The Note START HERE CHORD THEORY SONG TUTORIALS THEORY TECHNIQUE MUSICIANSHIP CHORDS & SCALES LIBRARY

How to Play ANY Pop Song on Piano

Lisa Witt  /  Musicianship  /  UPDATED May 2, 2023

promo banner

Guess what? You can learn how to play any pop song on the piano with just three things: 1. Chords 2. Chord charts, and 3. Playing by ear.

In this article, we’ll run through these three things. Then we’ll connect you to more resources to fill in the gaps. 

The awesome thing about pop songs is that you can play them as simple or as complex as you like. One song can sound stunning in five different ways, from the bare basics to Elton John-level virtuosity.

🎹 Don’t Miss Out on Free Song Tutorials

We love helping people learn the songs they love. Each week, we release quick tips, song tutorials, and other free content for piano players, by piano players. Subscribe to our mailing list so you don’t miss out. You can unsubscribe any time.

TOOL #1: CHORD KNOWLEDGE

To learn how to play any pop song on the piano, you need to understand chords.

Why? Aren’t songs made of melodies and harmonies?

Well, yes, but if we break them down to their most basic components, all songs are built from chords. If you take sheet music — for example, “Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi — you’ll discover that everything is built up of recognizable chords like D, A, and Bm.

Lead sheet markup of "Someone You Loved" by Lewis Capaldi showing notes that belong to chords.
The highlighted notes are all from the chords

After all, a guitar player who sings and plays can recreate an entire song by singing the melody over a small handful of chords.

And you can do the same thing with piano!

Now, some of you will want to play the melody of a song on your right hand and the chords on your left hand. Don’t worry — we’ll get to that soon 😉

> Suggested Lesson: How to Play ALL Piano Chords

So…how many chords do I need to know?

You don’t need to know every single chord, or that much about chords to get started. If you’re a total beginner, start by memorizing these four chords: C, G, Am, and F.

Keyboard diagram of C Major chord with keys C, E, G colored red and labelled.
Keyboard diagram of G Major chord with keys G, B, D colored red and labelled.
Keyboard diagram of Am chord with keys A, C, E colored red and labelled.
Keyboard diagram of F Major chord with keys F, A, C colored red and labelled.

With just these chords, you can play basic versions of these songs:

Check out the tutorials linked above to get started and you’ll see what we mean when we say anyone can play songs on day 1.

You can do A LOT with chords

At this point, you may be thinking: but chords are so boring!

Yes, playing triads in root position can quickly get cold. But once you’re comfortable with chord basics, there are countless little tweaks you can do to chords to make them sound more interesting, complex, and sophisticated.

Sam teaches the magic of slash chords. Lesson here.

Here are some ideas:

Chord inversions.Inversion” is a fancy word for playing the notes of a chord in a different order. This will vary the sound a bit without changing the fundamental nature of the chord. You can find a chart of all inversions here.

Seventh chords. Seventh chords are responsible for that dreamy, jazzy sound you hear in piano music. In chord charts, they’re represented like “Cmaj7” and “Cm7.” Learn what these all mean here.

Sus chords and slash chords. If you’ve seen “Dsus4” and “G/B” on a chord chart and wondered what that was all about, learn about sus chords and slash chords. They’re easier than they look and they add more personality to your arrangements!

Remember: you don’t have to play chords in solid, quarter-note pulses all the time time. Break up your chords. Add some syncopation. Little things can make a big difference!

TOOL #2: CHORD CHARTS

How to Find Chord Charts

Okay, so you know how to play chords. But how do you know what chords to play if, say, you want to play “Falling” by Harry Styles?

Easy: use the internet!

We’re living in a wonderful time because we can find resources, with the click of a button, on how to play almost any pop song on the piano. You can find the chord charts (instructions on what chords a song has and when to play them) for most popular songs on Ultimate-Guitar.com

Nope, this website isn’t just for guitarists. You can toggle the chord diagrams at the top of the page to “piano” and it’ll tell you exactly what keys to play for certain chords.

Screenshot from Ultimate-Guitar.com (source)

If you’re new to chord charts, they’re pretty easy to decipher. The chord symbols are placed above the lyrics of a song, which means you change chords whenever a new chord appears above a lyric.

Screenshot from Ultimate-Guitar.com (source)

Now, not all chord charts are accurate. Many free chord charts you’ll find on the internet are created by amateur musicians who share and upload their transcriptions for free. Sheet music and chord charts by the original musicians are often copyrighted and will cost money.

So if something sounds wrong to you, you may be right. This is why knowing how to play by ear is such an important skill even when you have tools like chord charts. We’ll explore this in a bit!

How to Find Lead Sheets

Lead sheets are somewhere between chord charts and full-on sheet music. They include the notes for the melody of a song along with chord symbols and they’re ideal for beginner sight-readers because they’re less intimidating to read than a grand staff.

Learn more about lead sheets here. And if you’re new to reading music, make sure to check out our most popular tutorial on YouTube, “How to Read Notes.”

You can also download lead sheets on sites like 8notes, Musescore, and SheetMusicDirect.

