Play Piano Man
"Piano Man" is one of Billy Joel's most iconic anthems. Written in the early days of his career, when he was employed playing piano at bars, the song tells the story of a piano player who plays for free drinks and to watch the lonely people at the bar who come to hear him play. It's a classic song for the piano, and can be played by intermediate-level players. By learning the right chords and hand placement, and by approaching the song with an ear for the feeling of its distinctive waltz, you can serenade your friends with a rendition of this classic. You can even throw in the harmonica to really wow the crowds. "It's nine o'clock on a Saturday…." See Step 1 to start learning to play this song.
Contents
[hide]Steps
Learning the Piano Part
- Learn the basic chords. While it takes technique and rhythm to play the song the way it is meant to be played, you've got to start by learning the basic chords. There are a few basic chord patterns, the Intro, the verse/chorus, the little riff that he uses to transition between the instrumental parts and singing, and the bridge.
- The chords to the Intro are:
- D minor 7
- D diminished 7
- The chords to the verse/chorus are:
- C major
- C diminished/B
- A minor
- A minor/B
- F major
- D minor/F#
- G major 7
- The chords to the transition riff are:
- C major
- F major
- C major 7
- G major
- The bridge chords (where he sings "la la la") are:
- A minor
- A minor/G
- D major/F#
- F major
- G major
- The chords to the Intro are:
- Learn the right hand placement. In this song, the chords are mostly played with the right hand while the left hand follows them in a basic bass descending bass accompaniment (marked above with the note after the "/". Throughout the singing part, play the chord with your right hand and follow along providing bass with your left about an octave down. The bridge is the same.
- A big part of the song is the descending bassline, which moves the song forward. In the verse, for instance, the right hand will basically hand on the C chord position, but the bass will descend from C to B ("Play me a song…"). Listen to the song to get the timing right and practice some to get the right bass notes.
- The Intro lick and the riff between the verses is chorded with the left hand and while the right hand plays melodic flourishes on the basic chord.
- Understand the structure of the song. When you've got the chords down, playing the song itself isn't too complicated. The song features several short verses of four lines each, and features the distinctive harmonica break between some of them. Before each chorus ("Sing us a song, you're the piano man…") he plays the bridge chord sequence to build up the dynamics, and after each chorus, he plays the harmonica break and the transition chord sequence. The most complicated part is that some of the verses involve more 4-line sections than others, and he also varies the pattern some, so it takes some practice to get the whole thing right. The basic structure of the song is as follows:
- Intro riff / Verse / Harmonica Break / Verse / Bridge
- Chorus / Harmonica Break / Transition
- Verse / Verse / Bridge / Verse / Harmonica Break / Verse / Piano Solo
- Chorus / Harmonica Break / Transition
- Verse / Verse / Bridge
- Chorus / Harmonica Break / Transition
- Get the right feel. The song is a bar-room ballad in 3/4, which means it should be played as a wistful waltz. It should also be played loosely, like a drinking song that might be hammered out on an out-of-tune piano in the corner of a smoky bar.
- Practice with a light touch on the keys, listening closely to get the right dynamic shifts that Joel uses in his version. The verses are basically played straight, without many right-hand frills, following the descending bassline and the right-hand chords, while the Intro fill, which repeats periodically throughout the song, is more dynamic.
- Listen to the song repeatedly to get a sense of the nuances. Even sheet music can't quite capture the feel of the song and the little licks Joel throws in to improvise. The feeling of the song is more important than getting all the notes right.
Adding the Harmonica
- Get a C harp. If you want to really kick your performance of the song into high gear, you've got to strap on a harmonica. And you can't just play any song on any old harmonica. Make sure you get a harmonica in the key of C or it'll sound off.
- In general, most starter harps that you get will be in this key, so play along to a song you know is in C and see if it sounds right to check whether or not you've got the right kind of harp. Marine Band harmonicas can be upward of $30, but are durable and have a high-quality sound, while other cheaper started harps can be much less.
- Get a harp rack. Following in the footsteps of Joel, Neil Young, and Bob Dylan, put your harmonica in a harp rack around your neck to free-up your hands to play piano and harmonica at the same time to complete the song. Typically, harp racks are available at guitar stores and other music stores and only cost a few bucks. They're cool tools to have on hand to add a little harmonica color to your songs.
- Put your lips to the harmonica correctly. Purse your lips together as if you were going to whistle, and place them on the center-most hole of the harmonica's keyholes, which should be the fifth from the left. By blowing through (exhaling) this hole only, you will create the note "E."
- Experiment a bit to learn how to make different sounds on the harmonica. By inhaling through this or any keyhole, you will create a sound one note higher than the blown note. The notes follow standard piano formation, meaning the blown notes to the right of the E are, in order; G, C, E, G, and C, while the inhaled notes are F, A, B, D, F, and A.
- Play the melody during the harmonica break. Billy Joel would be the first one to tell you that it doesn't take a rocket scientist to play the harmonica part. Since the harp's in C, you won't be able to really blow a bad note, so it's mostly about experimenting with blowing and inhaling in the proper positions to get the melody close.
- Basically, you'll play E, G, E, C, alternating sucking in and blowing out. Listen to the song and you'll be able to get it after a few tries.
Tips
- Listen to a recording of Piano Man while you're trying to learn the song, to get a feeling for how it goes.
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