Hello and welcome to this intermediate level piano tutorial for "A Million Dreams" from The Greatest Showman.
If you're looking for something easier, please check out my easy tutorial for this song.
Let's come to the piano to start learning.
All right, we start with the left hand all by itself and notice the left hand's in treble staff.
So we're up here above middle C on this treble G.
And note the key signature. We're in the key of G major so all F's will be automatically sharp.
And it also says we're going to do this with pedal. Of course, when you're learning this I wouldn't worry about adding
the pedal right away, but when you're ready the pedal will give this the right sound that we're looking for.
Okay, so that's the intro section. Let's take a look at the left hand now.
I prefer starting with the finger 2 1
in measure one, and then I switch to a 3 1,
then I like 4 1 here. Now, if that's too big of a stretch you can also do a 5 1 there, but the reason I like
4 1 in measure three is because then that leaves my 5 free.
In measure 4 to come down to the C, and I do 5 2 1 1.
Okay, so notice that.
But, if there's a fingering that works better for you go for it. Just remember, this is going to go kind of quick.
So you need fingerings that allow you, and notice this one note that is really easy to miss. At the end of measure six notice it switches to a G on that last note of measure six to prepare this switch to this open fifth in measure seven and eight.
Okay, pause and work on the left hand alone measures one through eight on your own, then press play to go on.
Now let's check out this right hand part. It's really important to get these rhythms precise.
So it might help to count the subdivided beat like this: 1-& 2-& 3-& 4-&
1-& 2-& 3-& 4-&, 1-& 2-& 3-& 4-& 1-& 2-& 3-& 4-&, 1-& 2-& 3-& 4-&
1-& 2-& 3-& 4-&, 1-& 2-& 3-& 4-&
Now pause the video and work on measures nine through fifteen right hand alone, then press play and we'll check it out together.
Now the hard part is going to be combining the left hand with the right hand.
This left hand part starting in measure nine is very similar to what you had in the intro with a few minor changes to watch out for.
So together at first I suggest you go extremely slow.
1-& 2-& 3-& 4-&, 1, now I'm not going to bore you by going through it all at that speed, but that's probably how slow you want to go at first,
Then gradually speed it up until you can go full speed.
Okay, pause if you'd like some time to work on that hands together otherwise you can save that for later.
And let's go on and look at the next section, which happens to be very similar to what we just played.
So again, you can pause if you'd like some time to work on that hands together, but for right now I'm just demonstrating so you can take as much help from me as you want, and work through it on your own.
Let's go on to the next section starting here in measure twenty-five.
Now the left hand is going to switch to a quarter note pattern.
And notice we've got this pattern with a fifth plus a fourth.
Which brings us back to the same note we started on C G C that's a very common pattern we see in a lot of
piano music. So just notice that pattern here. We have that same pattern on D A D.
Okay so,
here in measure twenty-nine we have D A D A, and then E B B G.
C G C G, so watch out for the little surprise moments like in measure
thirty we come E to B, then down to B, low B, up to G, and then we go back to this pattern again.
Okay, pause the video and work on just left hand alone from measure twenty-five
all way up through measure forty left hand alone practice that, then press play to go on.
Okay, let's check out the right hand part for this section now.
We start off with this chord on beat 1,
and then ♫They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy♫
And then notice those chords come on the & of the beat so 1-& 2-& 3-& 4-&
So it's syncopated with the left hand, which makes it sound really cool I think. 1-& 2-& 3-& 4-&
And at full speed:
Okay.
Pause the video and work on learning just the right hand alone from measure twenty-five all the way up through measure forty,
then press play and I'll demonstrate it for you.
Okay, let's check out this section hands together starting at measure twenty-five.
Okay, so notice we've got these chords here the right hand with the crescendo.
And then that's going to lead us into the chorus. Now pause if you want more time to practice that, otherwise let's look at what's happening here in the chorus. So our right hand has to shift up
on the piano. Finger 1 is now on D. ♫'Cause every night I lie in bed, the brightest colors fill my head♫
And then these chords again. ♫I think of what the world could be♫
And let's stop there for right now. Pause the video and I'd like you to work on just right hand alone
for that section
Starting in measure forty all the way up through measure fifty-six work on the right hand alone, then press play to go on.
Okay, notice the left hand is doing a lot of these patterns that we've seen before with,
we've got G D G, that fifth, and then fourth. G D G.
This pattern is so common in piano music.
You want to really get comfortable with that.
I recommend learning hands alone first before you learn it hands together.
So here's the left hand part.
Up through measure fifty-six. Okay,
now pause and work on left hand alone from measure forty-one through fifty-six, then press play to go on.
Now let's check out this section hands together.
So I'm going to start at measure forty. Here we go.
1 2 3 4
Okay, now pause if you'd like some time to practice that hands together,
otherwise let's keep going.
Then you'll notice after this crescendo,
there's a marking 'subito'
mezzo piano. Subito means suddenly.
And so we're suddenly going to go from this forte sound to to a mezzo piano, softer sound. So we're going to suddenly drop it down,
and then right after that you'll notice we have this first ending.
This little bracket with the number one inside means do this just the first time only,
and it goes
back to our opening theme, and then see this repeat sign, that takes you back
to this repeat sign in measure nine.
So it's like a teleport station. Takes us back to measure nine to this forward-facing repeat sign, and then we do this again.
Second verse.
And so then we're going to do all of page one and two and three again, and then when we make it back again to here in measure fifty-seven,
Then we go to the second ending. You skip the first ending and it skips straight to measure sixty-three, this time,
and now the right hand plays this.
So we can come to a really gentle ending. This rall. stands for rallentando.
It's an Italian word that means gradually slow down.
So here in measure sixty-three we're piano. We're going to gradually slow down and get softer to pianissimo really gentle
beautiful ending.
So now we've looked through the whole thing,
I'm going to demo the entire song for you now including the repeats. So you can get a feel for the whole thing
start to finish, and then on your own I hope you'll learn this and have lots of fun playing "A Million Dreams".
From the top.
Great work learning how to play "A Million Dreams" from the greatest showman.
Thanks for watching and learning with me, and happy practicing!
A million dreams? That's a lot of dreams.
Sure is.
Speaking of dreams, at night I keep having this dream about a horse in full battle armor.
Really?
Actually, it's probably more of a nightmare.
Hahaha
Nightmare, good one. You are the main man.
Aww, quit horsing around
Hahaha
It's time to reign it in Scuba.
Hahaha
Yeah, I guess it would be-hoof us to move on.
Hahaha, you said it.