But they often have a few things missing. Take a look at the chord chart for \u201cLet It Be\u201d by The Beatles:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you see what\u2019s missing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s no intro! Anyone who\u2019s heard the song will know that Paul McCartney doesn\u2019t just launch into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So when there\u2019s no intro, what do you do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n This lesson will give you practical tips on how to create and play your own intros, outros, and interludes so when you sit down to play a song you really sound like you know what you\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because if you don\u2019t, it can get pretty embarrassing. (Ask me how I know.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ll be using \u201cLet It Be\u201d<\/a> and \u201cThe Scientist\u201d<\/a> to demonstrate these techniques and you can download the chord charts for both if you’d like to follow along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT!<\/p>\n\n\n\n You want to have a feel for the song BEFORE you start to play it. It is infinitely harder to play an intro for a song you don\u2019t actually know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That might sound like an obvious point but it\u2019s worth mentioning because the worst thing you can do while playing an intro (apart from playing a completely different song) is to mess up the timing or rhythm. And let me tell you, other musicians hate that (again, ask me how I know).<\/p>\n\n\n\n I find it useful to hum the tune in my head and tap my foot to help set the tempo. When I have the song and the tempo in my head I\u2019ll play through the first 4 chords of the song (usually twice).<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the second time through I\u2019ll hold the final chord – just to let others know that I\u2019m about to start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another option for an intro is to pick out the melody from the last line of a verse or the chorus. We want the last line because it serves as a natural transition point in the song and lets everyone listening know that you\u2019re about to start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is for when you see the word \u201cinterlude\u201d or \u201cinstrumental\u201d on a piece of music or chord chart and you\u2019re like,<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUuuuuhhhh, what do I do?\u201d<\/i> (cue blank stare.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n You should hopefully have some chords to work with so you’re not completely on your own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s what it looks like in \u201cThe Scientist\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n So you have some chords. But just playing the chords might be a little boring and you want to impress anyone who\u2019s listening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What I like to do is keep the rhythm and chord progression going, but get creative with the notes that belong to the chords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each chord has 3 notes that you can use, and you could try using thirds or fifths to create some movement and something melodic. If you know how to play the song\u2019s melody you could try adding parts of it into the interlude to keep people’s attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ll want to practice this because it might take some refining. I don\u2019t recommend waiting until the day of the performance to figure it out haha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This part is short and sweet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Usually, you can just play through the chords of the chorus one more time while slowing down gradually so people know you\u2019re at the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You could even play your left hand an octave lower to really announce that the song is ending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Make sure you hold that final note and let it really ring out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So all that’s left for you to do is soak up the applause.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Learn how to create your own intros, outros and interludes for your favorite piano songs. Use these tips to start and ending your songs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":1180,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1110,1108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-improvisation-musicianship","category-musicianship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1160"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10835,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160\/revisions\/10835"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.musora.com\/musora-cdn\/image\/quality=85\/https:\/\/pianote.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/blog\/2020\/Intros%2C%20Outros%2C%20Etc.\/let-it-be-intro.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Intro – Lure Your Listeners In<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Interlude – Fill The Space In Between<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.musora.com\/musora-cdn\/image\/quality=85\/https:\/\/pianote.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/blog\/2020\/Intros%2C%20Outros%2C%20Etc.\/the-scientist-interlude.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Outro – Let\u2019s Wrap It Up<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n