Paul McCartney's Piano Lesson 

ive heard of these guys...

@@user-im9yx1nw1s I love when Ringo says "the Beatles are the best band I've ever played with" (lol)!

Such gibberish , im Paul I'm still relevant, look what I could do ! teach you piano

@@antoniosantorini9355 bro he’s a legacy I don’t think he’s thinking about being “relevant” lmao

@@user-im9yx1nw1s .. well if I had all his money I can think of something better to do than make a stupid RU-vid video.. come on , he was once on top of the world what's he resorting to this for

He understands how to create very catchy melodies that sound really, really nice. That's hard to do, but playing a piano and learning music theory and chords is no big deal, anyone can do that. It's just being able to actually create a great melody with it, is what is hard.

You don't need to know how to read music to be a musician. Just need to know your scales and chords.

Not saying the piano/keys in Beatles songs aren’t amazing, but in this video Paul is literally just doing various simple things in C major (all white keys). Of course there are undoubtedly other keys he has played in, but just sayin’ this video doesn’t really display extreme piano skills imo.

@@MoonshineH Paul does not have extreme piano skills or technique. But as I said in my initial comment, "he understands music."

@@bonnieralston1706 What exactly do you mean? My explanation is that some people basically just have a really good ear. Not tryna discount Paul’s talent, but most musicians I know are ones that learned to play piano, guitar, etc… by just one day starting out by themselves and for some reason they can write, interpret and improvise music very well but can’t explain to you what key they’re in or how they know what chords/notes to play. It blows my mind because I tried to just play for 6 years and I always sucked until I finally got good after I got lessons and learned scales and music theory.

yes. It's truly amazing. I mean, he can play a I-IV-V pattern and make the most beautiful song out there. While all we mortals here would sing the blues. What the the fuck?

Yep, I was thinking the same thing…that’s the key, a good beauty vocal melody

That and some remarkably tasty bass lines with perfect motion and syncopation.

His ultimate gift is his voice

indeed, though he also came up with some amazing chord progressions as well

Mine too

Bach is eternal..think of all the different ways his music can be played. From Pablo Casals to the Beatles.

Would be interesting to know when they got into Bach. Cannot picture tough teenage John and Paul particularly into Bach. Too busy with Elvis, Buddy, Jerry Lee,...

@@Better_Call_Raul I remember an anecdote from McCartney that him and George would play a Bach piece as kids on guitar to impress people, so they must have got into him pretty early in life

I have 4 CDs of Bach

I might have learned piano when my mom forced me to take lessons when I was 8, if my teacher taught like this! And enjoyed it! Lol Hell... we could have learned some Beatles music! Instead of stupid 19th century teaching music...

Not quite. Most piano musicians could teach you these things in about 15 minutes. Worth it for the stories maybe!

This is extremely basic knowledge..wtf is your point..

@@feliciagaffney1998 same here. Beatles music was real music and relatively easy to play.

I taught like this. Taught kids songs they wanted to learn. Of course, parents want something they can show off

He is , , I concur

This is very true... forget all about the text books..if you haven't got a good ear for melody then you've got nothing....a skill which is lacking these days unfortunately

That's it

Yes and so true.

What is a melody?

rock and roll and music are different things. you can bypass the drudgery and make rock and roll

The mans a genius, but he sure took part in the druggery lol

For geniuses that's ok. For the rest of us; practice that pentatonic scale and everything else. I'll have dues to pay...

Some say he’s a ‘genius’ I don’t believe that self taught piano players are plentiful, as are songwriters!..

The Beatles spent a year sleeping on a nightclub toilet floor and drove around Britain in a van with a broken windscreen - they played a tower gigs in Hamburg for 300 nights a year. They definitely did the drudgery.

Pun intended?

@@Whattheflip64 The Long And Winding Explanation

Even geniuses had to put in the time and work at it.

​@@jamesanthony5681Except if you're Mozart and already a genius when you're 5. Probably still took work but maybe not as much as some.

The Bach with a beat explains a lot of Rock and Roll

You're welcome

Such a pity they didn't bother to show his hands so you can see what he's talking about.

