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It's like thinking out of the box, I love this re-harmonization.

Excellent approach. Unfortunately you end up with much too complicated examples. Why not show some simple songs that give the satisfaction of quick results. That’s what brings the beginner in and motivates that person to keep going at it.

I just bought a goldfish has the same rhythm as 'CA-mels IN the WA-ter', which I was taught years ago. They are more like 10/8 time than 5/4. e.g. 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2, 1-2 (repeat)... which is 10 beats. A good mnemonic for 5/4 is: MAN-go ban-NA-na... which is 1-2-3, 1-2 (repeat)... or 5 beats.

let it be

Could you call the secondary dominant the 6 chord?

I’m blown away with your video- thank you!

Thank you! I’m taking a jazz improv class in college and learning this progression in Autumn Leaves. I love this video to get me out of the sequential thinking. I’ve hit that wall!

Great! Very helpful!

I left the real Hotel California real life video for the last piece of this lesson. That's how amazing this is!

I always look at chords on a sheet music. Then i can pick out the melody because I find that the notes are always in the chords.

What a performance!! 😱 Incredible! Thank you!

I have been self teaching myself the Piano for four months and have been learning this piece for about three weeks now. I find that I tend to keep using different fingering each time I play it. Often only noticed after playing the bar. Is there any sheet music with fingering added for this?

Great video 🎉loved it, well explained, thank u

Love it! Particularly starting at 10:00. I need groovy rhythm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for sharing this with such ease ,this will definitely improve my playing,great content.

Thanks Tom! It’s so obvious from watching your great video that understanding about chords and knowing what signposts to actively listen out for have been sadly lacking in my adventures in self-learning since 2019. It’s a bit embarrassing but I realise I’ve been playing rather mindlessly, note by single note, while learning to sight-read classical pieces. This has made me (kind of tensely) reliant upon sheet music. I can see from this session that understanding chord patterns could simplify things dramatically and free you up to simply enjoy the sounds of different progressions in themselves. PS I’m working on your gospel chord pattern video which has had the same revelatory (and joyous) effect!

Love your work Tom, every bit a good as Adele’s voicing. Thanks again for an amazing tutorial.

What make and model piano? It sounds great.

Interesting, I’m self taught never broken down what I do with pop music but it’s exactly how you describe. Chords, groove/rhythm/mood and then lastly melody arranged on top. I did a version on hotel California akin to moonlight sonata because it hit me that the chord progressions were similar and it would work. Here’s a link to my short, this is the kind of method I’m using now to teach students. czcams.com/users/shorts_0XyI1TkI1U?si=K3XhJwtIzo8FJA8Y

Very good explanations. Thanks a lot. I totally agree with the method: first chords, then groove, at last melody. But I have got one problem: To put it altogether I really have to know the melody very very well. The chords and the groove are learned relatively easy and can be handled in a flexible way, but the melody not. Otherwise the song is not recognizable.

Brilliant, Brilliant, and ever more Brilliant !

"a thoughtful chord" - what a wonderful description - thanks Tom

Thank you Tom, this is a game changer! Working toward my ABRSM Grade 1 was just repition of a couple of major scales across 2 octaves and C major in both hands for 1 octave but without understanding how to make other scales. Watching this I went away and quickly found I could tackle other scales and importantly based on the tone/semitone could immediately hear when I was right or wrong, even as a novice. Amazing stuff.

Why do the fingerings for this piece vary wildly across several published sheets available to the public???

This is brilliant. I am so excited that I practice in my head a lot of the time. thank you for making sense out of inversions. 🙂

Another amazing video ! Thanks Tom

very helpful😊! Thank's a lot. Inga from Germany near Munich

Absolutely my topic! This is the only reason I play the piano! ❤

Brilliant explanation. I like and enjoy very much your teaching Tom. Best wishes from Spain

Best sight reading video I’ve come across. Well explained and taught Tom.

Always great videos. Thanks a lot for sharing 👍

Hi Tom! I love this tutorial! But I have a request; a video which goes in depth into the other styles of playing the right hand (example arpreggio), rather then flat chords. Thanks!

How do I know the top note?

Way to fast for me to see what you are playing Tom .oddly I could from sheet music .

Thank you

Good job and lesson Tom!..you always show stuff that others dont..this lesson on decorating chords is a good example..which i why i stick with your channel!

This is the best presentation of the blues scale I've seen!

Excellent, less talk and more instruction. Great example of what most of us want to replicate . Thank you. And slow enough to follow without dialing down the speed.

Great lesson! Please also explain /demonstrate how you would embellish chords which are not in root position? Thank you

What a great video. Former HS piano teacher here. I was given a method book to use, filled with public domain tunes like "When the Saints Go Marching In." Kids weren't digging it, shocker. Next year, 6 weeks to learn the treble clef for the RH, then on to lead sheets & pop tunes. Always asked them, What song do you want to learn, and made lead aheets for them, rarely more than 6 triad chords. All as you say here, I confirm.

so basically there's no shortcut - learn your theory, your voicings, and how to arrange for the piano

Thank you!

Very helpful lesson - Thanks!

13:30 I just want to appreciate how you're only playing a chorded right hand here, but still there's a groove I found myself tapping along to. I totally get your point about groove!

How does this technique work with inversions?

Hello Tom. Thanks for a great video. I've just enrolled in your "Complete Musician" course, and I'm very excited for it to start! A question: When you really started to "get going" with the last demo, at about 14:30, I noticed you starting to do some more funky things in your left hand. I'm always bored by my own left hand technique - I largely just rock up and down on octaves and fifths (e.g. C - G - C and back down, if in C major). Please can you make a video specifically on the left hand accompaniment and how to make it more varied and interesting.

I would love to be able to sit down and just play like this. I'm looking forward to starting the Complete Musician course next week.

OMG Tom. This is exactly what I was hoping you would teach us. You are not only a great piano teacher, you are a mind reader.

Absolutely fascinating!

I'm running out of superlatives for your lessons Tom!! Thank you for one that speaks to the fills!!