How To Play Piano Man On Harmonica?

Get Learn How To Play Piano Man On Harmonica – The Pianoforall Method is very simple.. Join us. Having a single reed for each note: The diatonic is a single reed harmonica, with only one reed to play each note. Welcome to this free lesson on how to play Piano Man on the harmonica.

Today, you’ll practice using my methodology along with the interactive video, on which you’ll see the song tabs in real time and play along with me. This is the method I adopted in all my online harmonica school courses. You’ll practice all the licks of this wonderful Billy Joel song, and after this, you will play the them on the provided backing track.

I suggest that you learn each lick separately with the metronome and put everything together when you can play all the licks consistently at a moderate tempo.

You can use a C harmonica to practice Piano man with my videos, or you can play any other harmonica key if you plan to play alone. For this lesson, you’ll find the play-along video, the backing track, and the slow version of both, as well as the tabs. As usual, the video tabs will show you both the note name and the harmonica hole to use.

Below on this page, you’ll find an in-depth analysis of the song, but first, let’s have fun with my play-along methodology.

Here are the videos: On the tabs, you’ll find the hole number on the lower row, and the note name on the upper row. A + symbol after the hole number means “blow”, where there’s no + you should draw the note. Follow the video and Good practice!

How To Play Piano Man On Harmonica?

PIANO MAN SONG ANALYSIS

Basically, Billy Joel’s Piano Man is a great strategy start learning the blues harmonica, because it is really a really well-known song with very simple but memorable melodies.

However, as a teacher, I created this lesson with the intent of transferring knowledge that goes further than merely learning a couple of harmonica licks in order to be honest, just one melody and a slight variation of it. For this reason, I’m going to inform you something about how these licks are built and why they’re so effective and appealing for that listener.

The song time signature is seventy-five per cent and the backing is performed in triplets like an ordinary waltz.

Before analyzing the melodies, I want to introduce some general points to within mind that mind about the harmonica parts from this song. The trademark licks recall the singer’s melody, as well as a very simple but powerful way to use the instrument on sung furniture units.

The intro actually acts with regard to implication of what Billy is going to sing. Then an individual a small three-note sequence that resolves on the new singing part, along the 1:23 mark. Couple of other significant harmonica parts are part belonging to the track.

The song is very easy, as it doesn’t require bending skills and the licks are built on the central holes of the harmonica in particular, only on holes 4, 5, and 6.

How can a song be so great if we need just three hole notes perform it?

The answer lies in the fact that with easy tips harmonica holes, purchase play almost every note of the C major scale: C, D, E, F, G, having a. With these notes, doable ! make tons of lovely licks, and in this group of notes, you have the 3 most important in the key: C, E, and G.

The C note will be the key root note, the E is very important because it’s the third interval that determines the major mode of the song, and the G note may be the fifth degree that resolves on the C note. Is it possible to see how much you can study on a simple tune?

Which is way to learn things: grab some concepts, digest them, and be fortunate to reuse them. I’ll provide you an example: learning 2 simple licks is totally okay, but what after we want to expand our practice doing something interesting like transposing them to your harmonica higher octave?

Actually, if you listen to Billy Joel singing, you’ll hear him jumping one octave up with the voice right after incredibly sentences. Try it! Playing the high harmonica holes is something that many players can’t do, so be brave and explore your instrument!

Let’s discuss more in regards harmony now. This song is built around a few fundamental chords: C major, F major and G major. If you know a bit of musical theory, you’ll know these types of are the most important chords when working on major tunes, in particular the C and G, because the fifth degree chord resolves on website.

Another aspect to notice about the melodies often that they work almost exercising as a pair, in the role of a typical call and answer-type song; the second melody always ends utilizing key root note C, as if to underline a sentence conclusion’.

In the following section you’ll find Piano man main chord progression:

C C/B Am C/G, F C/E D7 G

C C/B Am C/G, F G7 C

To wrap up these concepts, we are learning how to play harmonica in first position, using a well known chord harmonic progression, and we’re playing a variety licks that always end on the most important key note. Now fretting or constant why Piano Man is truly the most desirable songs to learn for beginner harmonica players!

A last note into the melodies execution: in originally song double notes are played in place of your clean single notes. These double notes sound wonderful, due to the simple fact that when you play harmonica in first position, the note layout of the instrument is to your benefit. I suggest that play the single notes first, trying to these people clean, then adding instantly hole slightly enlarging your embouchure.

could also alternate single and double note licks to get the playing more interesting. Inside of original song, sometime your next hole is added for the main one, other times the one on the left is used, listen to the song and you could try and notice the differences!

To give you some thing useful to practice using this lesson, I’ve created some alternative licks for a person play and learn to know how to variate your playing with only a few shrewd issues. In addition to the lesson videos, I’ve played a small improvisation of this song for you, hoping that seek out give you some inspiration to create new licks and really take a*sociated with this exercise.

Here are the tabs for Billy Joe’s Piano Man, you can also download them using the links:

The main licks:

6+, 6, 6+, 5, 5+, 5, 5+

4+, 4, 5+, 4

5+, 5, 6+, 6, 6+, 5, 5+, 5, 5+

4+, 5, 5+, 4, 4+

Then the resolving lick before the singing at 1:23:

4, 5+, 5

Here, you’ll find the transposed licks to practice on the higher octave:

9+, 10, 9+, 9, 8+, 9, 8+

7+, 8, 8+, 8

8+, 9, 9+, 10, 9+, 9, 8+, 9, 8+

7+, 9, 8+, 8, 7+

Here, you’ll find some new ideas for improvising on the song:

6+, 6, 6+, 5, 5+, 4, 5, 5+, 4+

5+, 5, 6+, 5, 5+, 4, 5+, 4

7+, 6, 6+, 5+, 5, 5+, 4, 5+

4+, 4, 5+, 5, 5+, 4, 4+, 4+

A little general information about Billy Joel’s Piano Man:

In 1973, after signing an innovative new contract with Columbia Records with the legendary Clive Davis, Billy began in order to become known to the community thanks to songs while Captain Jack, The Ballad of Billy the Kid, and Piano Man.

These songs are still extremely well-known today, and if you can Piano Man hit five good 20 on the charts, giving this artist his first golden disc award. Would you know who played harmonica on this tune?

His name is Kevin Spacey, a singer and actor, he said he wasn’t a really good harmonica player when Billy asked him to play the intro, but he promised to learn it better for the occasion. Additionally said he had to practice much in that era!

Thank you for joining me for this driving session. I hope you enjoyed the song, and I invite you to take a look at my harmonica school page, where you’ll find many courses that can improve your playing skills on the harmonica. Assist you to there!

How to play Piano Man by Billy Joel on a C harmonica for beginners (Video)

You can see more Piano Man Tabs For Harmonica Here