{"id":68,"date":"2017-12-08T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-08T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2023-01-11T15:51:49","modified_gmt":"2023-01-11T23:51:49","slug":"how-to-play-fix-you-coldplay-piano","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/how-to-play-fix-you-coldplay-piano\/","title":{"rendered":"Coldplay &#8211; Fix You"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>If you\u2019re just learning piano, Coldplay songs are the gift that keeps on giving. Their songs feature a good mix of interesting chords, progressions and melodies that will keep your skills sharp and your ears happy as your learn them! So let\u2019s take a look at one of Coldplay\u2019s most heartfelt, emotional songs they\u2019ve ever written, \u2018Fix You.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<a class=\"join\" href=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/pianote\/resources\/songs\/fix-you.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">DOWNLOAD SHEET MUSIC PDF<\/a>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:15px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"font-size:28px\"><strong>The Key and The Verse Chords<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Coldplay\u2019s \u2018Fix You\u2019 is written in the key of Eb major, which means you have three flats to keep in mind: <\/span><strong>Bb, Eb, Ab<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The main chords that the song uses for the verses are going to be <\/span><strong>Eb, Gm, <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><strong>Cm <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">chords. The pattern for playing these chords is a great opportunity to build hand independence. The left hand plays a broken ascending arpeggio pattern while the right hand \u2018caps\u2019 off each chord with a solid chord played on top. Playing through this verse part is a lot of fun, and hugely satisfying when you start to feel the rhythm of that flow!<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<center><div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color:#fff;display:inline-block;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;color:#a7a7a7;font-size:11px;width:100%;max-width:594px;\"><div style=\"padding:0;margin:0;text-align:left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.ca\/detail\/85353994\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" rel=\"noopener\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div><div style=\"overflow:hidden;position:relative;height:0;padding:68.35017% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/85353994?et=2wBkU63dTgxoAN9som2Deg&amp;tld=ca&amp;sig=ikFOFemtc-LWfR_wWVEU9UAMhxIwS5eGtgWbZJx_9EU=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"594\" height=\"406\" style=\"display:inline-block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/center>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"font-size:28px\"><strong>The Chorus &nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The chorus of this song switches things up a little bit, letting the chords ring out more to leave space for the vocal melody. Those chords are pretty simple: &nbsp;the first chord is the <\/span><strong>IV <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">chord, <\/span><strong>Ab. <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the vocal melody trails down, the chord switches to the <\/span><strong>V <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">chord, <\/span><strong>Bb.<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&nbsp;The final phrase of the chorus (<\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I will tryyyyy&#8230;to fix you<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) lets things linger a little bit with a <\/span><strong>Bbsus4 <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">chord, resolving on the regular version of the <\/span><strong>Bb<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> triad.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There\u2019s a few ways to tackle this chorus and make it your own. If you just want to play the chords and let them ring out, that\u2019s a great way to work on your rhythm chops. On the other hand, you could adapt the vocal melody into a right hand keyboard part. That vocal melody is actually quite simple. It starts on <\/span><strong>Ab<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and walks its way down like a scale to the <\/span><strong>Bb <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">below. Remember that this vocal melody is still in the key of <\/span><strong>Eb<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">! The melody phrase finishes off by walking back up to the root note, <\/span><strong>Eb<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Only you skip the <\/span><strong>D <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">note, playing instead just <\/span><strong>C &#8211; Eb<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Try experimenting with this melody on the piano and see if you can come up with an instrumental arrangement that\u2019s all your own!<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musora.com\/musora-cdn\/image\/quality=85\/https:\/\/pianote-blog.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/22105029\/sad-puppy-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Sad pug puppy\" class=\"wp-image-5526\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pianote-blog.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/app\/uploads\/2017\/12\/22105029\/sad-puppy-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/pianote-blog.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/app\/uploads\/2017\/12\/22105029\/sad-puppy-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pianote-blog.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/app\/uploads\/2017\/12\/22105029\/sad-puppy-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pianote-blog.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/app\/uploads\/2017\/12\/22105029\/sad-puppy.