Where would you rather be? Jess Glynne, the super-talented guest vocalist for this mega-hit by Clean Bandit sings to us there’s no place she’d rather be and frankly so there is for me :). Perfectly happy actually. However, that question might get you (as it got me) thinking about setting some goals for yourself. Preferably piano oriented if I may hand you a suggestion ;). Where would you rather be in regard to your level of playing?

What an extensive, much-to-be-learnt from lesson this turned out to be. A super cool song to start with, of course. Killer track. When I flipped on the camera to film this one I knew it would become quite the tough lesson to learn, but that it would become such a gem of a tutorial … (which is not to brag btw. ‘cause that’s not completely my doing here, just a LOT of different Pop-Piano techniques, -tips, -tricks and -know-how’s come together in this song). 

Although it did indeed become a longer video (I thought of cutting it in half again, but decided I felt that in the end it makes more sense as a whole. What do you think? Do you prefer the ‘part 1 - part 2’ tutorials or just one longer one like this one? Please let me know for future improvement.), I do feel it builds up quite nicely. First tackling the chords (both simple triads as well as heavily extended chords up to 11’s are handled) showing the simple one note melody that is derived from those chords and then building it all up again, harmonizing to a truly tricky to play piano part using, of course, those chords that are the foundation.

Chorus, verse ‘part deux’ and of course that killer main riff that just cannot seem to loop enough throughout the song. Though quite challenging and sometimes even a little ‘unclear’ (yes I admit, the different options at the end can be a bit confusing, but hey, I can’t help it the original pianist on the record is also just freewheeling with chords and patterns in this track! Don’t kill the messenger, I’m just showing the real deal by explaining the concept 😉 ) it’s all in there.

Because of the gradual build of the lesson, also there is something in there for ANY and EVERY level I’m sure. Just stop where you feel you’ve reached your absolute max (or try just the one step more difficult?).

Ok, so a long tutorial deserves a long intro story too right? 🙂 So there you have it! Cheers.

Have fun!

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.