Jingle Bells (karaoke/sing-along)

Again, there is probably no need to explain the chords and notes that I play, since the illustration on the video is quite clear and self-explanatory.

The melody line is not intended here. The idea of this style of playing is liken to that on a rhythm guitar. In other words, it’s for singing-along. I hope you will find this video useful to teach you play the song while singing along with your folks during Christmas.

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Wait by Danny Chan

等 — 陈百强

I have simplified the playing of this song so that you only need to use 3 fingers to play it. In fact, in this case, it is even not necessary to learn what chords to play or what the word “chord” means! The notes to play are quite clearly shown on the video. The purpose of the simplifying is so that an adult beginner can enjoy the song, by picking up the playing easily and singing along while playing.

Note: I used my thumb and the index finger (right hand) in the video so that you can see the notes I was playing clearly. You don’t have to follow the fingers I used. Simply use any fingers that you find easier to play the notes with.

Here is the video…

Do you want to know the chord progression and how I simplify them to playing with 3 fingers? My guess is you are probably not interested. If anyone is, please email me at leshmye@gmail.com for details.

I will save my time explaining it for now. ：）

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U.R.Y. by Hillsong

This is how you can play U.R.Y. using 3 fingers – 1 on your left hand, 2 on your right hand. And you need literally only 2 ‘chords’ on your right hand.

There are two parts in this song: the verse and the chorus. Duh.

The progression for the verse actually goes like this (if u r interested, that is. Otherwise, just follow my YouTube video illustration):

VIm –> V –> IV –> I/M –> IV –> V

If this is the first time you see an “M” in a chord notation, check out my “The M Bass” post.

You should immediately notice the bass pattern in the above progression, which goes like this:

6 –> 5 –> 4 –> 3 –> 4 –> 5

The song is in G key, so the chord progression for the verse is translated to:

Em –> D –> C –> G/B –> C –> D

Just keep it this way for the moment. I will come back to this progression again shortly. Let’s turn our attention to the chorus for the moment.

The progression for the chorus goes like this:

I –> VIm –> IV –> V

And in the G key, that means:

G –> Em –> C –> D

So these are the 2 progressions we have got.

Verse: Em –> D –> C –> G/B –> C –> D

Chorus: G –> Em –> C –> D

For those of you who are interested to know how I have turned that into 2 ‘chords’ played with 3 fingers, please read on.

The Em chord here can be an Em7 chord.

The D here is actually a D4 (or Dsus4). Refer to my “Suspension (part 1)” post for Sus4.

The C here is a C2. Refer to “Suspension (part 2)” for Sus2.

What we actually have therefore should be:

Verse: Em7 –> D –> C2 –> G/B –> C2 –> D4

Chorus: G –> Em7 –> C2 –> D4

Now, Em7 can be improvised by G/E (Refer to “The 3 Minor Chords” post). Therefore, the progressions become:

Verse: G/E –> D –> C2 –> G/B –> C2 –> D4

Chorus: G –> G/E –> C2 –> D4

That looks awfully complicated but let’s examine these 3 chords: G, C2 and D4.

G chord is made up of these 3 notes: G, B, D

C2 chord is made up of these 3 notes: C, D, G

D4 chord is made up of these 3 notes: D, G, A

Notice that they all have D note and G note in common? That’s why my right hand can play these 3 chords as 1 ‘chord’ that is made up of 2 notes: D and G (and forget the rest)

The other chord that you see I play on the video is a straight D major chord, which is made up of these 3 notes: D, F# and A. But you must have noticed that I only play the first 2 notes. Well, it’s not a big sin to do so, is it? Afterall, this is ‘Piano Cheats’ here. 🙂
That D major chord occurs at 2 places: one is in the verse, just after G/E chord. The other place is as a ‘transition’ chord, more of an enhancement to the G chord and the Em7 chord in the chorus. Refer to my “Chord Mixing” post (under “Cheat Tricks” category) for this enhancement trick.

That’s quite enough of the explanation. Here is the video:

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Love Song by Sara Bareilles

There are 5 parts in this song.

First, the intro, which is the same as the verse, is made up of the following progression:

IIm –> (I/3) –> (V) –> VIm –> (V/7) –> I –> (VI/M)

The chords in brackets ( ) are transition chords, i.e., they are very short. In this case, they appear on the 4th beat of a bar. For example, Chord IIm is played 3 times, then Chord I/3 is played once (together they make up 4 counts of a bar), before move on to Chord IV (the next bar).

An important thing you should take note of in the above progression is the way that the bass notes progress, i.e., they go like this…

2 –> (3) –> 4 –> (5) –> 6 –> (7) –> 1 –> (1#)

The above chord progression repeats itself until the song reaches the pre-chorus which goes like this:

IIm –> I/3 –> IV –> V

Then the chorus goes like this:

IIm –> V –> IIIm –> IV

The pattern repeats itself throughout the chorus until the last line. The ending goes like this…

IIm –> I/3 –> VIm –> II/M –> IV –> V

There is also a bridge that goes like this…

VIm –> IIIm –> IV –> V

Th progression for the bridge repeats until the song returns to the chorus.

This song is in the key of F. So, the 5 different types of chord progressions above are translated as the following:

Intro/Verse: Gm –> (F/A) –> Bb –> (C) –> Dm –> (C/E) –> F –> (D/F#)

Pre-chorus: Gm –> F/A –> Bb –> C

Chorus: Gm –> C –> Am –> Bb

Ending: Gm –> F/A –> Dm –> G/B –> Bb –> C

Bridge: Dm –> Am –> Bb –> C

Take note of the way the bass notes move, especially in the intro/verse and pre-chorus. Can you see a clear pattern there?

I have said earlier that when II, III and V major chords appear in a song, they often do so with their ‘M basses’. For this song, D/F# is the VI major chord with its M bass (F# being the middle note of the D major triad), and G/B is the II major chord with its M bass (B being the middle note of the G major triad).

Here is the illustration on video…

Notice that my right hand doesn’t need to move much. That’s the beauty of improvising the 3 minor chords using the 3 basic chords! 🙂

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Arise

Basically there are 2 parts in this song – the verse and the chorus.

For the verse, the chords progress from Chord I to Chord V, then to Chord –I (minus-one), then to Chord IV. After that, simply repeat this chord progression (I, V, –I, IV) until you reach the chorus.

The chorus has a slightly different progression, i.e., Chord I followed by Chord V, followed by Chord VI m (i.e., VI minor), then Chord IV (I, V, VI m, IV). This pattern is repeated throughout the chorus and until the song goes back to the verse.

The song is in the E key. Therefore, the chords for the verse are E, B, D and A (i.e., E is the Chord I in the E key, B the Chord V in the same key, D the Chord –I, and A the Chord IV). In the video, you would see me play Chord IV (i.e., the A chord in this case) in its 1^st inversion, i.e,. C#-E-A notes. The reason is simply to minimize my right hand’s movement.

The chords for the chorus in the E key are E, B, C#m, A.

If you were to play this in the C key (and use your ‘Transpose’ button to transpose the song to the E key), then the chords are:

Chord I — C

Chord IV – F

Chord V — G

Chord VI m – Am

Chord –I – Bb

That means, you should play C – G – Bb – F (i.e., progression I, V, -I, IV) for the verse, and C – G – Am – F (i.e., progression I, V, VI m, IV) for the chorus.

So, there are only these 2 chord progressions for the entire song. A piece of cake, eh? Have fun!

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