Learn the shortcuts to play your favourite songs
Jan 16th, 2009 by admin
This is a request by a YouTube viewer. The song is in the key of D.
Part 2 is the chorus of the song. Part 3 is the bridge. Part 4 is the interlude (instrumental), whereas Part 5 is the chorus repeated in the key of E.
Jan 13th, 2009 by admin
For this demo video, I only showed a section of the song before the bridge and the bridge itself. This is because the chord progression is the same throughout the song from the beginning till the bridge, i.e., the same as “Part 1” in the video.
“Part 2” is the bridge. There are a couple of chords just before the bridge. I named that part “Transition” in the video.
The song is in the key of F#.
These are the “cheat” chords I played…
Part 1: D#m7 - B2 - F# - C#
Transition: B2 - F#/A#
Part 2: G#m7 - B - D#m7 - C#
Ending of Part 2: B2
Jan 9th, 2009 by admin
This song is in the key of G.
I have divided it into 4 parts, and subdivided Part 1 and Part 3 into smaller parts to simplify the learning. The subparts differ only by their endings.
It should be quite easy to follow the video.
Please allow me to repeat myself (again): The video is meant for those who would like to pick up piano-playing quickly the karaoke style, i.e., singing the melody while playing. I use only two fingers on my right hand to further simplify playing and also so that it’s easy to see the notes that I play in the video. You don’t have to follow my fingering. Use any fingers more convenient to you.
Part 1a & 1b: G - D/F# - Em7 - Bm7 - C - C/D
Part 2: C - G/B - Am - Am/G - D/F#
Part 3a: Em7 - Bm7 - C - D - G - D/F#
Part 3b: Em7 - Bm7 - C - D - G - B/D#
Part 3c: Em7 - Bm7 - C -Cm6
Part 4: Bm7 - Em7 - Am - C/D - G
This song is a request by a reader. It is probably more suited for guitar than piano. The instrument one hears in this song by Rihanna is a guitar, not a piano. Anyway, if I were to implement that on piano, this is how I would do it (see demo video).
The line is repeated again and again throughout the song. And that’s it!
Again, the fingers I used in the video are so that the viewer can see the notes I played more clearly. So please don’t follow the fingering. It’s tough to play like this! On my right hand, however, it is difficult for me to make it any clearer. So, in order to follow clearly, you may need to slow down the video.
A few people have commented about my previous video on Rihanna’s song (Cry) being too fast. The way to slow the video down is to first download it from YouTube, then play the video from your harddisk using something like Windows Media Player that allows you to adjust the playback speed.
The “cheats” chords I played are:
G#m7 - B - F# - E
For the G#m7 chord, the notes I played in the video are G#,D#,G#,A#,B,C#;
for the B chord, the notes are B,F#,A#,B,C#;
for the F# chord, the notes are F#,C#,F#,G#,B,A#,B
for the Eb chord, the notes are E,B,F#,G#
Jan 6th, 2009 by admin
I have divided this song into 4 parts. However, Part 1 and Part 3 actually share the same chord progression of I –> V –> IIm –> IV.
One would notice that Part 2 and Part 4 actually use the same four chords above too, though in different orders. In fact, the entire song uses only these 4 chords.
For beginners, the challenge is in playing the rhythm well. Try it out.
These are the “cheat” chords I played in the video…
Part 1: C - G - Dm7 - F (4x)
Part 2: Dm7 - G - C - F - Dm7 - G
Part 3: Same as Part 1
Part 4: Dm7 - F - C - G (2x)
