 Hi everyone, this is Jason here from Nathaniel. In this lesson, we are going to look at five great piano written songs which are by five incredible female singer songwriters and we are going to look at the riff or the chord progressions which are going to be great. We are also going to look at the pattern or the rhythm pattern if you will and the way the two hands are going to interact with each other and we will try and do this at varying skill levels So even if you're a beginner or if you've played these songs before you may have forgotten a few intricate details Which these singer songwriters do on the piano which is quite incredible really because they are doing some amazing piano work While singing while entertaining the crowd perfectly well So let's get cracking right away with Alicia Keys is falling. It's on two chords E minor and B minor More specifically B minor 7th. So that's E minor G B E and the B minor 7th will either be played as A D F sharp in the right hand or F sharp A D in the right hand. Okay. E minor always G B E The B minor 7th is going to be played as A D F sharp for the first instance and F sharp A D for the second instance Now if you play the song like this Doesn't really sound like falling right you need that really nice iconic Alicia Keys Apeggio pattern. So let's get right to that So you have the voiced chord, which is G B E and we've arpeggiated as Okay, so if I have to look at this from the piano perspective if this is my left note middle note and the right note or the high note it goes L M H H M L Okay Or G B E E B G. So the first chord Is supported in the left hand with a nice E bass Okay, and the second chord is B minor 7th, right, which is You play B in the bass and you play A D F sharp in the right hand now you may be wondering why don't I have any B in the Right hand because it's B minor 7th. Well, the B is played in the left and you don't need to repeat the B here Which is why she goes A D F sharp F sharp D A Another way to remember this could be a D major chord in the right hand with a B in the left hand Okay, so E minor B minor 7th back to E minor 7th or just E minor and then B minor 7th played in a different way you want to play it with the F sharp in the bass F sharp a D First time was a D F sharp now. It's F sharp a D. Okay, so Then B minor 7th E minor Different version of B minor 7th Goes on for pretty much the whole song, right and a good way to play it with feel Is to build the dynamics you could first think of a nice hill curve and go up and down the hill in other words Get gradually louder and gradually softer over time It could also depend on your vocalist Or your own vocals Okay, let's now get to the chorus Where you take the same chords But you voice them differently and you play them with a more busier or harder hitting rhythm So if you take the E minor 7th chord, she goes B D G plays it a bit higher Okay, and the way I am playing the pattern is left First and then the right plays the remaining hit points of the six by eight This is a six by eight song one two three four five six, right? Even the arpeggio was Pretty much that One two three four five six, right? So the core is also gonna be six, but without arpeggiation with just chord strikes So you go left right right right right right left right right right right right right that's adding up to six, right? So I keep on falling Let me break that down B D G E minor E minor 7th E D F sharp in the right hand to play B minor 7th you go And then it ends with a very exciting chord which is That right, so it's a D D sharp G so this is at the very very end of the phrase, right? where the Way that I Right, so it creates that real Kind of tension or excitement at the end and it's also played in a staccato If you want to call this chord something it's like a B 7th with a sharp 9 and a Sharp 5 it's a very very interesting card. So it's the last chord of the chorus I keep on falling So what Alicia Keys does with the B-minor is very interesting she plays something like this She just plays the top B and then comes back down. So it would be Sometimes she also goes She basically plays each inversion of the B-minor chord starting from the top B and then going even sometimes to the high D So at the end of the song what Alicia Keys does in some of the live versions Which I've managed to catch up with will be she plays the E minor 7th And then instead of playing a normal B-minor 7th she plays a Sort of diminished sounding chord So we actually call this a B 7 flat 9 because there's a B in the bass and Then like a diminished 7th chord in the right hand in this case We have a diminished 7th in the right hand a C E flat F sharp Right, so this creates some excitement in the bridge Back in and out Okay, and way that I love you will have to be a D E flat G Simple chords E minor B minor, but the way she plays it is obviously very unique unique arpeggio pattern Definitely chord voicings are very exciting. So it's a song you definitely need to learn moving on to the next song Right, so now let's look at Taylor Swift's cardigan a new song which was released recently from the album folklore So basically you have the chords which are F minor. Let's learn the chords first. So this is how she plays the chords F minors played a C F A flat the next chord is B flat major Which he plays as D F B flat. These are all what we call is inversions. So C F A flat and then B flat major which is D F B flat A flat major she plays as C E flat A flat Okay, and then the next chord or the last chord in the sequence is again B flat major Which is a repeat of what you learned earlier D F B flat. So I'm singing the right hand, which we're gonna get into very shortly F minor B flat major A flat B flat major Okay, and what I'm proposing you