♫Ladies and gents this is the moment
you've waited for♫
♫Sitting in the dust--♫ Oh,
wow!
Looks like the lights are back on. Well,
I'm Joseph Hoffman
and today we're going to learn how to
play the chorus of "This Is Me" from The
Greatest Showman.
So let's come to the piano to get
started. Let's go ahead and learn the
melody first using our right hand. In
playing the melody we'll need two
different kind of positions for our hand.
One position will be here. This is my
middle C. I'm just a step above that on D.
I'll place my finger 1 right there, and
we'll need an F-sharp for this song, so go
ahead and try out these five notes on
your piano. That's D E F-sharp G A. So
sometimes our hand will kind of be in
this position, every once in a while
we'll need to go one key higher to this
B. I do not recommend that you try and
have your pinky go back and forth and play
both these notes because sometimes
you're gonna have to go quickly between
these two notes, and it just won't be
very musical to do it that way. So what
you'll want to do is also sometimes have
your hand in this position with finger
2 on F-sharp, and then fingers 4 and
5 on this A and B. And that's actually
the position we'll start off in. So go
ahead and get your finger 2 on F-sharp,
and then fingers 4 and 5, your
ring and pinky fingers, on A and B, and
then we'll be ready to start learning
the melody. Okay, the first three notes go,
I'll sing the finger numbers 2 4 5 on
♫When the sharp-♫ Now you try.
Good, we'll add two more notes now. ♫When the sharpest words♫ and that's fingers 2 4 5 4 4. Now
you try.
Good, and then we're gonna add ♫wanna cut♫
and that's gonna be finger 2 on F-
sharp, ♫wanna cut♫ You try.
Good, let's put it
all together. ♫When the sharpest words♫
♫wanna cut♫ Now you try.
Good, now quickly, let's notice some
things about the rhythm, because if
you're playing this song you want to get
the rhythm right. The rhythm is what
makes this song really exciting, or one
of the things that makes it exciting. You
can see in the music when it has this
double beam, that makes those notes
sixteenth notes, and sixteenth notes go
twice as fast as eighth notes, and this
is an eighth note. It only has one beam.
So when you see the double beam, those
notes are gonna go faster on, 'When the',
those notes go pretty quick, and then
'sharp-' is a little bit, well it's twice as
long as the sixteenth notes, because it's
just an eighth note. So we have, 'When the
sharpest words'. So notice how those
sixteenth notes are going faster. Then
you'll also sometimes see these ties,
like between this sixteenth note and this
eighth note. When you see that just hold
that note down. You actually add the
value of both of them together, so even
though you see two notes, you only play
the first note and then hold it. So,
altogether we have, ♫When the sharpest
words wanna cut♫, and then after that
you'll notice in the music a finger 5
on A. That's your clue when you see that
5 over A in the music, to shift to
this position. so now you've got to bring
your 5 down to A and 3 on F-sharp.
That's so you have enough fingers to get
down to the end of this measure. ♫me down♫
So the finger numbers are 5 3 2 1.
Now you try.
Good, in the words there are
♫me down♫, then all together we get, ♫When
the sharpest words wanna cut me down♫
Good, now pause the video and practice
just that first phrase on your own until
you feel comfortable, then press play and
we'll learn the next phrase.
Before we go on to the next phrase,
notice how the last note of ♫down♫ is an
eighth note tied to this dotted half
note. Now, you may not know a lot about
music theory, or maybe you've been doing
my lessons online so you already know
some of this. If that's you just smile and
know that you're ahead of some people,
but if you're new to this, this dotted
half note means to hold for 3 beats
or counts. So when you're playing music
you want to always be counting the beat
in your mind. We have, 'When the sharpest
words wanna cut me down', then you have to count
1 2 3 with a steady beat so you
know how long to hold that note,
otherwise you're going to get ahead of
your rock band who's playing along with
you, right? Because you want to be able to
play this along with the movie
soundtrack, okay, and you'll be able to do
that by the end of this lesson,
especially if you're counting the beats.
So remember to count 3 beats on that
dotted half note, and then you'll see
this sixteenth rest. That funny symbol is
a sixteenth rest which is a very quick
rest. Rests in music just means silence
for a moment, okay? So that sixteenth rest
is a quick moment of silence before we
have, ♫I'm gonna♫ Now notice the finger
numbers we have a 1, but then 2 has to
kind of reach up to the F-sharp, 'gonna'.
Finger 4 is back to A because we're
gonna need that B again in a second. So
let's just practice this, 'I'm gonna', now
you try.
Good, now let's add the next note, ♫I'm♫
♫gonna send♫ Now you try.
Good, now let's
add a few more notes. Now notice where
you have sixteenth notes those will go
faster, and where you have eighth notes
those will go a little bit slower. 'I'm
gonna send a flood', 1 2 4 5
4 4. Now you try
Good, now let's add a few more notes. 1 2 4 5 4 4 2 2
2, for, ♫gonna drown♫ Now you try.
Now after ♫gonna drown♫, then once again we
shift back to this position where finger
5 is on A, ♫them out.♫ Now you try.