I agree

@@jawaka1000 Most of what he's doing here is just moving triads up and down the piano. If you don't already know it, just learn the major scale, and then group every other note together in 3s and you'll get all the core triads of the chords in the scale. So you got 7 notes in the scale: 1/do is the root, 2/re, 3/mi, 4/fa, 5/so, 6/la, 7/ti, and then back to do/8 or 1 at the octave of your root. 135 will make your first root triad, 246 the next, 357 and so on. And you can play around with those sounds. Of course, the way Paul is talking here, he's basically just suggesting to do it by ear as well which I think is largely how he relates to music. Especially in his early days. I imagine he probably had a naturally good ear to start with as he preferred learning by ear as a kid over taking lessons on instruments. So for him this all probably seems really natural and simple. And if you have that kind of natural ear too, thats awesome. You can just work it all out by ear basically by playing around on an instrument like the piano and listening to music you like. That's essentially what Paul is saying he did here. But of course we all aren't born with good ears for distinguishing musical pitches and what we're hearing. I definitely never did. So if you find thats you but still want to learn, learning some theory helps make a lot of sense of what your ears are missing. And then there's also plenty of resources to train your ear to get better. Do a search for ear training and you'll find a number of free resources like tonedear.com and musicate.app. You can also find free ear training programs on your phone/tablet too in the app stores. Anyways, I think the thing to take from this is the idea that Paul wasn't doing anything super fancy with music half the time. But he took note of what had worked before him and played around with that until he came up with stuff that sounds good. Its both encouraging (in that its simple to figure out) and discouraging (in that part of it just comes down to his taste and personal decisions) at the same time lol.

Indeed, what a great comment, us older guys don't take that for granted because we remember when it wasn't the case RU-vid is great, and I often say Wikipedia is among the best things to ever come out if the internet. I'm not trying to stray from the subject, it's true about RU-vid too, what I mean is the wealth of information that is sitting at your fingertips, that is knowledge on tap, and it's why humans will soon live for 1,000 years and travel to every corner of outer space. It's tempting as an older person to resent technology as it seems to be leaving you behind, but don't let it - at least keep up with the basics, and again, never take it for granted, and that especially goes to young people. Understand that a computer doing the work for you puts a greater responsibility on your generation to achieve that much more, and don't just know that, fucking be a part of it. OK I'll stop. I'm serious though. Don't forget it.

He’s too old bro, maybe back in the day…

He gave it a shot with Wings I think

Cringe, played out joke. Just stop.

@@therainman7777 Cringe, envious comment. Debased!

@@therainman7777 oh lighten up

@@kenchawkin4379 Never saw it, never will, it's a trite piece of garbage

All he needs is the air that we breathe.....

I've never really rated Paul Mccartney, I think the driving force behind the Beatles was George Martin.

@@winegum3086 Really!

@@winegum3086I don’t mean to insult you but you obviously don’t know much then. Just watch Get Back and you’ll see. If that’s not enough here’s a quote from their engineer: "I don’t want to take anything away from anyone, but production of the Beatles was very simple, because it was ready-made. Paul was a very great influence in terms of the production, especially in terms of George Harrison’s guitar solos and Ringo’s drumming. The truth of the matter is that, to the best of my memory, Paul had a great hand in practically all of the songs that we did, and Ringo would generally ask him what he should do. After all, Paul was no mean drummer himself, and he did play drums on a couple of things. It was almost like we had one producer in the control room and another producer down in the studio. There is no doubt at all that Paul was the main musical force. He was also that in terms of production as well. A lot of the time George Martin didn’t really have to do the things he did because Paul McCartney was around and could have done them equally well… most of the ideas came from Paul". - Norman Smith, the Beatles engineer

I just wish I would've learned it with the correct finger technique...

There's a huge difference between playing few chords on piano and being a pianist (even a bad pianist). Piano technique is very difficult. Most of the piano scores in rock and roll music are far easier than a beginner piece.

It's in your head ,practice is getting to come out your fingers ,I know you know

For sure! Way easier than something like acoustic guitar.

​@@mungofinalfi4480aw man I kind of feel the same way but it's really not too late

I feel so blessed to have grown up with the Beatles. I was 10 years old when I first saw them on Sullivan, and my brain and heart were forever changed. It’s heartbreaking that we’ve lost John and George, but I’m thankful we still have Paul and Ringo and their musical genius. I could listen to Paul’s piano lessons all day, any day. ❤

Yes, but what I wish someone would document - in detail - is how did this incredible talent evolved - a lot more information about his parents encouragement ( which to me is always the key to everything ) and then how it moved from his confidence in playing other people's music and became the icon of creativity and creator of "melodies". Literally , document the step by step process that Paul went thru on all the songs he wrote - every one of them - if we don't do that now, it will be lost forever - no one has ever achieved his level of musicianship over such an incredible span of time. That "documentary" could easily be a series of college courses and might help to get future musicians to return to the concept of creating "melodies" rather than just a hodge podge of sequences that rely solely on dynamics.

