Popular Music Lesson

Let it Go, Part 2

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Hello and welcome back.
I'm Joseph Hoffman. In this lesson I'll
show you how to add chords to the chorus
of "Let it Go" from Frozen.
So if you don't already know how to play
the melody for the chorus
be sure to check out that lesson first.
Ok, let's come to the piano and get
started.
All right, we're going to be reading the
chords lead sheet style, so you'll see
these capital letters
up above the notes. That tells you what
chord to play. You'll see the first chord
is C. If it's just capital C that means
C major.
But for this song we're going to be using
what's called power chords. We just play an
open fifth.
Whatever note you see for the chord, you
play that plus a note a 5th above,
so you can just use finger five and
finger one.
That will be your C chord.
You'll notice that the three notes, "let
it go," actually come right before you
play that chord, so your right hand will
go, "let it go,"
and then you play that chord.
The next chord will be a G chord so
let's go down for the G. You could go up
but it's a little bit closer to just
shift down to that G chord. Good. So let's
try that again, four beats on each chord,
here we go, start with the C,
ready, go, 1, 2,
3, 4, G chord, 1, 2,
3, 4, next will be an A minor chord, so
shift up one note, and again the minor
doesn't really matter when were just using
an open fifth, ready,
A, one, two,
three, four, then down to an F chord, one, two, three, four,
good. Then we go to a C chord, so come
back to C, a one, two, three, down to G chord,
one, two, three, now an A minor chord, one, two,
three, back to F, one, two,
three, four, great. Ok, now press pause and practice that on your own two or three times till
you feel comfortable counting one, two,
three, four,
while you do the chord. Press play when
you're ready to try with me
adding the melody.
Okay, let's try this
out.
So you're just doing the left hand and
counting one, two, three, four.
Let's do four beats on each chord. I'll
play the right hand along so we hear how
it's all going to sound together.
Here we go. Remember, I get to start. I'll
play, "let it go,"
one, and then you start. Here we go, one, two, three, "Let it go,"
one, two, three, four,
one, two, three, four,
one, two, three, four
one, two, three, four
one, two, three, four
one, two, three, four
one, two, three, four
one, two, three, four, great!
If you want to try that again feel free
to press pause, rewind, try it as many
times as you need.
Ok, now we're ready for "I don't care." This
time the left hand is also going to start
on a C.
"what there," now we go to an A minor, "going to say,"
"say" goes down to F.
The same pattern as before 'I don't care," go down to G, "what they're going to say."
Down to F. Ok, let's try that together. I'll
play the melody and the chords, you just
do the chords starting on C.
Ready, go. "I don't care"
"what they're going to say,"
Good, now let's keep going,
on "let the storm," on the word "storm"
you're going to go down to an E minor chord, just
one step below, "let the storm rage" and
then on "on" we're going to go to an
E-flat chord, so you're going to just
take these two white keys and then shift
them both to flats. E flat and B flat. E and B, go down to E flat and B flat.
on the word "on." "Let the storm rage on,"
then on the word "cold" you're going to
come up one step to F. "the cold never
bothered me anyway." And that's it, you're
done.
Now if you want to get more fancy with
the chorus you could do something like
pulsing quarter notes.
So instead of just playing the chord,
each chord once, like "I don't care,"
you can go, "I don't care"
"what they're going to say,"
"let the storm rage on"
"the cold never bothered me anyway."
and to kind of bring the energy back
down at the end, you notice I switch back
to just playing the chord once, so you
can, you can play with the chords and have
some fun with it.
Ok, now let's try the whole thing
together. if you want to just do the chords,
that's great. If you've been practicing
this for a while, you feel ready to try
the right hand and the left hand
together,
go for it, ok, but if this is your first
time,
maybe just do the chords. Let's try
through the whole thing.
Remember to keep a steady beat and count
four beats for each chord in this first section.
Ok, get ready on the C chord. I'll count,
one, two, three, and then I'll play "let it
go" and then th ...