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8216;Fix You&#8217; is your dogs least favorite Colday song.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"font-size:28px\"><strong>The Outro <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ahh the outro. The outro is pure Coldplay. It uses one of the most effective chord progression for generating an emotional build: The <\/span><strong>vi &#8211; IV &#8211; I &#8211; V <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">progression.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8230;The what now?? &nbsp;<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Allow me to explain. The chords for this tune are super simple, Starting on <\/span><strong>Eb <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">then moving up to <\/span><strong>Ab<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and back to <\/span><strong>Eb, <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and down to <\/span><strong>Bb<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. If you look at these chords as numbers, you\u2019ll see that this progression is your basic <\/span><strong>I &#8211; IV &#8211; I &#8211; V <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">progression. But listen closely as this section develops. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the second repetition of the main theme (<\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">tears stream<\/span><\/em> <em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">down your face\u2026<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) the <\/span><strong>Eb <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">chord shifts to a more somber sound that really changes the emotion of the song. That\u2019s because it substitutes the <\/span><strong>I <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">chord for the minor <\/span><strong>vi <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">chord, <\/span><strong>Cm<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. This mean that the progression shifts to <\/span><strong>Cm &#8211; Ab &#8211; Eb &#8211; Bb<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, or the aforementioned <\/span><strong>vi &#8211; IV &#8211; I &#8211; V <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">progression.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are countless songs written with this progression across many genres, so listen up while you\u2019re practicing this part and keep your ears open for its appearance in other songs!<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speaking of keeping your ears open, if you listen to the track, you\u2019ll probably notice that there\u2019s this driving guitar part that takes over for most of the outro. You can adapt this part on the piano by just playing rapid 16th notes moving in 5th intervals from <\/span><strong>Eb &#8211; Bb<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. If you listen closely to the guitar, you can hear that the riff also moves down just a semitone to play <\/span><strong>D<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Be sure to practice with that click track for this part as that will help you lock in on those faster rhythms.&nbsp;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<center><div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color:#fff;display:inline-block;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;color:#a7a7a7;font-size:11px;width:100%;max-width:594px;\"><div style=\"padding:0;margin:0;text-align:left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.ca\/detail\/53049468\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" rel=\"noopener\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div><div style=\"overflow:hidden;position:relative;height:0;padding:66.66667% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/53049468?et=ClQj0XZFQilupK0edWnWDw&amp;tld=ca&amp;sig=div8adgvQjshoxA-n7nSg29pfTixg29XCipv6uYpOAs=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" style=\"display:inline-block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/center>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"font-size:28px\"><strong>Wrapping It Up<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So that\u2019s \u2018Fix You\u2019 by Coldplay. A nice, chill piano ballad that blossoms into an emotional climatic ending. It\u2019s a cool song to learn and adapt on the piano. Once you get the form down, take advantage of the emotional nuances of the song by paying attention to your dynamics. Let your left hand play nice and lightly on the chorus to allow that vocal melody to shine through. Dig in deep to the rhythmic intensity of the outro, and build that tension as you switch over to that super important <\/span><strong>Cm <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">chord. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And most of all, have fun! The suggestions in this lesson are just the beginning. There are countless more ways to make this song into something uniquely your own!<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<iframe class=\"email-form-include-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/weekly-email\" frameborder=\"none\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019re just learning piano, Coldplay songs are the gift that keeps on giving. Their songs feature a good mix of interesting chords, progressions and melodies that will keep your skills sharp and your ears happy as your learn them! So let\u2019s take a look at one of Coldplay\u2019s most heartfelt, emotional songs they\u2019ve ever [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1105,508],"tags":[1086],"class_list":["post-68","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop-rock","category-song-tutorials","tag-l3s"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68","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\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10661,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions\/10661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}