arrangement.

There are two pages, page one deals with the intro and verse. Page 2 is the chorus and outro solo.

Also below you will find the lesson video on how to play Hotel California as a soloist.

The video also includes how to improvise and jam on the tune.

Click here to view, print or download the Eagles – Hotel California – Solo Gtr pg1 tab

Click here to view, print or download the Eagles – Hotel California – Solo Gtr pg2 tab

Here is the lesson video to help you learn to play Hotel California…

(The video will take a few minutes to load
The menu on the left will work once the video is fully loaded ~ Enjoy)

(To enlarge the video… Click on the X in the bottom right corner)

Click Here for more free guitar lessons from John Gilliat