Key Of C Major Pop Chords
I IV vi V Chord Progression in C Major
If you read music, this is what these four chords look like on the music staff.
Notice that three of these chords are Major and one of them is minor. And even though the example Ive shown you is in the key of C Major, theyre the same structure in every key.
Pop Chords in Major Key of Music
| I Chord |
Getting The Basics Down
Some parents are hesitant to teach their children basic music skills because they dont know where to begin. The good news is that you dont need to be a professional player to teach your child easy keyboard songs like the ones below. In fact, you dont need any musical experience to get started you can even learn alongside your child!
First off, youll need to learn the location of the notes on the piano. Start by finding C its the white key directly to the left of the group of two black keys. Using only the white keys, the notes continue in alphabetical order up to G, and then they restart at A.
You can label the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, and B with stickers to make it easier for your child. Most easy piano song notes will all fall on the white keys, so theres no need to worry about labeling sharps and flats just yet. Once youve found where these seven notes are, you and your kids can start learning basic piano songs!
Love Me Like You Do Ellie Goulding
The song is better suited to piano players with a little more experience. Its written in the key of Ab Major and uses the chords associated with that key.
The song was written for the film Fifty Shades of Grey and performed by the British pop singer Ellie Goulding. The whole song is very much in keeping with her traditional dreamy and melodic style.
This video slows the song down and provides an excellent tutorial, and includes a lead sheet.
You May Like: How To Compose Piano Music
Just The Way You Are Bruno Mars
This version is so simple it only has three chords, and you should pick it up really easily. The song is heavily influenced by tracks like Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton and You are so Beautiful by Joe Cocker.
Despite some cheesy lyrics and mixed reviews from the music press on its release, it still topped the chart in more than ten countries and made Bruno Mars one of the worlds biggest pop stars.
Learn how to play one of Bruno Mars most well known and easy pop songs with this easy to follow chord sheet.
Being The Rhythm Section Of A Pop Song
The most appealing aspect of the piano as an instrument compared to others, is that you can be the entire orchestra. That is to say, you can be the bass, drums, guitar, horn section, keyboards etc. because of the audio spectrum available to you.
Other instrumentalists are limited because of the range of notes their instruments allow them to play.
So the piano is and has been the perfect single instrument choice for accompanying a singer or instruments that solely play the melody of a song.
Thankfully most pop rhythms are not complicated. You can be the rhythm section of a pop song by playing simple rhythms on the keyboard. This style of playing ignores the melody and focuses on the harmony in the context of playing them rhythmically.
Theres no limitation as to how to play chords rhythmically. You can get very creative and play satisfying arrangements of songs just by playing rhythms.
If youre a beginner, or just a traditional piano student who wants to go in the direction of playing pop songs, here are some common chord progressions that will get you started playing pop piano.
You May Like: John Legend All Of Me Piano Sheet Music
My Heart Will Go On Celine Dion
My Heart Will Go On is another one of those big power ballads, this time from Celine Dion, who recorded the theme song for the blockbuster Titanic.
This song won the 1998 Acadamy Award for Best Original Song and launched Celines career as a mega artist.
As with any good power ballad, the song alternates from a slow start and builds to a rip-roaring crescendo.
The video tutorial is a simple version of the song, as is the chord sheet. If you feel like more of a challenge, try some of the more complicated versions available on YouTube.
Billie Jean Michael Jackson
Just for fun, lets look at Billie Jean from the album Thriller, which dates back to 1982. Well focus on the synth parts in this song. In the right hand, play these three chords: F#min G#min A G#min. For these chords, there is a four-note bassline for the left hand to play. When the chords change to Bbmin, there is a second bassline. Using these two basslines and two chord sections, you can play the verses and choruses. Play along with the video below:
Thank you HDPiano for the use of this video.
I hope these piano pop songs for beginners help you learn how to play the piano. Here are 15 more piano pop songs to try, and 15 piano solos that are easier than they seem. Keep practicing them and then make your own list of new pop songs to learn!
Recommended Reading: Hedwig’s Theme Piano Notes
Easy Piano Pop Songs For Beginners
Pop music is great fun to play on the piano. You can lose yourself in the songs and imagine yourself as the next Taylor Swift.
Add a selection of these easy piano songs to your repertoire, and it wont be long before youre wowing your friends and family with your piano playing prowess.
All the songs included in the list have a video of someone playing the song, and some include a chord sheet or lead sheet.
