How to Play My Immortal on Piano
"My Immortal" is a pop song made popular by Evanescence and performed in voice and on the piano by the musician/artist. Written by Ben Moody, Amy Lee and David Hodges, the song expresses sorrows of love and is of beginner to intermediate level in piano, requiring the ability to sight read music scores. This song is in A major and has three sharps (#): F#, C#, and G#. You may not need the sheet music if you can play by ear, but music scores are always recommended for the most accurate rendition of the recording.
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Instructions
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How to Play "My Immortal" on the Piano
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1
Read over the sheet music and mark notes that you cannot immediately identify or are hard to read. You also can mark chords ahead of time so that your sight read of the music progresses smoothly.
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2
Start learning the notes hands-separately. Even the most advanced piano players often start hands-separately to learn all the details and notes accurately the first time around to avoid accumulating bad habits and mistakes that are hard to change later on. Progress slowly.
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3
Sight-read and start playing the song with your right hand only. The right hand carries the major melody of the song and thus it is important to learn the right hand first. Whether you are familiar with the melody or not, proceed at a very slow speed so you can read and play accurately. It takes patience, but it is well worth it later on.
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4
Practice two to four bars at a time and repeat until the notes and the melody settle into your fingers. Drill each two to four bar section over at least five times, then move to the next two to four bars. After doing this for one page, play the whole page over once without stopping. This is an effective strategy employed by classical concert pianists and is of enormous value to the early learning phase of any song.
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5
Follow the same strategy with your left hand. The left hand is the accompanying voice that supports the melody in the right hand, and thus will take even more patience to practice as it may get monotonous. Press on keeping in mind you will be able to play the song beautifully and naturally later on because of this great foundation work you are building.
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6
Once you have thoroughly drilled the first page hands-separately, start practicing hands-together. Begin slowly as it takes time for the two hands to coordinate while getting all the notes correct. Practice over five times.
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Repeat Steps 1-6 for the next five pages of the song. This may take an hour, a whole day or two weeks, depending on your skill level with the piano.
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8
Once you have learned all the notes to the song and are able to play hands-together the whole way through with no mistakes at a slow tempo, incrementally increase the tempo and eventually practice your way to the right speed.
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Tips & Warnings
Although it is tempting for highly skilled pianists to go straight into two-hands playing at the regular speed, professional experience indicates that by following the above step-by-step, slow and careful "tortoise" method, the end result will be much more polished and ready for performance, rather than a repeated, continuous sight-reading effort that is highly likely for mistakes when playing under pressure or for a public audience. The above instructions also allow you to memorize the song much easier later on so you can play without the score.
