This week our good friend and super-talented singer-songwriter Tom Odell shows us exactly what can be accomplished on the piano, using chord- and pattern-knowlegde.
He truly is another perfect example of somebody that really knows how to put chords and patterns to good use in his music. Both for creating and performing his beautiful songs.

This song involves some fairly simple chords (I’m sure you all know how to play C and G, right?), but in this song Tom really shows how to take these simple chords to the next level, by using some more advanced chord-knowledge: choosing interesting voicings and inversions.
Killer pattern added and there you have it. That’s what I’m talking about. Exactly what I’m trying to teach y’all. Exactly what Hack the Piano is all about.

Take a close look at what happens in the video and tell me the ROOT positions (bottom to top note) of the triads that are used in this song (so ‘transform’ each chord voicing to the root position triad and tell me how to play it, this is a great exercise and will improve your general understanding).

Oh, before I forget, one last little note: I changed the red/blue dot meaning in the pictures for more clarity:

• Red dots are played with your right hand.
• Blue dots are played with your left hand.
• (yellow dots, not in this video) from now on will be notes that are either optional, or played later, but still in the same chord.

From now on this will be the case.

Intro/Verse part 1

Intro/Verse part 2

Chorus