All of Me by Jon Schmidt (Advanced)

Get early advanced "All of Me" sheet music here.

What piano skills are required for this advanced arrangement?

This piece requires the pianist to have an advanced sense of rhythm, be able to play arpeggios confidently, recognize flat and natural keys (and therefore read in D-flat major), reach the width of an octave, and more. An exciting technique that is utilized in this piece is the act of playing with your forearms, which is where the title “All of Me” comes from.

Is this version different from other arrangements of All of Me?

This is the original Jon Schmidt composition in D-flat major, but there are other, simpler arrangements of this composition which includes Jon Schmidt’s own intermediate version. You can find this version here. The intermediate version is in C major, which means that the performer doesn’t need to remember nearly the amount of accidentals (flats, naturals, etc.) as in the original. The rhythms are much less complex as well! Check out Mr Hoffman’s tutorial of this easier version by clicking here.

How do I add expression to Jon Schmidt's "All of Me"?

Adding expression to “All of Me” includes following Schmidt’s dynamic indications such as crescendi and diminuendi, his written instructions, his tempo markings, and other markings. It also helps for the performer to think about phrasing and connecting their physical gestures to the musical phrases. For example, when playing legato your gestures should be graceful and smooth, staccato articulations within a phrase should have a bouncy, light feeling which comes from the gesture itself.

What dynamics are used in this performance?

This piece is mostly written as forte and fortissimo, but there are a lot of crescendi and diminuendi indicated as well. It’s important to remember that not every forte or fortissimo is played exactly the same. For a climactic moment to exist in a piece that is mostly forte, some fortes should be softer than others in order to create a feeling of constant build up to that climactic moment. Otherwise, the music might feel boring and monotonous. Also, it’s important to remember that when you play the same musical idea more than once, you want to find ways to make it sound new, intentional, and interesting. For example, vary the dynamic slightly or modify the phrasing each time.

Where can I find sheet music for Jon Schmidt's original?

You can find the sheet music for Jon Schmidt’s original by clicking here. You can also click on the information button (i) after the title of the video. Then click “Get advanced sheet music for ‘All of Me’ by Jon Schmidt here.”

Hello and welcome. I'm Joseph Hoffman, and in this tutorial I'm going to share some tips for learning to play "All of Me" by John Schmidt. This happens to be the theme song I play at the start of most of my own Hoffman Academy video lessons, and it's been one of our most requested pieces to create a tutorial for. The difficulty level for this piece is early advanced. It's fast and quite challenging, soif you'd like an easier version of this piece please check out my intermediate level tutorial to learn a simplified, but still very exciting version, of "All of me.” But if you're feeling ready for the full, advanced version, let's get started by checking out the score. When I start a new piece, a few things I'm always checking out: the clefs. We would expect to see treble and bass right? But aha, taking the time to double check we see we have treble clef for both hands, and then what is our key signature? Five flats, puts us in the key of D-flat major. Now some people panic when they see a whole bunch of flats or sharps, but I just stay calm and relax, because this is easy. Basically everything is flat except C and F. So rather than stress like, oh what are all the notes that are flat? I just imagine that everything is flat. Parentheses except for C and F, so just kind of assume if you see a note that it's going to be flat except for those C's and F's, and then you'll be in great shape. 4/4 time signature, and also it's very important to check your tempo indication: Freely, like a Fanfare. A Fanfare is like an introduction to something. This is the introduction to the piece, and when a composer says freely, it gives you the liberty to not play like you're playing along with the metronome with a very exact tempo. You might speed some notes up. You might slow some notes down with the flow of the music. Now because of the rhythms of ...