Learn to play guitar with weekly video lessons & print-friendly guides! Learn your favorite songs & techniques with step-by-step tutorials that actually explain how to get from here to there.
🎸 Melodic Fingerstyle Fun with "Piano Man"
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LESSON #612 Click to watch free video lesson In this lesson I’ll teach you to play a melodic fingerstyle arrangement inspired by Piano Man by Billy Joel. Specifically, I show how we can play the main melody of the song (heard in the verse and chorus) and play it along with a few other notes from each chord that’s used. The result is melodic, but also harmonically rich — and is a blast to play! In addition to my main video (above), don't miss the "Part 2" video, some zoomed playthroughs, and my step-by-step practice notes — all of which will help you get up to speed & make the most of this amazingly fun arrangement. These are all available on my lesson webpage, linked immediately below. Watch video lesson & view all practice materials » Related Tips & Techniques Here's a handful of lessons I've made that teach the skills used in my new lesson. Check these out if you want to brush up on any of these while working on my new lesson:
Other Lessons with Melody Deep-Dives If you’re interested in other lessons that combine chords + melody, I’ve got several others! They’re listed below. The format of each of these is slightly different (some embrace chords more than others, some are strummed instead of fingerstyle, etc) but they’re all similar in spirit.
Strum & Sing Piano Man Lesson Coming Soon! Many of you have requested a lesson teaching the entirety of Piano Man – fear not, it's on the way! It's a much beefier song than I anticipated, so I decided to include this fingerstyle tutorial before tackling the strumming & chords. Thanks for reading to the bottom... I'll see you next week! Have a great weekend, and until then ✌️ David Browse all my lessons at songnotes.net |
Song Notes by David Pots
Learn to play guitar with weekly video lessons & print-friendly guides! Learn your favorite songs & techniques with step-by-step tutorials that actually explain how to get from here to there.
HAPPY OPENING DAY!Learn the Iconic "Centerfield" Intro Riff Click to watch free video lesson To all the baseball fans out there... I wanted to re-share this lesson I made last spring, in case you missed it. I break down the opening riff to Centerfield by John Fogerty, with my usual step-by-step guidance. I also have a sing & strum lesson available for this song, if you want to learn to play the full song, from start to finish. Such a fun song! Step-by-step practice notes, audio practice...
Must-Know Guitarist Tech Tip! Click to watch free video lesson Happy Monday, my friends — brand new lesson today featuring an incredibly helpful tip: adjusting the key of any YouTube video. Specifically, I’ll show you how to use the free Chrome plugin Transpose – which lets you easily transpose any video to a different key (as well as fine tune the pitch, adjust the speed down, create loops, etc). This started with a question I received from Song Notes member Randy, who asked: I have been...
LESSON #616Refine Your Rhythm & Never Lose the Beat! Click to watch free video lesson » If you asked me to give you one strumming lesson that’ll make the most difference your playing, it’s this one. It’s an exercise I put together over the years during my own practice – and finally I’ve made a proper lesson showing you how to do it. I’m calling it the pyramid drill – which seems fitting because of the ascend-then-descend structure, similar to what you find in many workout routines. This drill...