Mandy by Barry Manilow
Jul 6th, 2008 by admin
I have done this song the “cheat” way — in the C key and using only the 3 basic chords (on the right hand). I hope a beginner, especially an adult beginner, will find this easy to follow.
The progression for the verse goes like this (played twice):
C –> G/C –> F/D –> F/C –> F/Bb –> F/G
That means your right hand plays: C, G, F, F, F, F in that order.
And your left hand plays: C, C, D, C, Bb, G in that order.
The alphabet to the right of (or under) the “/” sign means the bass note. When it is not there, you just place the same note as the chord symbol.
For example, when you see a “C”. Play C chord on the right hand, and the C note on the left hand. But if you see “C/A”, that means you should play C chord on the right hand, with the A note on the left hand.
The chorus goes like this (also played twice):
C –> C/A –> C/F –> G –> F/G –>G –> C
You will note that in the video, I played the F chord in its root position, but for the G chord, I used the 2nd inversion, and for the C chord, I used the 1st inversion. The different positions/inversions simply make it easier to change chords, without having to move my right hand too much. See my “Inversions” post if you need help with understanding inversions.
Here is the video illustration…
