This week, I decided to try to learn how to play “Piano Man” by Billy Joel with the audio of the song. I found the audio on YouTube and used the video that I have embedded below!
I tried playing what I had learned on the piano in time with the audio of the song and it was so, so, so hard. The song has a really quick beat and I remembered that I cut my beats per measure into basically one half a few weeks ago. Because of cutting the beats per measure down, I wasn’t able to play exactly in time with the tune of the song which was kind of defeating.
As an alternative, I decided I would just listen to the piano in the song accompanied by lyrics. I listened to the song over and over again because I really wanted to get into the headspace of how to play the song in terms of rhythm, and just pure excitement. Listening to the actual song by Billy Joel really helped me regain focus and stay motivated to continue to learn this song.
I then chose to pull up some lyrics of the song. I took the lyrics and printed them off. I put the paper copies of the lyrics on my piano and began trying to play the parts of the song I knew while singing the actual lyrics of the song. This idea seemed easy but it was honestly a daunting task. Singing while playing the piano requires mental coordination especially since I am trying to memorize the piano accompaniment of the song. I also have to have physical control over my hands while I am trying to sing. It was hard for me to divide my attention between the two complex tasks. Sometimes I would stop singing but continue to play and other times I would just keep on singing but be so far behind that the lyrics were not lining up with the notes that I was playing.
I took my struggles to YouTube once again. I found a video on tips for playing the piano and signing at the same time which I have embedded below!
In this video, she gives such great tips on how to sing while playing the piano, but the tip that I decided to focus on the most was singing the song without words while playing at the same time. This literally just means to hum the song while playing. This tip was a great way to warm up my voice, get me into the flow of the song and keep me in that flow for the whole song. After using this strategy a few times, I was starting to get the hang of playing the song with my hands and humming along.
I then decided to use another strategy she mentioned in her video. This strategy was to make sure that a person knows the true lyrics they wish to sing. I went back to the website that I found the lyrics on and began singing to make sure I was singing the correct lyrics.
Then, I put all my tips and tricks together! I began to play the piano slowly and sing at the same time. I progressively got better but it was still not up to par. After attempting to sing and play at the same time, I came to the conclusion that I am going to just stick with playing the piano and that’s it; no singing. Singing while playing did help me maintain the flow of the song and gave me motivation this week to practice the piano. I definitely not up there with Billy Joel’s singing but hopefully by the end of this semester, I am a close second to him on the piano 🙂