Ah, the Scientist. What a song. Inspired so many people to start playing pop-piano.
Chris Martin (the lead vocalist and piano player of Coldplay) is somebody that knows his pop-piano. Knows his chords, knows his patterns. Mixes them up, combines them and uses the exact techniques that I am trying so hard to teach you all, to create his beautiful, signature piano pieces.
Sit back, watch and learn. This one is suitable for both beginners and advanced players. It's a perfect demonstration / exercise of pop-piano in it's purest (quite basic, to be honest) form.
I'm not gonna waist to many words here. Just follow the video and I think everything will be pretty clear. If not, do not hesitate to leave a comment!
Hint: pattern used is playing all the eighth-beats with your left hand, while playing (and accentuating -> playing louder) the quarter-beats with your right hand.
Have fun.
Cheers, Coen.
Questions? Remarks? Show me how you play this song! Please leave a comment below!
I'm also very curious which tutorial you'd like to see next!
Begrijp je niet wat hier gebeurt en wil je dat wel graag?
Leer zelf spelen, -alles wat er gebeurt op deze community en de piano echt begrijpen met Piano Couture's Basiscursus Pop Piano.
I am struggling on the timing of the right hand for Part 2 Chorus. Please can you advise what beats the right hand is playing.
Hi Paul, thanks for your comment!
This is kinda difficult to explain in words, but let me try *checking video*:
Ok, here’s the thing: when I play it, I sorta play ‘freely’ on the chorus. This means that I don’t take the timing to strictly, but there are two important things to note:
1. keep the left hand on steady eighth beats.
2. the right hand ‘sort of’ plays a mixture of quarter / eight beats (you could perfectly play all eights, watching your dynamics though!), but accentuates the words (syllables): NO BOdy SAID it was EAsyy.
Point 2 is what makes it tricky but also very recognizable.
Try to focus on those accents (words / syllables) and I think you should be fine! It’s not that relevant which exact beat these are here, this way is way simpler and also more ‘organic’ / musical.
Hope this helps Paul!
Cheers, Coen.