It was my intention to sit down over the next few months and work my way through my favourite Beatles songs so I can play piano and sing along. I have a box set called The Beatles Compleat which features the piano/guitar/strings arrangements for all the songs but having spent the most of an afternoon scanning the pages and not getting very far I wanted to put this question to the competent piano players and teachers who visit the board.

1. Is there a technique in playing songs that were written by John and Paul, who both were NOT piano players and who most certainly didn't write the piano arrangements as they are printed. How do I approach the transcripts?

2. Am I right in saying that if I play the chords with the melody note at the top each time I should get a recognisable arrangement of the songs.

3. If all fails, should I just persevere, measure by measure, until I finally crack them??

I'm keen to hear your response. Thanks

If you want to sing along you should not play the melody only the chords.

If you want to play the melody and not sing, the best is to find a book made for piano with good arrangements. You can get easy or avanced piano arrangements.

And yes you're right John and Paul didn't write sheet music, they went to a studio and recorded their music.

Note: I'm not a good piano player and me too I have the complete beatles song book and I don't use it. Maybe one day I'll be good enough to do my own arrangement.

Serge

The quality of the scores in The Compleat Beatles varies from song to song. Songs in which the piano is a prominent instrument – The Long and Winding Road, for instance - tend to be pretty faithful to the recording, while songs such as Dear Prudence or Blackbird try to represent, on the piano, both the sung melody and the lead guitar part.

There is another book called The Beatles – The Complete Scores, which contains every note played by every instrument on every song they recorded. It also includes all the vocal parts. It’s $50.37 at Amazon.

I saw Paul on a benefit show and he played Let it Be..on piano..

Bob, you may have missed the point. What I am trying to say is Paul nor John played piano as it is written or transcribed in commercial sheet music or songbooks. In an interview with the BBC in 1978 Paul said that he picked up the piano by watching his dad play.

I think none of the song books by any artist
are true to the recordings..whats needed are the actual arrangements..

I have tried all The Beatles songs on piano and some don't work well (the melody needs John's or Paul's voice to make it interesting enough) and others work very well. I play the meleody and improvise my own chord arrangements based on the chord symbols. The Beatle songs that seem to work well for me are: In My Life, Imagine, I Am The Walrus, Something, Let It Be, Hey Jude, Yesterday, Here There and Everywhere, Eleanor Rigby, You Never Give Me Your Money.

When you say you play the melody, am I correct in saying melody(r/H) chords (L/H) or chords/melody (R/H) bass notes (L/H)??

For Beatles songs where I'm just playing melody and not singing, I tend to play octaves in the right hand and a mix of single notes and chords in the right hand.

Hey Gilbert,

I just posted "Norwegian Wood" over at Piano Magic using rolling 10ths. It was difficult transposing over to C because I don't read music, but it's an interesting piece to work with.
I still haven't fine-tuned it yet but hope to work out all the kinks and polish it up pretty soon.

Rerun, can you post it here as I am not a PM member.

Hey Gilbert,

I thought you were over at PM. If I can figure this out, I'll put it over here too. It's actually part of a rolling 10th medley with 2 other songs.

Hey Gilbert,

Well, here goes. Sorry about the clangors in this medley. I just bought a keyboard this January, found Piano Magic in February, don't read music, and had about 6 months of lessons when I was in 1st grade some 50 years ago.

This medley was mainly done, after searching for a few songs where I thought rolling 10ths might work better than another type of base line rhythm. I should have varied the base some with boom chucks, etc., because the 10ths get a little tedious to the ear after the "Norwegian Wood" segment.

Any comments or critiques are certainly welcome as I can use all the help I can get. I'm still very much a novice.

Here's "Rolling 10ths Medley"


http://www.box.net/shared/gxgd8g08va

Thanks....

Rerun, I really enjoyed your recording. Thanks for letting me hear it. I am keen to develop my reading skills which is why I am here. My lessons are strictly using written pieces and although I will develop the ability to play by ear I think my primary goal is to discipline myself to sheet music for a while longer as it does my playing a lot of good.

Hi Gilbert,

I find with tunes by The Beatles, if you have a fundamental understanding of their commonly used chord progressions, you can probably come up with a pretty close arrangement of how they play the piano parts in their recordings.

I recently made one video piano lesson covering triads and inversions and transferred that to teaching the opening piano riff for "Let It Be".

You can check it out here if you find it helpful:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TcoCcPhTDU

Hello Gilbert, An option for you. The local symphony knows the top pro piano teachers in your area who know how to teach arranging piano music, lead, fake sheets,etc... just call and ask for a referral. A direct route to your dream and quickly too. Usually about a year of study. The best of luck to you. I took this route, after a basic classical piano background, and, it was so fun too. I loved every moment and at 68 years old I use this every day at the piano and love piano more every day of my life. Sandy B

Mario, your video was excellent, thanks

Mario
That was a very clear demonstration using both standard notation and a representation of a piano keyboard.
I have done lots of 'lessons' on jazz piano on youtube, and have been looking for different ways to represent the notes I am playing. Would you please tell me what software you used to get your very clear notation and piano view.

Doug McKenzie
http://web.newsguy.com/dougmck

I meant to add in the message above, that I have done 2 beatles songs on piano in a jazz style that I have posted on Youtube, and also on the site at
http://web.newsguy.com/dougmck

She's Coming Home at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4jrQLDiwMk
Eleanor Rigby at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5jNhO9gkzk

Doug

Hello Doug,

I use a program called "Classroom Maestro" by Timewarp Technologies[/b]. Its intended use is for group piano teaching in a piano lab environment. However, I've found it effective in doing these online piano teaching videos/podcasts as well.

Go to: http://www.timewarptech.com/Pages/Products/CM/CM.html

They also have links to buy it directly from their site. If you decide to buy it, please let the people at Timewarp Technologies know that I you referred them to you.

In conjunction with the Classroom Maestro program, I use Snapz Pro at: http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/

But you could use whatever screen capture program in conjunction with Classroom Maestro.

Hi Doug and everyone

Doug I just wanted to let you know that I love your stuff


can't follow it (LOL)


But, I really love the way you play


thanks for the videos...they are truly inspirational


Lee

Any chance of some really dumbed down ones