Piano Playing for Vocal Accompaniment

The style of piano playing used by some of the great singer/songwriters who accompany their vocals with the piano.

The singer-piano player has been with us for some time in popular music. Since the 50's we've had performers like Little Richard who even played the piano with his feet! Also, Nat King Cole who's distinctive voice and piano style reminds many people of Christmas. Neil Sedaka wrote many great songs for himself and other singers and other singer/songwriters such as Carole King who did the same.

Elton John, Paul McCartney and John Lennon have composed and performed some of the greatest songs of the last century such as: Your Song, Let It Be and Imagine while playing the piano to accompany their singing.

So what is their piano style and how would someone learn to play the piano in a similar manner to accompany their own vocals.

The first thing to note is that when singing with the piano, the piano does not play the melody - it plays a harmonic accompaniment for the vocals to sing over. If you ever try singing a song with a piano that's also playing the tune it feels like a battle!

Secondly, the harmony or chords are not static, they are rhythmic. That is to say they also play a rhythmic role of driving the pulse forward - even on the slow songs like Let It Be.

Thirdly, while the right hand plays chords on the beat, the left hand plays bass notes as a foundation to support the higher notes, often in octaves.

Fourthly, the right hand adds fills, often between vocal phrases, to add variety to the piano part. This is mostly done in the right hand part, but sometime the left hand is used in conjunction with the right to play arpeggio style phrases, usually on the last beat of a bar.

Lastly, It is almost a "given" that many chords will include the 2nd degree of the scale on which the chord is based on. This adds colour to the sound and gives the player an extra note to add to the fills and riffs that punctuate and add variety to the overall performance.

The Beatles song, Let It Be, as played by Paul McCartney, is a great example of a straightforward piano accompaniment that compliments his vocals perfectly and is a good example of the way in which the piano is used to support a vocal part.

This style of piano playing is also very helpful for those that wish to learn to sing.