Hey All!

What's up?

Anything new you're playing you'd like to share?

Anything new you'd like to learn?

Please tell us all in the comments, or start a topic at the forum and let the whole piano community help you out! (at least, I will :)).

Also check out the contest at the bottom of this lesson, with the grand prize of a FREE SKYPE LESSON FROM ME, TEACHING YOU ANYTHING PIANO-RELATED YOU WANT (30 mins).

Today I'm gonna give you a very, very valuable tip, using a very, very easy tutorial to demonstrate it right away.

Especially all you girls out there are gonna love this one.

Guys: either bite the dust, or go with the flow and learn this song to MASSIVELY impress your girl. 😉

 

Diamonds are Forever.

Remember diamonds? And how they are forever? As it seems, so is the case with the woman singing about them in this current monster-hit: Rihanna.

Coincidentally, it's also the case with the skill I'll be teaching you in this lesson: It, too, is forever. (and very helpful/cool/pleasing/awesome/great/wowing/admirable/tremendous/terrific/marvelous for a lifetime ;)).

Read on and learn how to shine.

'Over-the-top-pop' is actually not really my thing, but I like Rihanna. She can truly sing.

Her songs are written pretty awesomely too. Very strong and nice melodies that get stuck in your head the moment you hear them.

Strong melodies not always need difficult chords. Especially not with heavy production 'shizzle' going on like it is with all of Rihanna's songs.

Any aspiring producer should -whether it's your style and musical flavour or not- keep a very close ear out to all of her many producers (ranging from Kanye West and Timbaland to 'Diamonds'' Benny Blanco).

The song 'Diamonds', once undressed of all these production gimmicks and heavy beats, is actually very, very easy to play.

I put it up this week for two reasons:

1. Because it's a great tune for everyone who's just starting out on their piano-journey, learning your first few-, (or a few new) simple chords.

Especially for all you female-singer-beginner-pianists: The piano-part can be easily played and sung with at the same time.

2. Because although it's easy to play, a wise lesson can be learned from it (multiple actually, but I'll stick to just the one for this week ;)).

 

Learn to listen, listen to learn.

 

Next to practicing, the best thing you can do to learn music, is to listen to music.

I get asked oh so many times: "how long does this chord last?", "how many times do I have to play this chord?", "how long do I wait here, what's this piece?", "when do I go to this next part?" etc.

My response to all these questions is always similar: "Listen to the original and try to figure it out yourself!".

This is not because I'm trying to be a bastard. It's because it's one of the best tips I can possibly give you.

 

Listen to the original and copy.

 

Closely listening to things you want to learn to play, is actually a big part of learning them. It develops your musical ear. This is one of the most precious skills to have and one you should keep developing for the rest of your life. Nobody is every done with improving this skill. Nobody. It just cannot be good enough.

Copying, is the second step in learning. Tip: Copying somebody you like, learns you skills you like. Skills you want to learn. Capish?

Remember when I told you about the similarities between learning a language and learning music?

First you listen, then you imitate (copy). For next steps and more clarification on this subject click here and read.

 

Listening and learning.

 

I know that figuring out what somebody else is playing, can be quite hard. But don't be afraid, I'll always be here to help you with that, figuring out the chords for you.

Learning this yourself, however, can be a really satisfying and exciting skill to gain and develop.

Listening to something and trying to recognise the change in harmony -although you might not exactly hear which harmony (chord) it changes to at the moment (not a problem for now, I'm always going to be telling you that, so you can always check and 'cheat')- is the first step to getting there.

It also solves all your problems regarding 'when exactly should I play this chord': just listen to the original and you'll hear for yourself. Really, trust me. This is very simple and a great exercise!

Figuring out yourself, mind you, also GREATLY improves your memory of the song. (damn! yet another great reason doing this! I'm thinking of more and more as I keep typing!).

 

Let your ears decide.

 

Wondering if you're correct? PLAY ALONG WITH THE ORIGINAL AND LISTEN TO HOW IT SOUNDS!

'Let your ears decide' will be the subject of an upcoming lesson, because this might actually be on of the best pieces of advice you can get.
Apart from checking to see if you're right (does it SOUND right when you play along with the original?), there's more to why this advice is important. Stay tuned to find out later.

 

So… what exactly can we learn from Rihanna then? Nothing really. At least not piano-related, since she herself doesn't play the keyboards in this song ;). So let's listen to the awesome James Poyser, her keyboard player on this track.

 

Diamonds.

 

 

The whole song is played repeating these four chords.

Exercise / contest: FIGURE OUT WHERE IN TIME (SO:WHEN) EXACTLY TO PLAY THE FOURTH CHORD: D/F#.

The thing I get asked all the time when teaching this song is: WHEN to play the D/F# chord (the fourth chord). Well, LISTEN and figure out for yourself. 🙂

All other chords are, really simply, played on every first beat of every measure, but the timing of the last chord D/F# is aberrant.

IN THE COMMENTS BELOW, TELL ME WHERE THIS CHORD IS PLAYED (SO ON WHAT COUNT / BEAT?).

I'M GIVING AWAY A FREE SKYPE LESSON (30 mins) WITH ME TEACHING YOU THIS SONG AT YOUR PACE, OR ANY OTHER THING PIANO-RELATED YOU'D LIKE TO LEARN, TO SOMEBODY WITH THE CORRECT ANSWER (RANDOM COMMENTER WILL BE PICKED ONE WEEK AFTER THIS POST GOES LIVE)! I DARE YOU ;).

To easy? Want to 'dress things up'? Take a look at these three options:

 

1. Pattern: chord right - top note of next inversion, used on the first three chords.

 

Try playing every chord on the first beat of every measure (like the original) and playing the top note of the next inversion (coincidentally, because all these chords are played in root position, here this always is the root-note of the chord) on the second quarter beat of every measure.

 

[vimeo clip_id="57282966" width="590" height=""]

 

2. All eighth' beats right.

 

Used to give a better sense of time and rhythm. Easy, look at the example. N.B. Also great to use as an exercise for rhythm! (in other words: do, but not keep when you're on-stage performing this song).

 

[vimeo clip_id="57282967" width="590" height=""]

 

3. Combine the two. (GET CREATIVE!).

 

Mess around! Nothing is good, nothing is wrong. Just make up your own pattern, using a 'random' combination of the two patterns above!

 

[vimeo clip_id="57283721" width="590" height=""]

 

(4. Advanced and optional. The key of the song is Bm. As learned later on in the course, so for all you more advanced players: try adding in some other notes from this key maybe?)

 

Have a nice idea? Found / created a beautiful piano piece for this song yourself this way? Share it with us!

Show us your creativity in the comments below! (paste link of youtube url to your video).

 

That's it for now, happy playing and see ya next week!

 

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.