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.
"Piano Man" Sing & Strum Guitar Lesson!
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LESSON #614 Click to watch free video lesson In today’s lesson I’ll teach you a guitar arrangement of Piano Man, the 1973 classic from Billy Joel. This song uses a singular chord progression for most of the song (intro, verse, chorus) — which I’ll walk you through step by step. I’ll also include a handful of practical ways to simplify some of the trickier chords, as translating piano chords to a guitar isn’t always straightforward. To the many of you who requested this song in the past few years, I hope you enjoy!
Visit my lesson webpage for all additional resources for this song. Zoomed playthroughs without singing, the lyric sheet I recommend, and my step-by-step practice guide, and more. WANT MORE OF THAT WALTZ FEEL? Piano Man is counted in three-quarter time ("ONE two three ONE two three"), which is a bit rare in popular guitar music these days — but it still shows up from time to time. Here's the other lessons I've made for songs in that same time signature:
More on Piano Man As I've noted above, I've received a ton of requests for Piano Man over the years. It's one of those epic songs I knew I'd get to eventually... it was just a matter of "waiting for my set" – to quote Bodhi from Point Break. I'm not sure if it was a recent request I received that lit the fire... or maybe it was a Stranger Themes meme my daughter showed me that got it stuck in my head. Music is funny that way... in my experience at least, you don't choose the songs that plant themselves in your ear. I'm not quite sure what to think when a lesson is nearly 30 minutes long... if you have an opinion let me know! Not all songs get that much detail & attention, but for some I tend to think it's warranted. But just the same... would it be better suited if I shipped in it multiple parts? Epic songs deserve it, I tend to think... but I still wonder. Recent Recommendations Master the Guitar Fretboard: 6 Levels of Difficulty – from Lessons with Marcel, whose bluegrass tutorials are amazing. The production on this video is out of this world... I can't recommend it enough. Mr Elmore's Music Lab – a new YouTube series from Mr Elmore, presented in spoken word podcast-like videos. You can listen while doing the dishes, etc. Absolutely love the insights throughout. The Pentatonic Box Debate – from StichMethod Guitar. This topic has been on my mind lately, after receiving some very helpful feedback from a long-time member about naming scale positions. More to come soon, but I love Stich's take on this. That's it for today – thanks for reading, and I'll see you in the next one! David Browse all my lessons at songnotes.net
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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 Monday, my friends! To those of you impacted by the winter storm across the USA, I hope you're holding up okay. Here in Austin, we had a blanket of ice descend across our yard & street. The kids enjoyed a snow day off school, and my routine has been a bit up-ended... but we're in good spirits! Today I want to showcase some helpful practice tips from my lesson library, in addition to some new Q&A videos I posted in the Song Notes members forum. Let's dive on in! IN CASE YOU MISSED...
LESSON #612Melodic Fingerstyle Fun with "Piano Man" 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...
My friends! A new year is upon us, and before my next lesson I want to share a summary of all the lessons I made in 2025. For your convenience, I've grouped them all by category. Each lesson is linked below... enjoy! AT LONG LAST!Guitar 101 In Spring 2025, I finally released a much-requested series on videos on guitar fundamentals. These are aimed at folks who are getting started or otherwise looking for some guidance along their guitar-playing journey. While there are more videos I plan on...