You don’t have to be a piano expert to play your favorite songs!
That’s because there are numerous ways to play one pop song on the piano.
This makes it possible for any pianist at any ability level to have tons of fun and sound great.
I’m going to show you how to play “Tiny Dancer” at five different levels.
It’s one of my favorite songs, and if you’re looking for “Tiny Dancer” sheet music, we have a free lead sheet that can be used by pianists at any level.
If you’re a Casual Hobbyist, you tinker on the piano now and then. Casual Hobbyists tend to look at a lead sheet and play the chords in their simplest forms.
No matter what your level, this is a great place to start any song. Learning how to move between the chords of a song will help you connect with the music.
You can learn how to play chords on the piano with our free chording series.
Weekend Warriors can be very passionate about the piano and may spend lots of time playing on the weekends.
At this level, you’re starting to pick out riffs, and you may vary your rhythm a bit.
Now, you might make mistakes, you might not pay at full speed.
But at this stage, you’re sure to have fun figuring out those iconic parts of the song.
If you’re in this stage you might take regular piano lessons or use a learning platform like Pianote.
At this level, you’re developing hand coordination and sight-reading skills along with learning songs, and you might play the melody with the chords.
You’re more comfortable with the piano by now, so you may even begin to add your own creative flair to songs.
You may even throw in an original riff here and there!
By this level, you’re pretty confident at the piano.
You’re comfortable with chord structures and hand coordination, and you keep tempo consistently because you’re playing in time with a band!
You may carry the melody if needed by the band, piano feels easy to you, and you’re creating original riffs and fills at this stage.
At the “Elton John” level, you’re breezing through the song with no difficulty, adding flares here and there and playing confidently.
But you don’t have to be at Elton John’s level to enjoy yourself.
The point of this lesson is that no matter what your piano level, you can have an awesome time playing, singing, and delighting an audience.
If you’re curious about your piano level, check out our post on how to find your piano level.
And if you think you have what it takes to be an intermediate piano player, check out our checklist and see how many skills you can cross off!
And finally, I hope this lesson on how to play “Tiny Dancer” has shown you that you don’t have to wait until you reach some imaginary level before you can start playing (and enjoying) your favorite songs.
So what will you play next?
Lisa Witt has been teaching piano for more than 20 years and in that time has helped hundreds of students learn to play the songs they love. Lisa received classical piano training through the Royal Conservatory of Music, but she has since embraced popular music and playing by ear in order to accompany herself and others. Learn more about Lisa.
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