Remix · Jazz standard in a custom tuning

Custom-tuning remix
Requires Open—Shape Pro

Stella by Starlight — reimagined in C G D G B C

Originally by Victor Young (jazz standard) Tuning used here C G D G B C (Michael Hedges' "Rickover's Dream" tuning) Key idea a standard that never resolves, refretted in a Hedges original

This isn't how Stella by Starlight was originally played. It's a jazz standard with no fixed guitar tuning of its own — this page takes its real, widely-taught chord changes (the Real Book / Miles Davis reading) and refrets them in Michael Hedges' own C G D G B C tuning, just to hear a famously "searching" jazz progression inside a fingerstyle composer's harmonic world.

Stella opens on Em7⁠♭⁠5 — a half-diminished chord instead of a stable root — so the whole tune feels like it's looking for home from the first bar. That resolves toward A7⁠♭⁠9, then a real ii–V–I lands on Bb major, before the same searching half-diminished idea returns a step lower to push toward D.

Em7⁠♭⁠5 A7⁠♭⁠9 Cm7 F7 B⁠♭⁠maj7 E⁠♭⁠maj7 Am7⁠♭⁠5 D7⁠♭⁠9

This is the tune's first half as commonly taught (the Real Book / Miles Davis reading) — open the progression below to hear every extension, including both ♭5 and ♭9 chords, actually fretted in C G D G B C.

This tuning isn't in the free plan. Unlock Pro to dial in C G D G B C and hear the real changes remixed.

Remix with Open—Shape

Every chord — including both ♭5 and ♭9 extensions — verified against the app's own voicing engine in the real C G D G B C tuning.