Piano Man by Billy Joel - Chords and Harmonica Lesson!
This intermediate piano lesson takes you through the introduction used by billy joel and the chords to accompany yourself singing piano man. I also show you how to play harmonica without using your hands or a harmonica holder wrapped around your neck!
I dont show you the chords for the “la da da diddy…” I’ll save the video lesson on that section for another blog post, but here are the chords:
Am, Am/G, D/F#, F G,
Am, Am/G, D/F# D,
G, G/F, C/E, D, C
HARMONICA TABS:
I’ll have a video tutorial for this in a bit 
Blow = B
Suck = S
BSB…SB..SBSB…
BBS..BS…
BSB…SB..SBSB…
BSBSB…
Let me know if there are any questions by posting comments and I’ll do my best to answer them!
thanks for the piano man lesson, i knew how to play it already but the harmonica sounds a lot better with it, do you know any other billy joel? once again thanks.
Great! thanks for your guide =)
I’m really appreciate it.
is it the end of the lesson?
i wondering the accompany part while singing the whole song.
Is it possible to teach us? Thanks ya.
I’ll be posting the harmonica tabs on here tomorrow
Music - I’d like to save the entire song performance as a special gift for the subscribers. There are some really cool tricks and changes to the lyrics that you can add to make it really personal or unique everytime.
For example, if you’re not singing the song at “9:00 on a Saturday” well then change the date and time to be more appropriate!
Is it supposed to be F/G or F, G in the la la la diddy da part? Also, in the Am/G, there isn’t really a G in the A minor chord. Are you just supposed to play Am with a G on the bottom? Same for G/F.
Thanks for the tutorial, this is my dad’s favorite song!
-J.T.
Hey JT,
Thanks for the comment.
Am/G is with G in the bass… it ends up being the b7 of an Aminor7 chord: ACEG… just in an inversion. Its not super clear, but thats how they wrote it.
To summarize the important lesson here:
You can have slash chords with roots that arent in the CHORD.
For example: F/G ends up being a G suspended chord (Technically G9sus4) but whats easier to read?
C/B, C/A are also possible… These could just be simpler ways of writing a complicated chord.
C/B is another way to play Cmajor7.
C/A is another way to play Am7.
This method works great for teaching students chords who don’t know where their 7ths are!
I’m not sure exactly about the la diddy da chords… Im usually to busy singing. I find as long as I have the right bass line in that section, the harmony is so similar that it all sounds good.
I think watch the video to figure out how I play it, I don’t really remember!
Thanks,
Chris Marx
Thanks, Chris! I never thought you could really have a root that isn’t in the chord. That’s an interesting concept. Thanks for clearing things up for me!
-J.T.
he is one of my favourites.
What a great listing DarlingT. A really great artist with such a clarity of voice and lyrically terrific.
How do you play billy joel’s signature lick?
I’m not sure which one you mean? What song is it in?
Hey Chris,
As Music asked a while back, is there more to the performance? I would love to learn this song but I’m no good at working things out by ear. Could you make some kind of tutorial on the whole song. If you could that would be great. Also, what do you mean by “gift for the subscribers”? I am subscribed to your channel on Youtube but I don’t know what you mean.
Thanks,
Karl