Good, if
you put that all together, remember your
fingers are gonna shift for the start of
this phrase. If you go, 'I'm gonna', remember
how I was talking about you're gonna have
to move your finger 5 too fast, that's
not a good way to play. So shift your
fingers like this so your 4 and
5. See how much smoother that is, than
if I do:
That's very choppy and kind of poor
piano playing. Okay, so 1 2 4 5
♫I'm gonna send a flood, gonna drown
them out♫
And then notice that's tied to a half
note, there's no dot this time, so this
time it only holds for 2 beats. Okay,
just a half note gets 2 beats. So, press
pause and now work on this phrase on
your own until you feel confident with
it, then press play to go on.
Okay next we have an eighth rest, which is half
a beat technically, okay, but just
think of it as a quick pause on beat
3, and then we have, ♫I am brave♫ rest ♫I♫
♫am bruised♫ rest ♫I am who I'm meant to be♫
Now, here we're all in this position
where we're just on D E F-sharp G A, and
the fingers are 1 5 3 rest 1 5 3 rest 1
5 3. Let's just go that far. Can you try
that on your own? Go.
Good, now let's sing the words, just
have some fun with it
ok? Remember we'll do a rest first and
then, ♫I am brave♫ Try it with me, ready and
rest,
♫I am brave,♫ rest ♫I am bruised,♫ rest ♫I am♫
♫who♫, good, and then after that we have 'I meant',
two more F-sharps, and then two E's, ♫to be♫
Finger 3 3 2 2. Now you try.
Now let's put
it all together, we get, ♫I am brave,♫ rest
♫I am bruised♫ rest ♫I am who I'm meant to be♫ And
then right after that one more eighth rest,
we have, ♫This is me♫ 3 D's in a row with
finger 1 ♫This is me♫ Now you try.
Good, so altogether we get, ♫I am brave,♫ rest ♫I
am bruised, I am who I'm meant to be,♫
♫This is me♫ Now, pause the video and
practice that section on your own, and
then press play to learn a little bit
more.
Good, now in this next section, once again
we're going to shift up to have finger
5 on B, and these notes will be
similar to what we played before but
with slightly different rhythms. Now we
have ♫Look out 'cause here I come♫
All right, so put finger 5 on B, and
let's try ♫Look out 'cause here♫ Just those
four notes, now you try.
After that, ♫Look out 'cause here♫ now we
shift back down. Finger 5 comes to A
♫I come♫ and finger 3 comes to F-sharp.
Watch that together,
♫Look out 'cause here I come♫ Part way
through that phrase we have to shift our
hand down. Be sure to start with finger
5 on B. Now you try.
In this phrase, notice how that eighth note at the end
of ♫come♫, is tied once again to a dotted
half note. So after you play ♫come♫ 1 2 3
You have to patiently wait 3 beats
and keep holding that note while the
music is playing behind you, and then
that quick rest, ♫And I'm watching on to♫
♫the beat I drum♫ 1 2, and this time it's
tied to a half note, okay,
so watch that again. Finger 2 comes
back to F-sharp for, ♫And I'm marching on♫
♫to the beat♫ Now you try.
In finger numbers that's, 2 4 5 5 4 2 2 2 Try it
one more time.
Good, and then after that
we shift the hand down
♫I drum♫, which we've played a lot of times
so you should know that, right? ♫I drum♫
Good, now put it all together, ♫And I'm
marching on to the beat I drum♫
Good, now press pause and work on this
section all the way back, go all the way
back to ♫Look out 'cause here I come♫ 1 2 3, rest, ♫And I'm marching on to the♫
♫beat I drum♫ Work on that section on your
own, then press play and we'll learn a
little bit more.
Good, now we get to this section which is
just like what we had before, where we go,
♫I'm not scared to be seen, I make no
apologies♫ Okay, these notes are the same
just new words, where you go 1 5 3. Let's
try it together, ready, go, 1 5 3 rest 1 5
3 rest 1 5 3 3 3 2 2. Good, with words
it's, ♫I'm not scared to be seen, I make♫
♫no apologies, This is me♫ Good, press pause
and try that on your own, then press play
and we'll get to the final section that
we're going to learn.
Good, now we get to the 'Oh-h-h' part. Now for
this section your hand can stay in this
position the whole time. This D major
pentascale, D E F-sharp G A, and the
finger numbers go 1 2 4 3, 1 2 4 3, okay now
you try.
Good, and we actually do that
four times. Let's try it together go 1 2
4 3, 1 2 4 3, 1 2 4 3, 1 2 4
now on this last one, see we're
finishing up the fourth time, notice now
there's a chord where you play two notes
together, because as you come to that F-
sharp, which we've done four times now,
now we're adding in a D because we start
a new pattern here with, ♫Oh, oh♫ so it's tricky
because as one ♫oh♫, as that 'Oh' is ending, a
new 'Oh' with some other singers begins, but
we're gonna play both of them. So as you
get to ♫Oh♫ as you get to this F-sharp you're
also gonna play the D to start the new ♫Oh, Oh, Oh♫
Does that make sense? You're kind of
ending one 'Oh' at the same time that you
start a new one, which is why you play
two notes at the same time just for that
one moment. Okay so watch it all the way
so that kind of makes sense to you. I'll
go all the way back to the first 'Oh' so
we have, ♫Oh,♫
Here's the second one,
and a third one.
