As The World Caves In Piano Tutorial

Are you looking for an As The World Caves In piano tutorial?

If you’re one of the 57 million who viewed the viral Sarah Cothran cover or a die-hard Matt Maltese fan, then you’re in for a treat.

In this piano lesson, you’ll learn how to play As The World Caves In and learn a bunch of cool piano hacks.

You can use these techniques to learn other songs as well.

Let’s get started.

How Matt Maltese Plays As The World Caves In

Start by listening to Matt Maltese playing and singing the tune:

Next, we’re going to talk about some tips and tricks to figure out how you can play the song for yourself.

The First Thing You Need In This As The World Caves In Piano Tutorial

At its most basic, you need to learn how to play 3 kinds of chords, major, minor, minor 7b5, and dominant chords.

Learn how to play these three kinds of chords, and you’re pretty much on your way to learning the entire song.

If you need more details how to play these kinds of chords, here is a great place to learn chord theory.

Now let’s move on to the second step.

Why You Need To Learn Chord Progressions For This Song

The reason for that is simple: If you already know how to play chord progressions, then it becomes even easier for you to learn this song.

You see, the key to going through any piano lesson fast (such as this As The World Caves In Piano Tutorial) is understanding and playing common patterns.

Almost every song ever put out into the world follows common patterns.

If you understand these patterns (such as a chord progression), you’ll be able to figure out hundreds of other songs easy.

As The World Caves In is in 4/4 time, and so for our chart you’ll have 4 beats for every bar.

The chord progression for As The World Caves In is as follows:

VERSE: I | IV | I | IV6 | I | IV | I | IV6 |

PRECHORUS: ii | III7 | vi – bvi+ – | I/5th – #iv7b5 – | IV | iv

CHORUS: I | III7 | IV | iv | I | III7 | IV | iv

Now you might wonder, what are all these roman numerals written above?

Write chords using roman numeral analysis helps us determine chord function. This way, we can easily transpose the song to different keys.

In the key that Matt Maltese plays it in (Bb), here are the chords:

VERSE: Bb | Eb | Bb | Eb6 | Bb | Eb | Bb | Eb6

PRECHORUS: Cm | D7 | Gm – F#+ – | Bb/F – Em7b5 – | Ebmaj7 | Ebm(maj7) – Ebm6 – |

CHORUS: Bb | D7 | Eb | Ebm(maj7) – Ebm6 – | Bb | D7 | Eb | Ebm(maj7) – Ebm6 – |

Now that you have all of the chords, let’s dig deeper.

How To Use A Simple Yet Effective Comping Pattern

To start digging deep into this As The World Caves I Piano, you can use a simple comping pattern.

For the right hand, just play the chords in quarter notes.

Use a dotted quarter – eighth note rhythm for the bass. You can use single notes or octaves at the lower register:

Let’s start with the chords of the verse:

Once you’ve gotten a hang of this comping pattern, let’s spice it up a bit more.

How To Add A John Lennon Flavor To As The World Caves In

Whenever Matt Maltese plays the verses, he takes in an idea similar to John Lennon’s “Imagine”.

This is a little chromatic line that looks like this:

This chromatic line works as a response to lines sang.

Like Matt Maltese, you use it after singing a line of the song.

It’s important to use it as kind of a walkup to the tonic chord i.e. the I chord of the song.

Now let’s look at the prechorus where you’re going to learn how to play a minor line cliche.

The As The World Caves In Piano Tutorial On Minor Line Cliches

Matt Maltese creates tension in the song by using a minor line cliche in the prechorus that looks like this:

The minor line cliche actually starts at the Gm chord above.

A fast way to get started learning how to play minor line cliches is as follows:

1. Start with a 1st-inversion minor chord (let’s say Gm/Bb) using the right hand, play the root as the bass with the left hand (G).
2. Move the bass a half step down (F#). Play a maj7(#5) chord a major 3rd up the bass (A#maj7#5).
3. Play the bass another half step down (F). play a 2nd inversion minor chord a major 6th above (Gm/F) with the right hand.
4. Go a half step down (E) on the bass, play the same minor chord in root position (Gm).
5. Move the bass another half step down (Eb), keep the minor chord.
6. Go down another half step (D) on the bass, play the corresponding 1st-inversion dominant 7th chord (D7/F#) with the right hand. This resolves back into the tonic chord. Matt Maltese replace this with an Ebm chord instead.

Learn how how to play minor line cliches in all 12 keys to master the technique.

Now let’s take a look at how to play an ending for As The World Caves In.

How This As The World Caves In Piano Tutorial Ends

In the final moments of the song, Matt Maltese ends the song elegantly in a manner similar to this:

To play the ending, here are the steps:

1. Play arpeggio sequence starting from the minor line cliche used in the song:
2. At the Em7b5 chord, play the walkup line leading to the Ebmaj7 chord.
3. Start strong on the arpeggios and gradually soften the dynamics as you approach the end of the song.

By completing this ending (along with the other techniques discussed), you can now play As The World Caves In.

Final Words

I hope that you find this As The World Caves In piano tutorial helpful.

Feel free to leave a note below if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for the next lesson.

Have fun practicing.