do is because you don't have a base note of each of these chords, right? So you could develop a nice technique where you go to So holding down the sustain pedal Hold it down go up to the chord, which I showed you C F A flat So the first hit is gonna be the root of each of these four chords. So for F minor F chord chord chord B flat chord chord A flat major B flat again It's also important to note that this song is on a swing time feel so you count One e and a two e and a three you could say 16th notes swing if you count it as Dubba Dubba Dubba Dubba 3e and Okay, so let's do that If you'd like you can even do Like a really deep F you get two of these octaves if you want Because there are a lot of layers in these songs Which you could replicate With octaves in the bass B flat, okay, remember you need the Pell Okay coming to the right hand which I'm sure you can actually get by here we go Okay So the first part F minor So It lands this F will land exactly at the one beat of the bar 3e and a 4e and a 1e and a 2e Okay, and she starts each of these melodic phrases in the right hand with her thumb playing C Pretty much see for every single chord Okay, so the first two melodic phrases are pretty much the same F minor next B flat major same For a flat she adds an extra note Only in the third chord, but start with C with the top G Then Same way of playing B flat how you played earlier F minor B flat major A flat B flat, okay Vintage deep brand new foam High heels on Cobblestones when you are young they assume you know nothing Right, so it's interesting to play this and sing it'll be quite a job actually So it's quite incredible that all these songs which I've chosen The artists are actually singing and playing this on the piano. Of course. They've written the song It's a read all these songs. I think have really cool chord progressions as well But the that the reason why I chose these five songs and why I think they are great is is the fact that you have a Melody line which is complementing the piano so well It's like they are almost talking to each other in the sense, right? Whenever Taylor Swift plays this melody The vocals come after the melody so it's like this is speaking and then the vocals are singing, right? So it's very it's very good songwriting as well But that also makes for a little bit of a tricky practice when you're doing this on the piano Okay, so the other sections of the song are pretty much around the same lines You just need to learn the other available chords When it goes to the chorus Gets very positive right it goes to the root or the tonic of the scale which in this case is E flat major B flat and then it repeats It's only that first chord E flat to have that positivity at the chorus or to just give the song a lift So this is Taylor Swift's cardigan. I hope you're gonna have fun playing this song and singing along. Let's move on So let's learn love song by Sara Bareilles first of all a really good chord progression Which I'll show you and then we'll do the rhythm pattern Okay, both of which make the song very very iconic very catchy very Remembrable and unique and all those other words. So you go G minor first chord. She plays it as G B flat D in the right hand and G bass so how it's going to work is every pair of two chords is going to be played three beats and then one beat Okay, so the first chord is G minor Okay, that's three counts of G minor one two three Four what happens at the four? You're doing the next chord and the reason why the next chord lasts for only one beat or one count is because it's a Passing chord. That's because the notes of the chord are there to lead up to the next landing chord which sounds more stable So you do three beats of G minor One beat of F major with an A bass so that makes it already a very Passing F if you will or a very sliding or a Interpretation sounding F. So we call it f slash a it's known as a slash chord And this seems to have the ability to take us to the next chord B flat which she plays it in a very unique way. She plays it as B flat C So it's not a full B flat major. It's B flat sus two. Let's do those three G minor F major with an A bass climbing to B flat sus two Remember how it works three plus one so one chord will be played for three beats. The other one will be played for one beat So G minor three F with a base played for one B flat sus two. Let's move on Normal C major but inverted she goes G C E in the right hand with a C base and then Sliding or shifting all the way up to D minor, which is a climb actually. So so far we have G minor F major FAC with a base B flat sus two C major played as G C E in the right hand and then that goes to D minor for three beats C over E base that clear creates a slash kind of effect Which is for one beat so D minor three counts C over E one count and then results to the tonic F three beats D over F sharp because it has to come back and loop back To G minor, which it does perfectly well So the artist is using basically a concept called secondary dominance Which is to take chords which are out of the scale and then bring them back to a chord Which is inside the scale in this case one might argue that the scale is F major So you'll have one chord which is not part of the scale or a secondary dominant or even a slash chord And then that comes or pulls back to a chord which is F major which is in the F major scale So if I break down the chords again remember three counts for one chord one count for the other chord, okay? G minor F over a B flat sus two C major with C in the base G C in the right hand D minor C over E F major come all the way D over F sharp and back to G minor the slash chord secondary dominance And you actually feel like the the bass or the chord progression is actually