Here's the last one. ♫This is me♫ and we
end with the 'This is me', and that's the whole
chorus, which is what we're learning
today. Okay, so press pause and work on
the 'Oh-h-h' part, and then I'll teach you how
to add a left-hand part to make it sound
even cooler. Practice that last section
on your own then press play to go on.
Now, if learning the melody in the right
hand is enough for you today, that's
perfectly fine, but if you'd like some
more challenge I'll show you how to add
the left hand part. And what we're going
to do is just improvise a bass line, a
very simple bass line just by reading
the chord symbols. This music that you
can see on your screen is just the
melody only, and up above you'll see
chord symbols which you could use if
you're like making a, if you were
improvising an accompaniment, but for our
accompaniment we'll just use the left
hand playing the root of each chord, so
whatever letter you see that is the
chord, or that is the note you'll play. So
notice here we have 'When the' all by
itself, and then over the note for 'sharp-'
you'll see a D. So, I'm going to play a D
in octaves like this. Now, if your hands
aren't big enough to reach from D to D
in one octave, just choose one, you know a
low D might sound really cool, or you could
do it up here, but I maybe kind of prefer
this low note. So if you're gonna just do
one note at a time,
these are the notes you're going to need.
You only need a D and a B and a G and an
A. Those are the only chords in this
chorus, okay?
So you can just keep your hand in this
position and go like this, or for a more
advanced version you can go D in octaves,
down to B, down to G, and in this case
you'll have to move your hand around. So
if that feels too hard just keep it in
one position like this, or you can go
like this.
Okay, so decide what you want to do and
just practice that pattern once, okay?
Just going from D, down to B, down to G, up a step to A. Notice how it
skips down twice and then steps up. If
you need time to practice that, pause the
video, otherwise let's just keep going.
Now, your right hand will play the melody
while your left hand plays this bass line.
Or you can get a friend to play the
melody while you play the bass line, but
if you'd like to tackle it both hands
together, here's what that would look like. ♫When the sharpest words wanna cut me down♫
And in this measure we'll play D again.
Notice I went down to B there.
Okay, so notice how my left hand was
playing a totally different rhythm. I was
basically just playing on the first beat
of every measure. Sometimes that happens
when a note isn't even playing. Like look
at where it says ♫I am brave♫, beat 1
comes on that rest, so your melody isn't
playing right there but you are gonna
play a G on that rest, because that's
beat 1.
♫I am brave♫ G ♫I am bruised♫ same thing here,
'I am who', A ♫I'm meant to be♫ The A comes
one sixteenth note before 'I'm'. One
sixteenth note is pretty quick, so it's A,
♫I'm meant to be♫ comes right after it. Watch that again, ♫I am brave♫ G ♫I am bruised, I am who♫ A
♫I'm meant to be, This is me♫ D
♫Look out 'cause♫, and then here I like to switch to
playing quarter notes with my baseline.
Again, you can do that with just one
finger, or reach the whole octave. And
with those pulsing quarter notes,
that will add to the excitement of this part.
♫Look out 'cause here I come♫
1 2 3 4 ♫And I'm marching on to the beat I drum♫ 1 2 3 ♫I'm not scared to be seen, I make no apologies,♫
♫This is me♫
Then I cut out for 'This is me.', so it's
kind of a solo moment, then you can come
back in on the 'Oh's'. ♫Oh♫
Now I did something kind of tricky there,
so I like how it sounds. I did D, 1 2
3 4, then D again 1 2 3,
then to get to B-minor I went down to
the C-sharp. So I kind of added a note in
between those two chords just because it
sounds cool, listen.
step down to B.
G, A
See how I did that? I added this low D at the
end just to sound cool. Okay, that's where
you could finish it. Like I said, you can
play this along with the original movie
soundtrack. This is in the same key that
they do on the original track, so you can
play along the melody, you can play along
a bass line, or you can try and do both.
Great job learning how to play "This Is
Me" from the Greatest Showman. I hope you
have lots of fun practicing and playing,
and I hope you'll remember the message
of this song, to be yourself and be proud
to be yourself with all your unique and
special differences. In the words of P.T.
Barnum, "No one ever made a difference by
being like everyone else." Thanks for
watching, and see you next time.
♫I'm not stranger to the dark. Hideaway
they say, 'cause we don't want your broken♫
♫parts. I've learned to be ashamed
of all my scars. Run away they say,♫
♫no one will love you as you are. But, I
won't let them break me down to dust I♫
♫know that there's a place for us. For we
are glorious♫
♫When the sharpest words wanna cut me
down. I'm gonna send a flood gonna♫
♫drown them out. I am brave, I am bruised, I am who
I'm meant to be, this is me. Look out♫
♫'cause here I come, and I'm marching on to the beat I drum. I'm not scared to be seen, I make no apologies,♫
♫This is me.♫ ♫Go T-Rex! Go T-Rex! Go T-Rex!♫ ♫This is me!♫