Fast Piano Lessons Blog

Mercy Mercy Mercy was written by Joe Zawinul… also Berklee College of Music grad!

The Notation for the song:

Mercy Mercy Mercy Music Handout

 

Video Contents:

There are two arrangements of Mercy Mercy Mercy in this video.

The first half is the easier one, its all written down in the handout.

The second half of the video is trickier. I’m using a bass line in the left hand and chords and melody combined in the right hand.

 

 

Left Hand Voicings from the Video!

In the example below, there are a few different voicings, play through them to hear how they sound! 

 

Example 1 is the basic root position voicing for Eb and Bb.

Example 2 has the root of the chord in the left hand, and the 7th, 3rd & 5th of the Bb7 chord. It then moves to the 3rd, 7th & 9th of the Eb9 chord. Each finger moves only a half step which creates a very smooth sound!

Example 3 is the same as example 2 but reversed.

The trick to combining the chords and melody in the right hand is to always make the melody note the highest note. Keeping the melody on top helps it ring out. If its in the middle of the chord, it gets hidden and masked.

 

WARNING FLATS AHEAD!

Don’t forget the flats by the way!

Because of the key signature at the beginning,

All the B’s and E’s are flatted in the music below.

 

Cool Bb Blues Lick!

This is taken from the middle section of the handout. Play through it to get a feel for how it sounds. You can print it off by clicking on it.

 

In the example above, the left hand is acting like a bass player playing the roots of the chord in 8th notes.

The right hand is playing the famous blues lick. Its all based around a Bb7 chord. Start off with the Bb major triad then move your top two fingers up the Bb7 scale.

 

Bb7 Dominant Scale aka Bb7 Mixolydian Mode

Below is the Bb dominant scale. This is the scale to play on Bb7 chords. Its exactly like the Bb major scale, but "A" the 7th note has been lowered to "Ab". (Notice it says "Flat 7th Note").

 

Also try using the Bb Blues scale. Bb Blues scale would sound good over the entire song!

 

This is a quick demonstration of the most memorable theme from the Harry Potter movies. The entire song is longer and has more flourishes with strings and other instrumentation. I cut those out because they’re not memorable or easy to play. Whenever you reduce music, going from a full orchestra down to a piano arrangement, there are choices you have to make about what melodies to keep and which ones to let go. It’s pretty tough if not impossible to be 100% accurate.

The Magic Chords!

Harry Potter’s Theme chords are played in the following order:
Eminor, Gminor, Fminor,
Aminor/E (”Aminor over E” meaning an inversion with E in the bass.)
C#diminished7

Slow it Down:

There is a slow walk through of all the chords :33 seconds into the video…
And then I’ll explain all the chords in the song afterwards.

Chord Variations:

I’m playing the chords in my left hand as block chords; all at once. You could experiment with other styles of chords too! In the left hand, try rolling the chords into 3 separate notes or broken chords played as two separate chunks.

JOHN WILLIAMS ROCKS!

John Williams is the same composer who wrote the music for Star Wars, E.T. Jurassic Park, Superman, JAWS, Indiana Jones and many other famous movie themes… I love the way he puts together chords especially in the Darth Vader theme and Indiana Jones.

Choosing A Register:

The music sounds a lot spookier when you play the Hedwig’s Theme in a high register or up a few octaves on the piano. (To the right side of the piano.)

This was a paid request to help someone learn Ray Charles rendition of Everyday I have the blues. The song follows the 12 bar blues with a lot of really tasty ray charles fills and variations throughout the whole song. The first 30 seconds of the song just have Ray playing solo piano as an introduction. This video slows down the licks from the first 15 seconds of the video. SKIP AHEAD TO 1:10 IN THE VIDEO TO SEE MY TRANSCRIPTION OF RAY’S LICKS SLOWED DOWN.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO: 

PART 2 of EVERYDAY I HAVE THE BLUES - RAY CHARlES - VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION

TRANSPOSING:

Pick one or two of these licks and learn them really well then transpose it to the key of C so you can get even more use out of them by using them in a blues in C! Transposing it from the key of Bb to the key of C requires you to move every note up one whole step. This is because the keys Bb and C are one whole step apart. Stay tuned for more on this great song! We’ll be working on some good chord voicings for the 3 chords in a Bb blues: Bb7, Eb7 and F7.

Here is an arrangement of thriller by michael jackson for solo piano. It sounds even cooler if you can stomp your foot for a beat or have a drum machine in your keyboard to play along with. Its in a different key than the original for two reasons. Its lower so people with regular non-michael voices can sing it. And this key has many less black notes, therefore it is easier to play.

Putting your hands together:

Learn the bassline hands separate first. Then learn how to go between an A minor and D major chord in your right hand. Slowly put the two together… Playing both hands together took me a couple hours of slow practice with a metronome.

When you’re first learning the song, simplify the bassline only playing the roots. That lets you focus on the learning the chords and the major parts of the song. Then refine and polish later. Scan to 2:00 in the video to see an example of this.

1:25 - Just hold down the chords in the right hand for long periods. After you play it and hold it down, you can forget about that hand and focus on the rhythms that your left hand is playing.

Building basslines:

Thriller is a really great example of how to make a bass line groove. Normally we would just play a single A note in the bass on an Aminor chord. In thriller, the bassline uses these tones: the flat 7th, root and flat 3rd. On A minor that means its going to be the G, A and C notes.

Thriller Video Lesson Outline:

1:05 - slow walkthrough of thriller / learn the verse piano parts
2:01 - simple bassline version of the verses
4:00 - recommend playing the melody with the simple bassline show here
4:25 - showing how chord shakes look and sound

Chorus Chords:
Amin C, C D Am, D9 Fmaj7 G6
Amin C, C D Am, F D G… Back to the verse chords

Verse Chords:

Amin -> D

BOSSA NOVA GROOVE

Here is a notated example of the bossa nova groove. The treble clef has rhythmic notation - The slashes tell you the rhythms of the notes, but not the specific notes to play. You have to decide how you want to play Dm7 in your right hand. I recommend [DFAC] like in the video. If that is too big of a stretch for your hands, then try just the Dminor triad [DFA].

MAKE SURE TO COUNT AND PLAY THIS! The rhythms are very complicated, especially when putting two hands together. I had to practice this over and over again with a metronome, each hand separately first and then together. (COUNTING the whole time!) I put the numbers in between the bass and treble clef to help you see how the counting should line up with the notes! (1 + 2 + should be pronounced “one and two and”)

The left hand in Bossa Nova almost always plays a root and a fifth of the chord. You can vary the rhythm shown a little bit.

CLICK ON THE MUSIC TO BLOW IT UP FULL SIZE SO YOU CAN PRINT IT!

In the video below it shows this example with a C major chord added in. These are still the basic left and right hand patterns on piano for a bossa nova. The left hand just imitates what a bass player would do normally. If you are playing solo piano, then your whole goal is split the chord in your right hand so that the melody is on top and the chord rhythms are playing out beneath.

If you are having trouble with learning this pattern after practicing it for an hour or two. Post a comment and let me know! I will break down the left hand part and right hand parts in to smaller lessons.
Thanks!
Chris Marx