How to Play Guitar Chord/Lead Sheet Music on the Piano

On a lot of popular music you will see the right hand melody notes with alphabet letters above it and no left hand notes. This music is sometimes called Lead Music and is played by a guitar or by a advanced piano player. Here are some tips on how to play this sheet music on the piano.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• piano
• keyboard

1. 

   As shown in the image you will see different alphabet letters. Such as G or C, or even Em. These stand for the name of the chord, G chord, C chord or E minor chord. If it does not have a m behind it then it is a major chord, if it does then it is a minor chord.
   
   To play the guitar you memorize different chords and when you see the alphabet letter, you know right away to play that chord. For the piano you can do the same thing. You memorize the different chords and where they are on the piano and you can play sheet music that is written this way.

2. 

   Each letter will be above the right hand note when it is to be played. The "All the Pretty Little Horses" the very first note for the right hand is D and above it is the letter Dm, which stands for D minor chord (D F A). You play the Dm chord and the D note at the same time.

3. You change to another chord when you see the letter change above the right hand notes. In the example, when your right hand plays the G, the letter Gm is right above it so you would use your left hand to play the G minor chord.

4. Let's go to the next measure. The right hand note above the word "Go" is a C and the letter above that is F, which stands for F major chord. You hit the C with the right hand and the F chord with the left hand at the same time. Play the next note with your right hand which is a B, and the next note which is an A. When you get to the A your left hand will play an A chord. This particular A chord is called an A-7, which is actually a 4 note chord, instead of a 3 note chord, but you can play it as a 3 note chord. It will have a slight different sound but will work.

5. Continue through the song hitting the left hand chord as the beat and the right hand as the melody. With a little practice you will be able to combine the two hands together to make a song. Keep practicing and you will be playing like Jerry Lee Lewis.
   
   If you need some tips on doing left hand chords, find my article on How to do Left Hand Chords on the piano.

Tips & Warnings

• Take it slow. Coordination will come as you practice. Soon it will start to sound like the song is suppose to.
• Curve your fingers when playing the chords to save wear and tear on your hands.

Resources

• PianoGeek.com for more how tos

[pianistic]

on 5/28/2008 You are absolutely right, the A chord should be played with the left chord and I mistakenly put down right. Thanks for letting me know. I fixed it and then went back over my article and rewrote some of the paragraphs to make sure they were clearer.

[ksouth1985]

on 5/28/2008 Thank you, very informative. I have one question. For Step 4, when you say "When you get to the A your right hand will play an A chord".... how come you say your right hand should play the A chord. I thought your left hand was supposed to play the chord A and your right hand plays that 'A' note? Thank you!