Piano Cheats

I am posting this video to show a reader-friend (who is now learning this song) how I would play the song my “cheat” way.

I have chosen to begin from the middle section of the song (i.e., not from the beginning), as that’s where you can hear the verse, chorus and the bridge one after another.

The progression for the verse goes like this:

IM7 –> I6 –> I –> I6 –> IIIm –> IIm –> V

The song is actually in C#, but I am illustrating it in C in the video, as that is the key most of us would rather play. Translated to C, the above progression looks like this:

CM7 –> C6 –> C –> C6 –> Em –> Dm –> G

Now, such monsters as CM7 and C6 have not yet been discussed on my blog but we will come to that one day. For the purpose of this song, just follow the video. Very quickly, for CM7, you play C-E-G-B notes; and for C6, you play C-E-A notes (watch my right hand in the video).

You would notice that I play Em7 and Dm7 instead of Em and Dm. As we have learned in “The 3 Minor Chords” post, you can improvise Em7 with G/E and Dm7 with F/D.

The progression for the chorus is as follows:

I –> I/M –> IV –> V –> (IV/M) –> (V/M) –> I

In the C key, that is translated to:

C –> C/E –> F –> G –> (F/A) –> (G/B) –> C

The chords in brackets “( )” above are transition chords, i.e., they are played very quickly to transit to the next main chord. You have probably noticed in the video also that the same transition chords are actually used at the end of the verse just before we enter the chorus, and also the end of each chorus progression. The transition is this:

G –> F/A –> G/B

For the “M” bass, please refer to my “The M Bass” post.

For the bridge, the progression goes like this:

IV –> IVm6/2 –> IIIm –> II/M –> IVM7/5 –> V

In the C key, that means:

F –> Fm6/D –> Em –> D/F# –> FM7/G –> G

Now, there are probably a host of questions about the chords above. I won’t go into explaining them for now, as I will cover them in future posts. But for the sake of this song, quickly, this is how you play some of them: For Fm6, play F-Ab-D notes; and for FM7, play F-A-C-E notes.

I know the above probably sounds rather complicated. But if you take note of the bass notes, there are certain patterns in them. Anyway, for now, perhaps it’s easiest to just follow the video. Here you go:

Tags: C6, CM7, engelbert Humperdinck, Fm6, FM7, how to play, last waltz, piano chords, progressions