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Easy Play Pop Song Piano
Coffee Break Piano 6: Walking on Sunshine
Easy to Play Pop Songs on the Piano
The 6th in the Coffee Break series – playing pop songs on piano in just a coffee break 10 minutes!
1 Learn to Play the Melody with Just 5 Notes
2 Add a Left Hand with 2 Simple Chords
3 Train Your Ear and Aural
4 Read Some Notes If You Like
5 Piano Improvisation: Restylise and Make Your Own Piano Cover
Have you ever wanted to learn how to play a pop song on the piano in 10 minutes or less? With our step-by-step Coffee Break Piano Course, you will be able to get started quickly and easily. We’ll walk you through 5 simple steps so that you can start playing your favorite pop song on the piano right away!
Learn to Play the Melody with Just 5 notes
An easy way to learn a pop song on the piano quickly is to focus on the melody first. Get started with the 5 black notes. This song has one simple melody that is repeated 3 times and then has a short ending. The repeated phrase is in two sections resembling a head and tale or question and answer style structure: “I’m Walking on Sunshine” and “Whoa”.
Play Piano Pop Songs in 10 Mins | Walking on Sunshine Melody
Add a Left Hand with 2 Simple Chords
Now that you have the melody of your pop song memorized, let’s add a left hand. You only need two bass notes, Gb and Ab (the left and middle black notes of the group of 3). Once you’ve added these (Gb-Ab for the “head” and back to Gb for the “tail”), then try some chords.
Chords are usually three notes played together so it will only take a few moments to learn how to play two different chords.
The first chord is Gb Major and on the video I show you how to count 4 semitones up plus another 3 semitones to find the remaining notes.
The second chord is Ab minor, simply count up 3 semitone steps plus 4 more to find the other two notes.
Once you have these two chords down, practice playing them along with the Walking on Sunshine piano melody.
Train Your Ear and Aural
Ear and aural training is an important part of learning to play the piano. As you learn new chords and melodies, be sure to train your ear by listening carefully and trying to identify the notes you hear.
I like to use the Kodaly technique that focuses on Solfège (the Do Re Mi system). I find that piano students rapidly improve with this ear training method.
This melody uses the pentatonic scale and so just needs the notes Do, Re, Mi, So and La.
With practice, your ear will become better at picking out notes and creating parts that fit together well, potentially even helping you to play piano by ear.
Read some Notes If You Like
If you prefer a more structured approach to playing, you can also try reading some treble clef notes on sheet music. If you don’t read sheet music notes, you can still follow this video by perceiving music notation as a simple graph of high/low against long/short (pitch against time). Once you get the basics down, you can start improvising your own parts and creating your own personal sound on the piano.
Piano Improvisation: Restylise and Make Your Own Piano Cover
Improvisation is a great way to release and self-express. The idea that you can “simply sit at the piano and play” is a dream for many.
YOU CAN IMPROVISE AT THE PIANO TODAY!
Take the 2 chords, make a pattern with them to create an introduction, play the song, experiment with the chords, return to the Walking On Sunshine melody, then create an ending.
You’ll have this done in the 10 minutes! I set myself a maximum of 2 recording targets for these videos so that they are genuinely fresh and spontaneous.
How to Play a Pop Song on the Piano in Just 10 Mins
(in a Coffee Break)
Want to learn how to play pop songs on the piano easily, in a matter of minutes? The Coffee Break Piano tutorials are certainly for you! If you’d like even more detailed instruction, then explore The Maestro Online Piano Lessons Library of Courses.
Explore The Maestro Online Piano Tutorials
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