Hi all!

What's up?

Today I'm going to devote a lesson to a much requested, follow-up tutorial, to the quite popular youtube video that I made just over a month ago and has already reached over 19000 views in this short period! Wow. Thanks to all you viewers :).

By the way, my youtube channel recently reached it's 100K-views-checkpoint! Wow again!

It's so rewarding to see that so many people are enjoying my efforts. Subscribers over 360, views at the time of writing of this post already over 110 thousand! Thank you so much. These are some of the main things that keep me going. Really grateful to be of help to so many. 🙂
If you are one of those who enjoy my lessons, please share them with as many people possible, hit like, thumbs up, re-tweet etc. and help me reach as many people possible that could use my help! Thanks.

This passenger-video (part 1) taught you how to play the intro to the song "Let her go". Due to the many, many requests I received, I decided to make one that teaches you the rest of the song too.

 

Passenger - Let her go part 2.

 

As I also tell you in the video, I suggest you first learn the intro, taught in the video for part 1. If you can play that, great, let's continue where we left of.

 

The version I play here is my own version, but is a version that works perfectly well in any situation with a singer, a guitar, both of them, or even with a whole band.

As always with my 'home made versions', it also demonstrates how to put chords and patterns to good use.

 

 

(the rest of the 'used chords' per part of the song (chorus, verse part 1 and 2) can be found at the bottom of this post)

 

 

How did I make this version? Here's a step-by-step (quick)-guide:

 

Step 1: Listen to the song and it's 'feel'.

Think of a (mixture of) pattern(s) to emulate this feel. Maybe tap or drum a little on the knees, along with the song to really get the feel. More on patterns and feel here.

 

Step 2: Find out the key of the song.

I do this by ear, but this can be difficult for beginners or students with untrained musical hearing.

 

Alternative options for step 2: Either listen to what I tell you the key is, look it up elsewhere or (a slightly more advanced technique) 'trial and error'.

 

Trial and error method (also a very good exercise to train your hearing, and harmonic knowledge):

While the original song is playing (sounds), play a random note. Does it sound ok or 'out of key'? If ok: remember the note and play another note. If your first note was 'out of key': forget that note and play another one.

Repeat and remember 'ok' notes, until you have at least 3 of these 'ok' notes.

Now think of a scale that has all three of these notes in it. Play the scale along with the song. Do all notes sound ok? Or did it contain one or more notes that sounded 'out of key'? If ok: you found the key of the song. If 'out of key' notes were in the scale: try another scale that also contains the 3 'ok' notes.

Let the song play all this time and LET YOUR EARS DECIDE! Does it SOUND good?

If you don't hear it, this technique might be too advanced for you and you should, for now, go with options that tell you the key. *

More on the importance of listening here.

 

Step 3: Listen to the bass notes played and figure them out.

(beginner-note: this is way easier now that you know the key of the song, because you now have only eight notes to choose from, in stead of 12). Remember these bass notes and you know what the harmonies of the song are, i.e. what the chord progression is. More on the importance of bass notes, and their relevancy to what the chords of a song are here.

 

Step 4: Match up the correct chords to the bass notes.

If you do not immediately hear if a harmony (chord) is major or minor (or, with other songs maybe: dim, aug, sus etc), use your ears again in a 'trial and error' run: play the chord along with the original song: sound good? Great. Not? Try another chord. Also use the key of the song to determine which notes you can use to build the chord. More on this here.

 

Step 5: Listen to top notes (either from instruments or from the melody as it is sung) and choose voicings that fit / sound good / that you like (for example: inversions with these top notes).

In the first part of the verse, you'll see and hear me play 'phrases' of the melody as it is sung, to 'weave' in my total piano-part. This works really well sometimes. So don't try and play the whole melody (as this is already sung), but you can put in tiny bits of it sometimes.

 

Step 6 (optional): Colour the chords with some extension notes to your own taste (I added some '9's' to the C's, '7's' to the Em's and Bm's and 'sus4's' to the D's here and there).

 

Step 7: Put it all together, mix in a couple of more patterns. Wanna learn all the basic patterns, and how to mix and match them to your own taste? Try the course.

 

Step 8: Play the song like you're on stage at Maddison Square Garden: put in all of your emotion and feeling.

 

Good luck. :).

 

Order of the parts / chords:

 

 

 

 

Please, in the comments, tell me what you think of the 'extra keyboard with lighting keys' in the video. Like it, or not?
Do you still like every chord-picture with red / blue dots appearing when that chord is played, or is this no longer of value, now that the notes I play light up on the extra keyboard?

I'd really appreciate your help and input, to keep making the lessons better! Thanks.

See ya next week.

Cheers, Coen.

(* note that this is just one of more steps to consider to find the key of a song. It can be used like described, but is no bullet-proof method that works flawlessly for every song. I'll spare you the details for now, but the most important condition is that the song needs to be diatonic, which means that the key doesn't change).

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!

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.