How To Play '1000 Miles' by Vanessa Carlton on the Piano

Piano Lessons.com The #1 Name in Piano Lessons Online Vanessa Carlton – A Thousand Miles – Nate Bosch Hi! I’m Nate Bosch of PianoLessons.com. Today I’m going to teach you how to play Vanessa Carlton’s One Thousand Miles. You know the little line if you heard this on any, listen to any top 40 radio you probably heard this. [Demo] Well there you have basically one little phrase, one little lick if you want to call it that, a little idea that pretty much frames the whole song. Many if you hear that you’re like, okay. Those are the basic chords she uses to the whole song so I’m going to start and teach you just that little part, I will slow it way down because it temps to take of a little a bit. So we start the three notes that are just the E, F sharp and the D sharp, it’s in the key of B this song and they basically just rotates around those, those three chords. [Demo] And then the right hand, so going to get that the octave on the B is going here so [Demo] So we’re basically working with the B scale and kind of framing with that B in the octave here so I’ll just play it really slowly [Demo] So you see how it’s just backing back and forth there [Demo] So it seems like every time we’re coming down that scale if you will, we got to throw in a B on the bottom here. I’ll play a little bit faster for you [Demo] So I’m always throwing that, that B in there. Now I add a little bit of something and there and I don’t think I’ve heard it on the recording but it kind of gives a little bit more movement. You can do it, it’s a little bit of a faster bit right at the middle there we go [Demo] Now that’s just a run down [Demo] But by practicing it slowly [Demo] From the beginning [Demo] Quite easy if you’re, if you’re practicing the scales [Demo] Just practice that ad speed it up [Demo] Now, takes a little bit but if you can practice. So let’s do that and we’re going to add the left hand to it and remember the left hand is just playing the E, the F sharp and the D sharp. So let’s start [Demo] There’s that little run [Demo] Now we end up with the left hand playing the E and the right hand plays that C sharp. I’ll play it one more time and I’ll play it at speed [Demo] And now when we go on for the song she basically uses those same chords in the same basic idea but doesn’t rock it back and forth for the verse [Demo] So the same chord, you can actually play and she does actually play that in between each of her lines as she’s singing. So there you have not only the intro to the song, the main idea of the song but also the chords for the verse of the song. Now we get to the pre course or the idea in the song that builds in to the chorus, she changes the chords around a little bit and she introduces a new one. We start with the E, then go to the E sharp minor and an F sharp. So that you get the [Demo] And she sings the line [Demo] And does that [Demo] Three times and then she holds the [Demo] Toward into the chorus which comes back to those same chords again. [Demo] So again just using those same chords and then we’re back in to [Demo] So we got really three sections to this song, we’ve got that phrase that not only makes up the intro and the idea of the song but also makes up the chords for the verse then we move to [Demo] That pre chorus and then we get into the chorus again we get the [Demo] So the same chords just changes the melody a little bit to the E to the F to the B over the D sharp [Demo] And then we’re back into [Demo] Now there you have Vanessa Carlton’s One Thousand Miles. Now I’ve kind of quickly run through that with you and I did it quite fast some of it but if you just what you’ve, the chords that I have gone over and the lines there and slow them right down, you’ll find and you practice to that in real slow speed and then start to pick it up, you’ll start to get the feel for it and a lot of it has to do when I first just trying to figure out the song, couldn’t wrap my fingers around. My fingers are getting confused and I couldn’t get my left hand going. Start it slow and you’ll just get it and before you know it, it’ll just become a second nature to play that little line and there you have it.