🎼 Learn Your Favorites, Step By Step With Full Sheet Music Downloads

As a Pianote+ Member, you’ll get access to our 10-step Method, song library, and growing community of piano players just like you. Plus: get coached by world-class pianists who have played with rock stars.

TRY PIANOTE FOR 7 DAYS

TOOL #3: PLAYING BY EAR

Understanding chords gives you the foundation to start learning songs. But if you prefer playing your melody instead of singing it, or if you can’t find chord charts for a song, you’ll need to know how to play by ear.

Being able to hear something and then play it on an instrument is a fantastic skill. Indeed, some of the world’s most famous musicians didn’t use sheet music. The Beatles couldn’t read sheet music and Mozart was rumored to recreate pieces by ear after listening to them once.

Playing by ear seems like a magical talent that only the best musicians have. But it’s a skill like any other. It can be learned and practiced.

How to Play By Ear: Figuring Out the Key

A basic understanding of key will help you play songs by ear faster. The key can help you figure out the chord progression of a song. 

In many pop songs, the key is the last note of the chorus. So if your song ends on E, it’s very likely that it’s in E Major.

Figuring this out is just trial and error. Here’s a demonstration in the beginning of this video:

Why is knowing the key useful? Well, if we know that a song is in E Major…

  1. We’ll know what sharps and flats to watch out for. E Major has four sharps (F#, C#, G# and D#). You can find the number of sharps and flats in a key by referring to the Circle of Fifths.
  2. We’ll also know what chords might show up in the song. Diatonic chords are chords that occur on a scale. The most common chords used in pop songs are the I, the V, the IV, and the vi chords. In E Major, this is the E chord, B chord, A chord, and C#m chord.

How to Play By Ear: Intervals

> Suggested Lesson: Ultimate Guide to Interval Ear Training

Intervals are a tool musicians use to help them play songs by ear. An interval is the space between two notes. If you can identify the intervals between notes, you can identify a melody.

Diagram of keyboard with C and G colored in red and labelled as a perfect 5th.

Practice recognizing intervals by ear

Each interval has a name and a distinct sound. You can recognize intervals by associating them with a song, such as:

Interval: Major 2nd (in C major: C to D)
Song: Happy Birthday

Interval: Major 3rd (C to E)
Songs: When the Saints Go Marching In, “Summertime” by George Gershwin

Interval: Perfect 4th (C to F)
Songs: Wedding March, We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Interval: Perfect 5th (C to G)
Songs: Twinkle Twinkle, Scarborough Fair

Interval: Major 6th (C to A)
Songs: My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

Interval: Major 7th (C to B)
Song: “Don’t Know Why” by Norah Jones

Interval: Perfect Octave (C to C)
Song: “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz

Find more interval song shortcuts here.

While it may feel overwhelming at first, there are several ways you can practice recognizing intervals by ear:

  1. Pick a random note and practice singing an interval above or below it.
  2. Play intervals on the piano while saying the name of the interval.
  3. Connect your favorite songs to intervals.

Apply your knowledge to melodies and chord progressions

Intervals can be used to figure out chord progressions too. When one chord moves to another, there’s a discernible interval between the sounds.

Learning to play by ear can be frustrating at first. It’s a trial-and-error process. But as we’ve mentioned before, it’s a skill like any other. It just takes practice!

Before long, you’ll be playing chords and melodies with ease.

🎹 For Piano Players, By Piano Players

Love more guides like this? Subscribe to The Note for more quick tips, cheat sheets, explainers, and other stuff piano players love. Delivered to your inbox for free.

How to Play Almost Any Song on the Piano: Get a Head Start

> All Song Tutorials

You have learned that with three tools, you can play practically any pop song on the piano. Here’s a recap:

  1. Understand how to play chords.
  2. Find chord charts that will tell you what chords to play.
  3. Use your ear to fill in the gaps, figure out melody, and confirm chord progressions.

But! For an even bigger advantage, we have free, step-by-step, easy-to-follow tutorials right here on the Pianote blog. Beloved songs like:

Imagine
John Lennon

Lesson

drivers license
Olivia Rodrigo

Lesson

Bohemian Rhapsody
Queen

Lesson

Someone You Loved
Lewis Capaldi

Lesson

The Scientist
Coldplay

Lesson

Someone Like You
Adele

Lesson

These tutorials will give you an unfair head start in playing these songs!

And if you want to go even further, try 500 Songs in 5 Days. This pack includes bangers like:

Rocket Man
Elton John

No One
Alice Keys

Piano Man
Billy Joel

Photograph
Ed Sheeran

My Immortal
Evanescence

Hit the Road Jack
Ray Charles

LEARN 500 SONGS IN 5 DAYS

Have fun learning songs and happy practicing!

Master the Piano YOUR Way 🔥

As a Pianote+ Member, you’ll get access to our 10-step Method, song library, and growing community of piano players just like you. Plus: get coached by world-class pianists and learn whenever you want, wherever you want, and whatever you want.

TRY PIANOTE FOR 7 DAYS


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.

Start learning piano the easy and fun way.
Sign up for 4 FREE play-along lessons

By signing up you’ll also receive our ongoing free lessons and special offers. Don’t worry, we value your privacy and you can unsubscribe at any time.