Learn to play “Yellow” by Coldplay : Piano Lesson #24

Hello everyone!

This is Shohini, and I am very pleased to have joined Edutainment! Playing the piano is my hobby and although I had wanted to play the piano since I was a child, I got the chance to learn and play this glorious instrument only as recently as 2005. I love picking up songs by ear and letting my mood decide what I play!

I am sure that all you piano lovers will agree that handing control of your thoughts to your fingers as they play the piano is nothing short of beautiful! Here is an honest confession though: I have never really been very fond of reading sheet music and prefer playing by ear any day!

It feels great to be a part of The Piano Encyclopedia team and I am very excited about bringing to you new songs to try out on the piano as part of the Piano Video Tutorials column of Edutainment!

I also have very exciting news to share! After almost three years of development, and more than 50 contributors – musicians, pianists, developers, graphic designers, writers and editors from all corners of the world, the second major venture of The Piano Encyclopedia, The Logic Behind Music Digital Home Study Course is completed!

Piano enthusiasts everywhere, rejoice! The method that revolutionizes conventional piano teaching is about to be unveiled to you!

I have been personally talking with Rod (the CEO & Founder of The Piano Encyclopedia) and he has been telling me some of the high points of our Digital Home Study Course. It is a dream come true for all of us here as we look forward to presenting before you the most exciting and fun way to “tickle the ivory”!

Interactive, innovative and exhaustive, The Logic Behind Music aims to help music enthusiasts learn the theory of music in a ‘practical way’ so that they have no trouble whatsoever in composing and improvising and get a well-deserved boost on their way to becoming musicians. So if you love playing the piano and don’t want to merely “interpret” music but “create” it as well, The Logic Behind Music is perfect for you!

Do watch this space, everyone, as I will be keeping you up to date with all the “secret” and inside sneak-peek news of the launch of the Digital Home Study Course “The Logic Behind Music”!

Today, I have a wonderful piano lesson for all of you –

You are about to learn:
Song: Yellow
Artist: Coldplay

Yellow strikes a hypnotically alluring note right from the first few chords. Produced by Coldplay and Nelson, Yellow released in 2000 and was the band’s first breakthrough hit. The song remains an eternal favourite among Coldplay fans even nine years after its original release.

Hauntingly beautiful, it is one of those songs that you simply cannot stop humming once you hear it! In fact, Yellow is one of my all-time favourite songs! The background music in the original song is mostly acoustic guitar, however, a song as melodious as Yellow can’t possibly sound anything but good on piano, can it?

The first video here is a tutorial that shows you how to play the song by slowly showing each note with the accompanying chords. If you are just starting out with the song then getting the notes right is very important so you can learn the right notes to play from this video and then listen to the actual song to get the tempo right.

The next video is an amazing piano rendition by Adrian Lee who has played this entirely by ear. You can see the notes and chords that he has played quite clearly. How we all wish we were this good, right?

Now let me tell you a little about the original song video. The band had come up with the idea to film the video in a happy, sunny background with moving stars in the sky – an allusion to the lyrics. Yet, the weather played spoilsport with Studland Bay, where the video was filmed, being held hostage by howling winds and rain. Right then, let us have a look at the video itself!

Enjoy yourselves while learning to play this, and remember to:
“Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And all the things you do”

I hope you liked this piano lesson!

If you would like to take your piano playing skills to the next level so that you can easily play all the songs you love on the piano, do look forward to the launch of The Logic Behind Music! I promise you that you will have even more fun creating your own music following our approach towards learning music!

Till then,
~ Shohini 🙂

—

Now we have a new fun feature as part of the run-up to the release of The Logic Behind Music.

I will be asking trivia questions regarding the song taught in each post and all of you are invited to submit the answer in the comment box. In a particular quiz, the first person to give the right answer will be the winner. We are also going to have weekly “merit lists” where I will mention the winners with the most number of correct answers in this very column!

Sounds exciting, right? So are you ready for today’s question? Here it goes!

What, according to the band is the theme of the song, Yellow?
(Answer: “Yellow refers to the mood of the band. Brightness and hope and devotion” and also Chris Martin’s unrequited love.)

Piano Encyclopedia Lesson Report: Music Fundamentals Release Today!

Hi Everyone,

I’d like to tell you about Piano Encyclopedia’s upcoming release of the Piano Lesson Report I: Music Fundamentals on October 5th at 4pm EST. We’ve shown you videos on how to play certain songs throughout our blog and thought that the Piano Lesson Report could really help you out in actually understanding how to play those songs you love.

It can be difficult learning a song without actually knowing what the keys are called and how they should be played with a certain note, so Piano Lesson Report I: Music Fundamentals could help you understand how to play all those songs you love.

Let me show you some of the things that Piano Lesson Report I: Music Fundamentals includes so you can see what I mean when I say you could actually understand how to play the songs, instead of just knowing what key to push.

Get to know the fundamentals of composing, and improvising:
Discover how mastering scales, chords, and music intervals will take your piano skills to the next level.

Starting right at the beginning: chords, scales, and music intervals explained!

Discover how to use intervals to play any chord or scale type on ANY key, without having to memorize every single note.

Understand why chords sound like they do, find out the relationship between music intervals and the basic chord types.

Master the major and minor triad chords and learn to play them on any key- by using the music intervals.

