Harry Potter Piano Lesson - Hedwig’s Theme by John Wiliams
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.)
