Here are some of the easiest songs to learn on the piano
The piano can be one of the most rewarding instruments for a beginner.
It’s easy to master and anyone can produce beautiful sounds on it without too much training – unlike, say, the violin, where learners have to put in a few dozen hours before they start to sound consistently pleasing.
And of course, there are some great songs out there for beginners (and improvers) to test their skills on.
With that in mind, here is our selection of some of the easiest songs to learn on the piano.
Easiest piano songs
Happy Birthday
Not for nothing is ‘Happy Birthday’ one of the world’s best-known and best-loved melodies. Of course, the fact that it’s sung on joyous occasions is part of its appeal: but it also owes its popularity to the fact that it’s also one of the easiest songs to play on the piano.
The Guinness Book of World Records tells us that ‘Happy Birthday’ is the most recognised song in the English language, followed by ‘For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow‘. The tune comes from the song ‘Good Morning to All’, traditionally attributed to American sisters Patty and Mildred J. Hill in 1893.
‘Happy Birthday’ has had some famous performances – perhaps none more so than Marilyn Monroe’s, sung to American U.S. President John F. Kennedy in May 1962. Elsewhere, pianist and comedian Victor Borge famously used to play the familiar melody in the styles of various composers. On other occasions, he would start out playing Beethoven‘s ‘Moonlight’ Sonata before effortlessly transitioning into ‘Happy Birthday’.
Jingle Bells
You’re probably very familiar with this festive classic: but did you know its origins? The song was created by American composer James Lord Pierpont, as a Thanksgiving song in 1857. It’s now a favourite the world ever, cropping up in shopping centres, on doorsteps, at children’s carol concerts and much more.
We named ‘Jingle Bells’ one of the best Christmas songs ever and one of the best Christmas songs for children. We’re also including it here as one of the easiest songs to play on the piano.
Let It Be
The Beatles classic is a nicely manageable number – whether for an a cappella choir, solo pianist, or piano and voice combination.
‘Let It Be’ owes some of its enormous popularity to its very recognisable, four-chord progression. That progression (1-5-6-4, for example C major-G major-A minor-F major) crops up in many other classics including Bob Marley’s ‘No Woman No Cry’, Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believin’, Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’ and ‘With or Without You’ by U2.
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
The much-loved lullaby ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ is now more than 200 years old. It was written in 1806 by poet Jane Taylor and first published in Jane and her sister Ann’s book Rhymes for the Nursery. Its tune is the late 18th-century French melody ‘Ah! vous dirai-je, maman’ which has been used for a number of different songs. Mozart also used it in his Twelve Variations on ‘Ah vous dirai-je, Maman’.
It’s also, happily for our purposes here, one of the easiest tunes to play, relying on three simple melodies played in a ABCCAB repetition. In fact, learning this simple but attractive tune would make a great way of getting your child into music.
Hallelujah
Originally penned in 1984 by the great Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, ‘Hallelujah’ is a wonderful song – a hauntingly simple and insistent melody, overlaid with some truly moving lyrics. Small wonder it’s been covered hundreds of times since – most notably by John Cale, formerly of The Velvet Underground, in 1991 and by Jeff Buckley in 1994.
The good news for us here is that it’s a fairly easy song to learn on the piano.
Imagine
John Lennon’s seminal 1971 peace-love-and-understanding manifesto makes a great easy piano piece. For one thing, the verses have a nice easy chord progression in the C major key, with the bottom C always anchoring the progress the rest of the right hand. Better still, the left hand’s bass line (a sequence of C to F in repetition) could hardly be easier.
Not forgetting, of course, that it’s such a well-known and much-loved song that there will always be someone ready to take on singing duties.
Lean On Me
Another much-covered classic, Bill Withers’ eloquent 1972 single ‘Lean On Me’ has a nice shifting chord progression that’s actually fairly easy to get on top of.
Start in the key of C major, and you’ll find yourself mostly using the C major scale – E, G, C – both up and down the keyboard.
‘Lean On Me’ also has the advantage of being one of the most uplifting songs in the musical firmament.