This week I have a very nice one for all you up-tempo lovers, blues-piano style lovers, Motown-feel lovers and Northern-soul fans out there.

John Newman, the up and coming rising star (his first hit "Love me again", has already topped the English charts at peak position no. 1, click here for my lesson featuring that song if you missed it earlier), is about to officially release his second single: 'Cheating' in the first week of October 2013.
However, the official music video on youtube has already reached an outrageous 2 million views in just over three weeks time.

Want to be the first to play this song, even before it is officially released? Well, I got just the thing for you right here! :). 

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Many of you like her, probably just as many of you don't. However, she's big and she knows how to make her hits.

This lesson teaches those of you that do like her how to play her current biggest hit. For the rest of you it's still a nice exercise of stripping down a monster production and building it back up to a fuller piano-part (chorus).

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Yes, we've indeed already been quite funky a few times in the last few weeks, right?

Thing is, this tune just got me noddin' my head right away, the very first time I heard it. As I saw quite a few people around me doing the same whenever this song sounded, I figured the interest for learning how to play it might be quite high.

As there are no keys (piano) in the original, I also thought it might be another fun example / exercise of how to make a piano song out of a non-piano song, copying bass lines (left hand) and harmony parts (in this case a rhythm/funk guitar, right hand).

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Super sweet, silky yet jumpy, very nice progression and of course: what a vocal track (not the "lalala", that's a sample, the actual singer. Nice).

Also, as you might have guessed (why else would I put it up??) it's another good, no wait, great example of:

• "Few chords yet super-song"
• How patterns can completely change up a chord progression (in other words: how to play a completely different thing with the exact same chords)

This week is sort of a 'primer', as I decided to try something new: split up the tutorial.

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Look, or actually listen, to what an upbeat pattern can do to a very simple, four-chord progression.

Absolutely stunningly danceable tune that's on it's way of conquering the charts.

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Pricelessly beautiful music and .. yes.. you've guessed it: involving and revolving around Pop-Piano at it's best.

Since this week, the new All Major and Minor SCALES / KEYS Cheat Sheet was released and is now up for sale, I decided to give away a few by creating a very applicable contest:

Want to win? Here's how:

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She's sad.

Guess we should be glad for that... else this song would have never been born, right?

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A sweaty, sexy, beast of a beat.

The minimalist approach that we've seen entering the charts many times before is obviously working it's magic for this current monster-hit as well again.

Minimal also implies a not-too-hard to play piano part (which, as I also mention in the end of the video is actually played on a wonderful Rhodes piano).

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Yes people, I've gone mad, bad and sadly very, very commercial on this one.

The thing is, I got such a lot of requests to make a lesson for this song, that, when realising it's actually quite a cool tune to learn for both beginners and 'über-pop'-lovers alike ON TOP OF the fact that it demonstrates what wonders a production can do to a relatively simple a piano part (i.e. turn it into something like this).. I decided to give in to your wish.

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