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 |
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...