Piano Cheats

U.R.Y. by Hillsong

Jun 12th, 2008 by admin

This is how you can play U.R.Y. using 3 fingers – 1 on your left hand, 2 on your right hand. And you need literally only 2 ‘chords’ on your right hand.

There are two parts in this song: the verse and the chorus. Duh.

The progression for the verse actually goes like this (if u r interested, that is. Otherwise, just follow my YouTube video illustration):

VIm –> V –> IV –> I/M –> IV –> V

If this is the first time you see an “M” in a chord notation, check out my “The M Bass” post.

You should immediately notice the bass pattern in the above progression, which goes like this:

6 –> 5 –> 4 –> 3 –> 4 –> 5

The song is in G key, so the chord progression for the verse is translated to:

Em –> D –> C –> G/B –> C –> D

Just keep it this way for the moment. I will come back to this progression again shortly. Let’s turn our attention to the chorus for the moment.

The progression for the chorus goes like this:

I –> VIm –> IV –> V

And in the G key, that means:

G –> Em –> C –> D

So these are the 2 progressions we have got.

Verse: Em –> D –> C –> G/B –> C –> D

Chorus: G –> Em –> C –> D

For those of you who are interested to know how I have turned that into 2 ‘chords’ played with 3 fingers, please read on.

The Em chord here can be an Em7 chord.

The D here is actually a D4 (or Dsus4). Refer to my “Suspension (part 1)” post for Sus4.

The C here is a C2. Refer to “Suspension (part 2)” for Sus2.

What we actually have therefore should be:

Verse: Em7 –> D –> C2 –> G/B –> C2 –> D4

Chorus: G –> Em7 –> C2 –> D4

Now, Em7 can be improvised by G/E (Refer to “The 3 Minor Chords” post). Therefore, the progressions become:

Verse: G/E –> D –> C2 –> G/B –> C2 –> D4

Chorus: G –> G/E –> C2 –> D4

That looks awfully complicated but let’s examine these 3 chords: G, C2 and D4.

G chord is made up of these 3 notes: G, B, D

C2 chord is made up of these 3 notes: C, D, G

D4 chord is made up of these 3 notes: D, G, A

Notice that they all have D note and G note in common? That’s why my right hand can play these 3 chords as 1 ‘chord’ that is made up of 2 notes: D and G (and forget the rest)

The other chord that you see I play on the video is a straight D major chord, which is made up of these 3 notes: D, F# and A. But you must have noticed that I only play the first 2 notes. Well, it’s not a big sin to do so, is it? Afterall, this is ‘Piano Cheats’ here.
That D major chord occurs at 2 places: one is in the verse, just after G/E chord. The other place is as a ‘transition’ chord, more of an enhancement to the G chord and the Em7 chord in the chorus. Refer to my “Chord Mixing” post (under “Cheat Tricks” category) for this enhancement trick.