Easy On Me Piano Tutorial

Looking for an Easy On Me Piano Tutorial?

You’ve come to the right place.

In this piece, you’ll learn how to play Adele’s record-breaking hit on the piano.

Let’s get started.

3 Reasons Why Easy On Me Breaks Records

In today’s pop music charts, programmed instruments, auto-tuned vocals, and excessively produced audio is the norm.

Adele’s Easy On Me is an anomaly in that regard, yet it rose to the top of today’s charts.

Being played on a real piano, bass, a single drum machine kick drum, and amazing vocals from Adele, it sounds fresh and awesome.

Adele’s Easy On Me vocals has no auto-tune, perfectly executed, and really soulful.

Producer Greg Kurstin plays the piano masterfully with a lot of nuance and expression.

It’s a far cry from the kind of computer/machine drivel that is typical in today’s pop charts.

Now let’s try learning the song on the piano.

Why This Easy On Me Piano Tutorial Is Indeed Easy

If you listen to the song a couple of times, you’ll realize that you only need to know a few chords.

You only need to learn a few chords and patterns.

The entire song is in F major. Here’s the chord progression as well as the lyrics for the first verse and the chorus;

INTRO: F | Dm7 | F/A | Bb

This Easy On Me Piano Tutorial is easy, right?

Now, before you brush off this amazing Adele hit, there are a few details about the piano playing that you need to learn.

Read on.

How To Play Effective Embellishments On The Piano

If all you have are chords and nothing else, you’ll hardly sound like anything you hear on the record.

For ballads like Easy On Me, there are particular ways of comping that you can do to make it sound interesting.

In fact, the simple chord progression is really inviting with proper embellishment.

Let’s look at the intro line of Easy On Me:

What you’ll notice are 3 important things:

1. Using just a few carefully selected notes create an emotional backdrop for a very emotional melody.
2. Really soft left-hand dynamics.
3. Releasing and re-engaging the sustain pedal every 4 beats.
4. Consistent use of the middle range of the piano for the top notes (D4 to C5).
5. Deliberate use of accents that gives space to the vocals.

By working on the embellishments, it’s easy to learn those 3 things. This should make your playing more powerful and articulate.

Important Right Hand Chords You Need For This Easy On Me Piano Tutorial

Here are some of the chord voicings you need for this song.

These simple right hand chord voicings for this Easy On Me Piano Tutorial are ideal for beginners to learn.

Here they are:

F and Dm7

This right hand chord voicing changes quality depending on the left hand bass.

If your left hand is playing those F’s played as broken octaves (as seen in the intro example), this will sound as an F major chord.

Play D as broken octaves with the left hand and you’ll get a Dm7 chord with this voicing.

Finally, if you play an A with the left hand, this turns into an F/A chord.

C major chord

This is a C major triad in the 2nd inversion. Simply add a bass in C and it will work for your comping.

Gm7(11) and Bb(add9)

This last chord voicing works either as a Gm7(11) or Bb(add9) chord depending on the bass.

If you play this right hand chord voicing with G on the left hand, this becomes a Gm7(11).

This becomes a Bb(add) if you change your bass into a Bb.

This are the minimum voicings you need to master this Easy on Me piano tutorial.

Final Tips And Words

Here’s how you start completing this Easy On Me piano tutorial:

1. Learn the chord voicings above and memorize them.
2. Add the left hand bass as indicated in the chord and lyric chart above.
3. Practicing comping with just quarter notes for the right hand and broken 8th note octaves for the bass line.
4. You can also try playing along the record using these chords to get a better feel for the song.
5. Learn the intro as written in the sheet music above.
6. Lastly, sing the song or have someone to sing along while you play those chords.

I hope you enjoyed this Easy On Me piano tutorial.

If you have any comments, questions, and/or suggestions for the next lesson, feel free to leave a comment.

Have fun learning Easy On Me.