How to play Empire State of Mind (Part II) by Alicia Keys

(Empire State of Mind Part II Broken Down by Alicia Keys playing through Yamaha Mark IV Disklavier Piano) Hi. Welcome to the Piano Podcast. I'm Mario Ajero. On today's episode, I'm going to teach you how to play the first page and chords for Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down by Alicia Keys If you want to buy the sheet music for Empire State of Mind, you can go to my blog at marioajero.blogspot.com Scroll down on the right-hand side and you'll find a section where you can buy sheet music here from MusicNotes.com The first link here is Empire State of Mind Part II by Alicia Keys. You click on that it'll take you to MusicNotes.com where you can preview the first page of Empire State of Mind as well as purchase the music here. You can even transpose it to various keys here but I'm going to be teaching at in the original key that it was recorded in G-flat major Now don't get too intimidated by the key signature of G-flat major here. G-flat major actually has six flats in it there but there's only seven possible different keys that you have, so... the way that you want approach the sheet music is just assume that everything is made flat except for all the F's on both the treble clef and the bass clef staves. Basically three different chords that Alicia Keys uses in this piece, at least on the first page here and I'm gonna show you all three here the main chord or the tonic chord is the G-flat Major triad here, let me show that to you first G-flat major in the right hand, the way that she plays it is in the first inversion spelled B-flat D-flat, and G-flat. you noticed that I played it with the 3 fingers: 1...2...and 5 there. Now to make that a full G-flat major chord or harmony in the left hand she usually supplies a bass note of G flat underneath that you play in this octave here sometimes and then you play it together and that makes your G flat Major triad Another chord that she uses is the C flat major seventh chord here C flat Major 7th chord You'll be happy to know that if you compare it to the G-flat Major chord that you just played second ago there's only one note difference here in right hand. The right hand keeps the B-flat, keeps the G-flat but the D flat in the middle switches to E flat and I play that with one three and five here How is that at C flat major 7th chord? Well it's not yet here because we haven't involved the left hand yet here this is just an E flat minor triad in second inversion here Now to make that a full C flat Major 7th here I need to add a C flat in the bass here. And I usually play it in this octave here Remember C flat is the exact same enharmonic equivalent to B-natural. We have our own nerdy theoretical reasons for doing so here but then when you put that together with the notes that I just showed a second ago in the right hand there's your C flat Major 7th chord. It's a nice voicing that she's put together here, distributing it between both the left hand and right hand. So again, here's the G flat Major chord And here's the C flat Major 7th chord One more time, G flat C flat Major 7th now occasionally she also uses a D flat major triad here and the way I do that here first is in the right hand she spells it A flat, D flat, and F here That's actually a D flat Major triad in 2nd inversion with an A flat on the bottom In order to make it a D flat major with a D flat in the bass, get rid of the slash A flat, we usually need to have the D-flat in the left hand here I usually play it with this octave, although I think in a couple places in the piece she also uses the lower octave. So here's your D flat Major triad She uses it sparingly in the first page there but uses it a lot more in places like the chorus. so to wrap up here your 3 chords that you mostly use on that first page is G flat C flat major 7th and then the D flat Major chord a couple times So let's apply those 3 chords in the sheet music from MusicNotes.com here so if you look at the preview of the first page here we get started off with all three chords right off the bat right from the very beginning here okay you just won't see the flats in front of them. Just remember everything is made flat except for the F's unless stated the otherwise here Look at the bass line first of all. You'll notice those three notes that we talked about in the left hand: C flat, C flat, D flat and then G flat here. I would start that C flat first with the second finger like this here and then the D flat with the thumb and then G flat with the fifth finger. So it should go like this here That's the way I would start the left hand here the right hand plays the respective chords along with those particular roots C flat Major 7th Another C flat Major 7th, then a D flat Major chord and then back to G flat Major So that's the pickup to the beginning that goes like this One alternate fingering that you might want to explore here for particularly those of you with bigger hands might be for that D flat major chord You might want to use 1 2 4 that makes going back and forth from here to there a little bit easier and you don't have to move the hand so much. Let me show that to you one more time with the 1 2 4 fingering in the D flat Major chord Now look at this part here over here we have the G flat major chord and it's played repeatedly in this syncopated rhythm It goes 1, 2 &, notice the little ties here. that means you don't play the second note of the tie but you hold it for the combined value of both notes there so you're always playing on the downbeat for 1 and 2 but then on the and of 2 then you play on there and then you play on the and of three and the and of 4 and then come back in on the downbeat on the next measure and that's kind of the recurring rhythm here for the right hand here so let me show you how the right hand goes. If you count it 1 2 3 4 1 2& 3& 4& 1& 2& 3& 4& Try playing that along with me 1 2 here we go And then you do the same thing here in the 2nd part here we have the C flat major 7th chord it's the exact same rhythms from before like this...2 3 4 Back to G flat C flat Major 7th Now in this section of the piece here Watch out how the syncopations line up here. You have to play the C flat two times just like you did before at the beginning of the piece The only trick here is that you don't play the C flat Major 7th twice along with it. You just play it for the first one and tie it together like that there and then that of course leads into the G flat major chord there. Let me start here from where she says Ooo...New York... on the C flat Major 7th That's probably trickiest part of the first page there but then if you look on here on the very last line here we're back to the G flat Major chord that's pretty much all there is for every time you have the verses here it's just those three chords. The G flat The C flat Major 7th and then the D flat Major chord used kind of like a passing tone One of the neat fun little runs or fills that Alicia Keys does between verses goes like this Now you might recognize the tail end of the bassline going that's exactly the same thing or the same way that the piece actually started here the right hand is actually not as hard as it sounds or looks here all it is what we call an arpeggiated G flat Major harmony here takes the 3 notes from the G flat Major triad: G flat, B flat, and D flat and she just basically does an arpeggiated run going down on it here starting first with B flat and G flat, then goes down to the D flat in between and then goes to the B flat and that's your first grouping like this... The next grouping starts on D flat and just goes down the triad like this the first grouping goes like this second grouping goes like this, and then the 3rd grouping starts on B flat and goes like this. So all three go like this I usually these three fingers one two and three here except for the top G flat here like this Practice that a few times with stopping at the end of each grouping like this And once you got that down then do that without the break in between and play it with straight 16th notes like this and then what you tack on to that is The C flat Major 7th chord two times with a D flat and then leading to the G flat Major chord She uses a slightly different voicing here but the same notes nonetheless altogether it goes like this remember if you want to buy the sheet music for Empire State of Mind (Part II) just go to my web site/blog at marioajero.blogspot.com scroll down on the right-hand side and then you'll find a link to buy sheet music, various types of sheet music including Empire State of Mind (Part II) by Alicia Keys any music that you buy from those links I do you receive a small commission so I do appreciate your support thanks a lot and keep on practicing. Bye. (Empire State of Mind Part II Broken Down by Alicia Keys playing through Yamaha Mark IV Disklavier Piano)