I'm learning to play "100 Years" by Five for Fighting.....

If anyone else is learning this piece also...or if you have already learned it...do you have any tips on playing the chorus?

I take it you are trying to learn this by ear. If so, just try mapping out the chords in the chorus first, so that you know where to go with the left hand accompaniment. The piece (song) is in G, so the chorus I think (I'm at work now, not in front of my piano) is:
|G, Em, D, C, G
G, Em, D, C, G/B
G/B, Em, Am, D7 :|
| G/B, C, Em, D7 :|

then into verses in G which I presume you know. The chorus plays the left hand largely as block chords, while in the quieter reprise at the end of the chorus, and throughout the verses, the keyboardist for Five For Fighting is using largely broken chords.

The trick is to do inversions of these chords in the left hand that match the sound of the chords in the piece as you're playing along with it.

Once you have that sturdy enough, try picking up the melody line for the chorus only, in right hand only. Then once you have that with confidence, put it together.

I love this band, and I really like this song.

I like the old Chickering grand used in the video even more.

Jamie

What a great song!

If by chorus you are referring to this part:

"Fifteen there's still time for you,
time to buy and time to lose,
fifteen there's never a wish better than this,
when you've only got a hundred years to live."

I play the melody in the octave above middle C and left hand accompianment in octaves with a fifth added starting with the G in the middle C octave. So in the right hand, for the first "fifteen" I play D-G-A-B - Gmajor triad with the 9th added. I like using 9ths in this song wherever possible. In the left hand I play G-C-G where the C is middle C.

For the second "fifteen" I drop down an octave in my left hand but keep my right hand in the same octave. And, I don't play the 5th in the left hand anymore.

Finally when it gets to the word "wish", right hand, again same octave, I play octaves starting out with the lowest E ending on lowest C.

Then, when you get to the empty space after "better than this", I do a run up the keyboard with a Cmajor triad with the 9th added.

Hope this makes sense. I too really like this song.

Derick

I've got the sheet music if you want it....9 pages!!

Sheet music is for sissies. Sorry Mr. Hunky!

Derick

Sissies??, Thats it, I'm so mad... now I'm gonna go oil up and flex in front of the miror for a while to feel better.

Hunky, don't sweat it! :-)

Actually, I am still on sheet music, but I hope to wean myself off at some point.

There's an easy trick to wean yourself off sheet music...

The most obvious thing is not to even start with it and struggle with the chords if you can't play by ear (I know most people can't).

But, if you absolutely do need the music, once you can play the piece, no more than "fairly well", put it away and never look at it again. Then sit down at the piano and start to play. You will hit some snags but work them out. Since you've already played the chords, they are already in your head.

Almost all of the "pop" songs I play are either songs I've worked the chords out for, or can (fortunately for me), just sit down and play. I also play a few classical pieces. I needed the music for Beethoven's Pathetique, but once I could play all three movements I put it away. I can now play the entire Pathetique and two Chopin Nocturnes without the music. I just locked the music for Clair de Lune away last night.

Good Luck,
Derick

I love this song, but I've only managed to play about the first page. I think being used to playing classical music, the rhythms in popular music are hard for me.