Get a sneak peak into more complex Jazz and Blues chords and the role music intervals play here too.

Discover the relationship between Scales and intervals, and get a sneak peak into some interesting scales.

Learn what scales or chords are usually helpful in creating a sad, melancholic, romantic, happy or cheerful mood for a song – and understand why.

Get an introduction to all the fundamentals so you’re ready to get into composing and improvising.

We’ve included Tons of Piano Interval & Chord Charts full of graphics, so you can print them out and practice everything right in your piano

And more…

As you can see you will actually get an understanding of the chords, scales, and intervals which could really help you out in the end because every song is created by a chord and then a scale and then intervals.

Check out the following screenshots from the report:

Now if you’d like to get your hands on Piano Lesson Report I: Music Fundamentals but are worried that its going to cost you tons of money, don’t be. Piano Encyclopedia is actually releasing it with no price, meaning you won’t have to pay for a thing. You will get 55+ pages of unique content, over 100+ illustrations, and over 7 piano charts without having to pay a thing. Now if you were to go to a music store and look for the same thing you’d pay an arm and a leg for numerous books that are full of nothing but repeat content in each.

The release will be on October 5th at 4pm EST, but Piano Encyclopedia is actually offering bonuses for those that subscribe to receive Piano Lesson Report I: Music Fundamentals before 4pm EST. If you are interested just simply click on the following title and it will take you there to do so.

Reserve Your Very Own Piano Lesson Report I: Music Fundamentals Now

You can also look through Piano Encyclopedia’s blog for further information on Piano Lesson Report I: Music Fundamentals. They have been updating their blog constantly to give the viewers more information on the release and reminding everyone the amount of time they have left before people can no longer reserve their spot to receive Piano Lesson Report I: Music Fundamentals plus the bonuses. You can still reserve your spot after 4pm EST, but you won’t receive the bonuses that are being included for the people that reserve their copy before 4pm EST.

Piano Encyclopedia’s Blog

Hope that I’ve helped you out even further with learning how to play your piano. Feel free to leave feedback or questions on Piano Lesson Report I: Music Fundamentals. I’ll gladly answer all questions and feedback that you throw at me.

~Chrissi~

Master Piano Improvisation

Do you play piano?

…Yes?!

But can you play without a score, without a list of chords, without a written or specified melody?

The most common scene for a piano student: you perform a little concert for a group of friends, and after you finish playing your most well-known pieces, one of them asks you: “Hey could you play for me anything from jazz or blues?…” or “Could you play for me something similar to [this song that you don’t know, nor have the score in front of you!] ?
Most times you answer evasively thus hiding your frustration that you don’t have a clue on how to do that, and play another song for them…. until now!

Our friend Paul Tobey, a concert pianist full of knowledge and experience, will give us a quick lesson about improvising at the keyboard or piano:

One of the greatest thrills a pianist can have is to be able to sit at the piano and just play; without music and without thought. Unfortunately many pianists never learn to do this. They are closely tied to their music because that’s not only what’s comfortable for them that’s the way they learned.

However, what if I were to tell you that in as little as ten piano lessons you could be playing your favorite melodies without music and also be able to improvise as well? Would that be something you’d be interested in? Take a moment and picture you sitting at the piano at a party and just playing. How does it feel? Great, that’s what you need to feel if you’re going to do what it takes to learn properly.

Let’s get started. In our first piano lesson, you must understand how music is structured in order to be able to improvise. Most western music is based on what we call tertian harmony, which simply means chord structures that are based on intervals of three. For example a C major chord is made up of the notes C E and G. Each of these notes is spaced a third away from the next.

So, assuming that all chords are based on tertian harmony, then next thing you need to know is where do the notes we choose for our chords come from? Well, they come directly out of a major or minor scale. For example; let’s take a C major scale which is C D E F G A B and back to C. When we build chords on top of each of the notes of a major scale we would build them in intervals of 3 and the quality of the chord (major or minor) is determined by the scale.

That means just like our C major chord which is C E and G (notes chosen from the major scale), our F major chord would be F A and C, where A and C are notes from the C major scale. We wouldn’t use for example Ab or C# because they do not come from the C major scale. Likewise for a G major chord, G B and D, the note B and D come also from the C major scale.

The number of the chord is important as well. Since our C major chord is built on the first note of the scale we call this one (1). The F major chord is four (4) because it is built on the 4th note of the C major scale. And, the G major chord is five (5) because it’s the 5th note of the C major scale.

Coincidentally, the chords C, F and G or 1, 4 and 5 are what most classical and popular music is based upon. The vast majority of songs use the chord progression 4, 5 to 1 which is the most common chord progression there is.

Understanding the 4, 5, 1 chord progression is essential to understating how to improvise. Knowing that 4 is followed usually by 5 and then resolving to 1 is of high importance if you wish to be able to play your favorite music without using sheet music.

In our next piano lesson we’ll discuss how to substitute richer chords for the 4, 5, 1 progression and how to choose our melody notes so as to create and improvisational theme.

I hope you enjoyed this lesson as much as I did.

I’ve studied piano for more than 12 years and let me tell you that in order to master the piano you must understand how music really works. When you get to know that, you’ll be able to play, compose, and improvise at ease.

We’ll be posting more interesting piano lessons in the following weeks.

Please tell us if this lesson was useful to you and what piano related-topics would you be most interested in learning!

Cheers!

Rod

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