Walking in Memphis - Marc Cohn

Timeless piano-riffs are those that just ‘ring’. That sound brilliant and get stuck in your mind the very moment you hear 'em. Good old, true Pop-Piano music: music that is driven by one of those masterly crafted riffs, played on our beloved instrument. This is one of ‘em. And guess what I’m gonna show you today? How it’s built (out of chords and patterns of course!) and how to play it.

Awesome stuff (I do tend to say that a lot now do I…? Maybe because I just love the songs I’m throwing atcha 🙂 ).

See how ‘easy’ it can be to both write such a part and to reproduce (play) it? C, F, G, Am, all chords that even the very beginners know (and they don't even have a third!). Of course, the trap in that ‘ease’ is: trying to make it magical without being lame. Using basic chords, a basic progression and a fairly simple pattern is dangerous ground for writing songs (especially these days). However, for the playing side of the story, it’s just great that the stuff is fairly easy, right?!

Sounding cool while sticking to an, I would say… beginner - intermediate level for this week (ok, the middle part get’s a bit more intermediate - advanced). How cool is that. Now that I write it down like this… this is just plain awesome!

Stuff in there for everybody, taking it from easy to a bit more challenging. Flat out super lesson. 

Have fun and let me know how you’re doing!

Cheers, Coen.

All skills, tricks, tips, techniques and knowledge from this- and all other lessons @ this website are taken and can be learnt from my book / course ‘Hack the Piano‘ – The unconventional shortcut method to truly understand music and the piano.

About Coen

Founder of Piano Couture and creator of the Hack the Piano method. Coen is a musician, reader, writer, web-designer, eater and traveler. Find him at CoenModder.com

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