If youve never used a lead sheet before, it provides the basic structure of the song. You play the chords with your left hand and the melody with your right hand. Use a lead sheet as a guide, and with a little practice, youll soon be creating your own versions of your favorite songs.
Our list of easy piano pop songs is designed to give you the confidence to play the popular songs that we all love, some of which weve grown up listening to. If this is why you wanted to play the piano in the first place, you are going to have so much fun playing pop songs from across the decades.
The best of it is, you dont even need to read sheet music. The lead and chord sheets will give you all the information you need to play everyones favorite pop songs.
Dont Miss: Free Popular Piano Sheet Music
Four Easy Chords To Learn New Piano Songs Quickly
Chords are the building blocks of music: Learn to master them and you’ll be able to learn new songs even faster. Here’s how.
Imagine you could just sit down at the piano and freely play songs without having to practice for years. It sounds unbelievable, but with the help of this guide, you can do it in just a FEW DAYS! Read on to find out how it works.
You May Like: Easy Christmas Song On Piano
One Republic Counting Stars
Counting Stars is a song that a lot of piano players love thanks to the constant rhythm that is used in the left hand. Its a real feel-good piece that everyone can sing along too because its such a popular song that most people will know. It will also help you build on your piano skills and you can show these off to others, along with your vocals if youre able to sing at the same time. Once you get used to the piece as a whole you can add in your own fun little embellishments and even some improvisations to make the song yours.
Weve moved on from the more traditional keys because Counting Stars is in the key of A minor. For the verse you will follow a chord progression of A minor, C, G and F. This repeats over and over again to form the verses with only a slight change in the chorus. As far as 4 chord songs go, this one is super simple and ideal for anyone wanting to learn pop songs to play on the piano.
Popular Ways To Play Piano Chords
Well done, you have successfully learned the basics for playing piano chords and your favourite music!
To help you in your journey of learning piano chords, make sure you grab our free piano chord chart.
To recap, there are different ways you can use piano chords in your playing. Here are the 3 most popular ways you can try for yourself:
1. Sing and play piano – This is a very popular way of playing the piano and it is suitable for musicians of all levels .
2. Play the melody with your right hand and the chords with your left hand. This is a great way to play popular songs if you are not a fan of singing.
3.Play chords with your left hand and improvise a solo melody with your right hand. This is a great way to play for more advanced pianists or if you are just trying out improvisation on the piano.
Recommended Reading: Casio Px-770 Wh Privia Digital Home Piano White
Popular Piano Songs With Easy Chords
There are good reasons why the piano is the most popular instrument on the planet. The astounding power and dynamic range of the piano is nothing short of incredible, and with it, songwriters and performers are able to convey a wide range of moods, sounds, and emotions. Today, were going to show you how to play some popular piano songs, but first lets talk about what the piano is and where it came from.
La Valse Damelie By Yann Tiersen
Amelie made everyone believe you could find love in Paris at any street corner. Well.. while that might be a bit romanticised, the movie will certainly make you fall in love with the soundtrack. Composed by Yann Tiersen and released in 2001, La Valse dAmelie will get you playing what-if scenarios in your head all evening.
Play the piano sheet music of La Valse dAmelie
Don’t Miss: Fix You Piano Sheet Music
Stay With Me Sam Smith
Fortunately for you, Sam Smith decided to repeat only three chords with the same rhythm for this entire song. So, here are the chords: Amin, F, C. After you get the chords in the left hand down, add the melody in your right hand. The video below shows how to add some cool fills to make it interesting:
Thank you DPSM for the use of this video.
Of The Best Easy Pop Songs To Learn On Piano In 2022
The piano is a very popular instrument to learn and its versatility allows for a range of music to be played. From classical to rock, for beginners and professionals alike, there is nothing like sitting down at a beautiful piano or keyboard and belting out a recognizable tune that has everyone humming or singing along.
To inspire you for some of your next tunes to learn, weve put together a list of the best easy pop songs to learn on piano from across the decades that are easy to master. Lets get started.
Read Also: Creep Radiohead Piano Sheet Music
Is There A Reasonable Explanation For The Relative Popularity Of Certain Chords
Why are A minor chords so popular but A major chords practically non existent? There wont always be easy answers, but in this case these results can easily be explained with some basic music theory. A discussion of this is out of the scope of this post, but well definitely explore the music theory behind this in future articles.
Even if you dont know the music theory behind this yet, there is a lot of practical information to take away. If your song is written in C and you want it to sound good, you probably shouldnt use any A major chords unless you really know what youre doing. Better stick with A minor, for example.