climbing which it is if you sing the bass notes It'll go G a B flat C D E F F sharp G So the way Sarah Bareilles plays her chords the chord progression is Incredible, but now what's going to make it even more awesome is the way she plays the rhythm pattern on the piano Okay, so I'll play you and then I'm going to teach you very very careful I'm going to play it and then I'm going to share it with you step by step. Okay So as you can see The right hand is just thumping away one two three four It's very pulse like following the pulse or the head movement of the listener while while the song's playing The left hand however is following a very syncopated or very interesting groove where she plays G a Before the onset of the right-hands chord F over a so in other words that's played Where are we playing it? It's played at one and two and three and four and Right just before the four remember. I told you in the right hand. It's three beats for one chord One beat for the next chord and then three one three one in the left hand It's one two three and four and one and two and four and one two and three and four and one and two and And four and one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and one Right and also she's playing this with a ton of dynamics All the slash chords or rather all the passing bass chords You know with a different bass are played legato to kind of make the journey a bit more squeezing if you will While the downbeat or the one of the bar is played staccato to create that excitement. I guess Right Long shot Long shot Long shot Long shot There's a lot to practice actually this could be like a awesome piano exercise on its own, right? So you go short long shot Long shot and all those notes are different notes. They are climbing pump a B flat C D E F F F sharp G a B flat three Remember the left hand is played at the offbeat every alternate time so offbeat every alternate and Staccato going to legato every alternate. Wow, that's a lot to think of come to think of it, right? So the right hand just plays pumping quarter notes so let's break the right hand left hand once more and Yeah, you pretty much follow this for the rest of the song as well I have the chords attached do download a copy for yourself. So you go G minor F B flat sus to C major D minor C F D over F sharp G F and so on. Let's just show the right hand Without me talking too much Okay, do that again One more time Okay with the left a B flat Right and what she does also to top it off at the very last chord right F for some reason She plays a tritone of G C sharp which then comes back to G But it's played so short and crisp that you don't feel it you just feel a tension You're like, where did that come from? Well, it came Because of a very very weird interval called the tritone which is used to add that excitement in this piece, right? So this is love song by Sara Bareilles. Let's now move on and have fun playing it I didn't come Let's now learn don't know why by Nora Jones an incredible song and again an incredible chord progression Actually, it started off as a guitar composition as some of you may know So we are just going to bring in the flavor of everything Not necessarily zeroing in on the piano part because that might be quite difficult Even for me because Nora Jones is improvising a lot in this song So let me just play you the whole thing try to sing it then show you how to voice it Then let's look at a couple of rhythm patterns which you would play and accompany yourself or someone else who sings, okay? Okay, so that goes So it's basically a descending walking line, right? So When we voice those chords which are a lot of chords eight chords to voice We need to get the voice leading to kind of be very well-planned so that it goes Okay, so we go first chord B flat major 7th where she plays B flat D A at the top so B flat major 7th dropping to the B flat dominant 7th, so you go B flat and Then B flat with a flat at the top, okay That would have made it B flat major 7th B flat dominant 7th now we don't really have that f So this is a very sort of sparse voicing where the chords don't really clash She's not choosing to play all the notes just a few, you know Important notes which are the third and the seventh if you keep that in mind the third and the seventh of a Jazzy chord will always have that color and that impact and the root is generally played by maybe the bass player The fifth may be played by no one. So you go B flat D A B flat D A flat and then This is how I'm voicing E flat major 7th, which is the third chord one five E flat B flat D G E flat B flat D G Okay, that's how E flat major 7th is voiced very colorful very grand very open. Okay, so so far we have B flat major 7th and what she tends to do is or what even the guitar player tends to do is Goes back to the normal root major 7th root dominant 7th Stay there or Can go back to the root so right or Works also fine Do I saw the sun So that one line has all these chords so B flat major 7 B flat dominant 7th and then E flat major 7th voice this way Okay D A C F sharp this is how I'm playing it. I think it Leads well Okay, what are the four chords again? B flat major 7th B flat dominant 7th E flat major 7th D dominant 7th. Okay, that goes over that first line okay slower okay and now don't know why I didn't come that'll go G minor 7th don't know why I didn't how does that work G B flat F G B flat F that's how we are playing the don't know why part don't know why C dominant 7th played as C G B flat E C G B flat E so don't know why I didn't it's a beautiful chord this is F7 sus 4 so I guess it's voiced as I'm hearing it F in the bass obviously sus 4 note which is B flat and the dominant 7th or 7 flat which is E flat on top so don't know why I didn't