How to play "The Nights" on Gesture Synth
The Nights is the endurance test of the songbook. At 126 BPM with close to fifty chord changes across sixteen bars, it moves faster than anything else here, and it asks for real precision on every transition.
The structure is still a loop — mostly C#m to B with a middle section that stretches out through A, E, and B — but the pace turns that simple harmony into a genuine workout.
Difficulty: Advanced
126 BPM with nearly fifty chord changes — the fastest and most demanding chart in the songbook.
The verse loop (bars 1–8)
C#m → B, repeated. Two chords, but at 126 BPM each bar comes fast, and the i–VII alternation never lets your left hand rest.
The lift (bars 9–16)
C#m → A → E → B, twice, then the verse loop again to close. The chorus opens the harmony up to the subdominant and the dominant before snapping back to the two-chord groove.
Practice tips
- Learn the C#m → B loop at 60 BPM and only speed up when you can land ten clean cycles in a row.
- The A (degree VI) is the one major-world chord in an otherwise minor loop — a single wrist flip at the start of the chorus.
- At this tempo, anticipation is everything: move your left hand during the previous beat, not after the chord lands.
Keep going
Once you can play "The Nights" from memory, try these next:
Ready for the next challenge?
Browse the rest of the songbook or review the gesture reference.
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