The team over at Apple, Inc. evidently know their music theory. Their latest version of GarageBand lets you play with Smart Instruments that make you sound like an expert musician even if youve never player a note before.
Im skeptical of their claims, but look at the chords theyve chosen for these Smart Instruments:
Dont those chords look familiar? Based on what our database is showing, I might suggest some small changes.
In particular, Bdim, while diatonic in C, is much less common than some other chords, like D, and E. Perhaps in the next version of garageband, Apple will fix this .
However, overall Apple is making good choices for the chords that the average garage band musician might want to start with.
Adele Someone Like You
Adele has made some of the best songs to play on the piano known today and this song was taken from her debut album, 21. Its an incredible piece that managed to reach the top of the charts in just under ten countries when it was released. Most of the song can be played by repeating four chords over and over again which are A, E, F# minor and D. The left hand will keep playing constant arpeggios with these chords while your right hand masters that melody.
Don’t Miss: Alicia Keys If I Ain T Got You Piano
How To Play Chord Piano
When playing chord piano, you can use, for example, a “Fakebook.” I use this Easy Fake Book with my students, which is a great way to learn to play chords and melody following a lead sheet.
A lead sheet has only the melody written with notes , and above it, the chords are written as chord symbols, like Cmaj7, Eb dim., or Bm, for example.
If you already know the melody, you only need the lyrics and the chords! Here is a free example with only chords and melody.
You can either sing the song’s melody and make up your own accompaniment or pick out the melody in one hand and play the chords in the other.
Use the piano chords chart below to remind yourself how to play simple triads in root position.
However, check out my beginner piano lesson about how to play piano chord inversions to learn how you can change the chord’s position for smooth transitions when moving from one chord to the next.
Tip: You can also learn about and print my free piano chord inversions charts here.
Michael Jackson Billie Jean
While you may not relate Jackson to great piano songs, this one is actually a really fun song to play on the piano. Its simple enough because were actually using the synth parts which feature heavily throughout the song. Take your right hand and play the 4 chord progression of F# minor, G# minor, A and then G# minor again. These four chords make up the bassline for the piece so you will be playing these with your left hand. After a while the chord progression changes up to Bb minor to form a second bassline. You can place these chord sections over one another to make up the two basslines you can hear with the synth in both the chorus and verses.
Also Check: All Too Well Chords Piano
What Chords Did Axis Of Awesome Play In The Four Chord Song
The main studio version
Their main studio version of the four chord song was recorded in the key of D major. They use the I, V, vi and IV chords, which in this key are D major, A major, B minor and G major. Read on to learn how those numbers work. At first, they play them in a 4 measure loop. Each chord gets 1 measure like this:
After singing many famous melodies that fit over this cycle such as Im yours, where is the love and Take me home, country roads, they change things up a bit. Theyre playing the same chord sequence still, but this time, each chord only gets half a measure:
This makes it feel twice as fast and gives them a whole bunch of other melodies that will now fit over the quicker chord changes such as No woman no cry and save tonight. Towards the end, they revert back to the first pattern.
You can watch how to play this on piano in the key of D major in this short clip:
The popular live video on YouTube
On this live version, they performed the song in the key of E major instead . Now, they needed to use the I, V, vi and IV chords from that key instead which are E major, B Major, C# minor and A major.
They just applied these chords to the same structure, 1 chord per measure for the first section:
And 2 chords per measure for the 2nd section:
Moving something to another key is called transposing. You can watch how to play this on piano in the key of E major in this short clip:
Sympathy For The Devil By The Rolling Stones
This is one of many great popular piano songs to learn for beginning piano students and is a great example of a song that manages to sound interesting despite how predictable and repetitive it is.
Hope you guess my nameBBut whats puzzling youA EIs the nature of my gameoh yeah, get down, baby
Don’t Miss: Howl’s Moving Castle Piano Chords
My Future Billie Eilish
My Future is a song by American pop artist Billie Eilish, released in 2021 in her album Happier Than Ever.
The track carries very current values such as self-love and personal evolution.
My Future has been a huge success worldwide and has received critical acclaim. It has been included in the most prestigious charts since 2020, such as USA Today, Billboard and Slate.
The song is very soft and remains quite easy to play on the piano.
Thats why it is particularly appreciated by beginner pianists who are amateurs of the pop scene.
We will now see how to play the piano chords of My Future by Billie Eilish.