come and it ends with just a normal traditional B flat major finally right everything else was like very very jazzy so again don't know why I didn't come don't know why I didn't come it repeats a few times right at the end especially so whole thing again again okay and if we have to make it rhythmically exciting you can do very much like the guitar hook which is anyway being played okay so you could either tell yourself okay should the right hand do a little bit of movement or should the left hand do some movement so if your right hand's doing some movement the left hand could just hold its ground hold it just hold the roots or else the left hand could tell itself okay I'm gonna do some things so what's the left hand doing it's basically fifths and the root of course B flat fifth B flat fifth E flat it's fifth D fifth G fifth C fifth F and then back to B flat so you could get the left hand to go C okay that's sort of lovely bass motion right very much like a traditional bass line you can even explore the right hand notes in a more arpeggiated manner or in a more melodic manner depending on your vocals whether you're trying to sing and play this which will again probably be a little bit more on the tricky side you can even play this song by just holding the chords okay and just to kind of finish it off because I'm very tempted there's another part and it's really easy it goes what do we have there that's the second part my heart is drenched in wine right what do we do there G minor seventh which we learned earlier there's a beautiful C seventh voicing where she goes C B flat you can call this a C 7 13 maybe adding that 13th note so she's even singing the 13 and then a piano lick whatever you want to play on F is dominant seventh okay and then ending so you get that F E flat D C and back to so let's now move on to the last song which is going to be the most peppy or dancy of them all let's move on so let's now learn walking on broken glass by Annie Lenox one of my favorite artists and songwriters and songs of all time so how it works basically is you have the melody line you have a string or a synth hook so I'm going to teach you both right so this is just to kind of embellish the song and to give it a stamp apart from the hook which she sings which is walking on walking on broken glass right that's obviously catchy but then what the piano is doing and what the synths and the strings are doing are also awesome so I'm going to just tell you the hook in the beginning and then also this part which can actually do as an accompaniment with the vocal singing that singing the piece right so first off the piano intro goes something like this or rather this is how I voiced it for the right hand which could also allow your left hand to do its thing so I'll play it and then show you right very interesting use of octaves it's it just goes there comes back sometimes the octave gets really high sometimes it comes back low so the way I'm playing it which works for me could be C G E so you do C G E and the two E's you play together on the piano C G E and then F A F the F comes together and then you play two more notes together E C E C G in the middle end with two D's okay that way you get a feel of the song with just one hand let's try this again C G E together F A F together E C together G single D together let's do that again one more slower C G E F A F E C G D so that's your intro which you could do with the chords once you learn them more commonly you could just play the chords in your right hand and you could play the bass notes of those chords in the left hand I'll play you the chord pattern as well and then let's break it down as you can see lot of these notes are at the off beats right so if I count this with ands or eighth notes it's going to be one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and very few are even on the one two three fours they're all one and two and three and four and pretty much everything's on that offbeat phrase so let's break that down first chord at the one G C E with a C bass then you climb up you climb the bass up to E you play the right hand C E G G C E C E G C F A with the F bass so far we have G C E C E G C F A back to C E G with E bass let's do so much okay one and two and three and four and one and two very victorious for some reason okay get that G C E you see the different versions of C major which she uses right so G C E C E G C F A C E G let's move on then go back to F C E G with E bass repeat that then end with a dominant chord which is G major that pulls it back to the tonic how am I playing G major D G B so again it's quite a workout actually for the mind because if you're singing it you'll have to sing something which is sort of against this so these are the two catchy parts of walking on broken glass you also have the chordal elements right I've actually put the chords out for all the songs in this entire lesson series so do go through them in this video I've tried to give you the most important parts of the song we've not gotten to the theory as such of these songs but I hope this was helpful to give you at least the most important or the surviving parts of the song and hopefully I've also conveyed how these songs are awesome from the point of view of the theory the chord usage very unique chord progressions also the piano playing the rhythm phrasing the arrangement in general right some incredible songwriters all these five artists are and you should definitely follow them again this is Jason here from Nathaniel do subscribe to our YouTube channel if you haven't already share the video share other videos leave us a comment with stuff you'd like to learn we'd be happy to do it and consider it for sure and I will catch you in the next one cheers