If you’re searching for songs to learn that can make your professional piano lessons more fun, you’ve come to the right place. Here are five more songs that are easy and awesome to play.
1. “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” by Bob Dylan/Guns ’n’ Roses
I didn’t even know Bob Dylan wrote this song until I was in college, that’s how familiar the GNR version was to me. Needless to say, it’s a classic, and with just four chords, it’s not too hard to learn at your next piano lesson.
2. “Piano Man” by Billy Joel
What piano player doesn’t want to learn this classic piano tune? Just think—once you learn this, you’ll be able to conjure smoky barrooms and sad old people in the ‘70s. Maybe one day you’ll be a piano (wo)man just like Billy Joel, able to give hardworking people hope.
3. “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” by Elton John
When I was a kid, this song was the jam. Lion King had just come out, and everyone knew it was destined to be remembered for decades. Elton John on the soundtrack drove the point home. This song isn’t quite as easy as some of the others we’ve talked about, but if you stick with it, or you’re already a little more advanced, it’s a great one to learn.
4. “Mother” by John Lennon
This guy sounds kind of dorky singing it, but if you listen to the original, you’ll know how cool it sounds to sing it like John. Plus if you learn this in the next six months, you’ll be right in time for Mother’s Day, which if your mom is a fan of The Beatles, will get you serious brownie points.
5. “Silver Bells” by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans
It’s December, and it sure would be great to learn a song in time for your family Christmas party. Sit down at the piano and break out this song and everyone will be impressed. Should really help you get in the mood for the season.
Imagine taking piano lessons and not reading music. While guitar tabs work pretty well for guitar lessons, it’s a little different taking instructional piano tutorials without sheet music. On a stringed instrument, you can name the string and where to pluck it, and this is how the earliest musical notation evolved in Sumer, in 2000 BC. But as musical instruments advanced, so did musical notation. By the time of the Byzantine Empire, notation had improved to the point of using a system based on differential, that is, according to the rise or fall of a pitch. But the lack of an absolute system led to the emergence of the modern staff notation we know today.
Modern musical notation
Guido d’Arezzo lived in the early eleventh century in northern Italy. He was a Benedectine monk who recognized how much difficulty singers had remembering Gregorian chants. Around 1025, he created the “ut-re-me-fo-so-la” mnemonic and the four line staff. This led to the standardization of melody, but it took another few hundred years for rhythm to be accounted for through standardized note lengths, and another nearly three centuries for the use of regular measures to come into play.
Reading music to improve your style
Today’s notation includes many different notes about how to play a piece, from tempo to expression and dynamics. These words above the staff can make for large differences in how the same piece can be played if only the notes and rhythm are followed; they allow for a personal touch on each note. Glenn Gould was very well known for playing Bach in a very individualistic style, so much so, that after Gould, it was hard to play certain Bach pieces in any other way. Indeed, Gould claimed that he often studied piano by reading sheet music instead of playing it. It also helped that Gould could memorize on sight, but hey, if he didn’t know how to read music, he might never have become as good as he was!