@@charliemurphy3529I completely agree with you. Good parenting is the key to a person’s development. He grew up in a loving home with a lot of encouragement. We are so blessed to have him! He is super creative & a wonderful & kind person. He uses his platform for good things. He’s lovely:)

I was at a Knights of Columbus dance (1963) when I saw this girl that "all of the sudden" I really wanted to dance with - but another guy walked up to her and she started dancing - so I went outside to sulk - about 3 minutes later she came out and reach out to me without saying anything and without either of us saying a word, we went inside to dance - I swear, as soon as we got to the dance floor, they started playing "I saw her standing there" - I had never heard the song before and it did something to my ears - like they were exploding or something - I was in some kind of vortex of good vibes - never will forget that dance, that girl, or that song. I can go back to that moment whenever I want and the amazement never goes away. @@alexandravalassis8390

I do like that he is doing deep dives into explaining the Beatles.

Out of the Beatles he was the most accomplished musician period, at least tecnically speaking😉

@@lukeizabelle2131 I was going to say the same thing, you got there first 😁

I wouldn't disagree, but I like Lennon's piano better. Love, Mother, Imagine, Oh Yoko!, God. Beautiful.

@@playbackvintagehifihunter9669 😊👍

What gets me is how all four members could play the piano. Or, at least knew basic chords and progressions. I believe every one of them knew how to play everyone else's instrument to a certain degree. I guess after years of playing together, you teach a lot to the other members of the band. Still a very talented group of guys.

Yea, demonic if he’s hanging about with John Legend.

@@ethan1268 🤣

Music is a gift...I mean his mum coming to him in a dream and gave him the idea for let it be.......universe in work

@@GATSU1979 humans who have passed don’t come to people in dreams, they’re either in hell or heaven.

@@ethan1268 Wow! That's a revelation, isn't it?

I used to only play guitar with no understanding of music theory. When I got a cheap keyboard, it opened up theory to me. I highly recommend learning simple piano for any musician. It's music laid out in its most straightforward form.

Doubt that. He's a veggie.

@@TheWhippingPostYES. My guitar skills greatly improved after getting more hand independence on piano. I’m not sure how to explain it but the movements on the piano opens these paths that improve on any other instruments you play.

yep and george and john weren't too shabby either at songwriting.

"For No One" "Here, There and Everywhere" "I Will" Favorite melodies.

Truth.

Martha My Dear has such great piano.

In a way it’s no different from being alive at the same time as Beethoven, Brahms, Bach, Wagner, Mozart, however it is also WAY different. It’s extraordinary! We are lucky to be here with him at the same time

@@captainkane1984 He only played what others gave him to play. 😉

You know I was learning Twist and Shout which they took the melody from La Bamba but the way Paul did the bass for that is out of control. What sounds to be a pretty simple song is so extra when it didn’t have to be but i’m so glad he did. I laughed in awe as I tried to learn it.

@@shrksE worth mentioning that Twist and Shout is actually a cover and wasn't written by The Beatles

@@jardinag im well aware of that.

superimposing moving chords over a static bass note is called pedal point. Notice how in the verse it's "D major" pedal point going UP and then in the chorus it's "D minor" pedalpoint going down? Very cool way to create longer arcs and cohesion within a song.

During their first stint in Hamburg Paul's cheap guitar broke early on and he couldn't afford to replace it, so ge actually spent most of those months as the bands piano player (the club had its own piano) which he says is how he learned to play the piano so well. I think that helped him a great deal as a songwriter too.

Here here my brother. And his philosophy is so positive. How fortunate we were to live in their time. When he and Ringo leave us there is gonna a void in our world.

You just put into words exactly how I feel!

When he’s gone I don’t know what I’ll do with myself… He truly is so sweet and so kind, it’s just so pure…! Joy and light for sure! 💙

Doing worry. I’m 21 and he’s my biggest inspiration in life!

I'm 17 and grew up listening to the beatles a lot. They're my favorite band and McCartney my favorite singer and composer ever. I love them so much and have a huge confidence that their music will stay relevant forever 🤧❤️

Me too

@@SecretsofRock all secrets will be revealed if not confessed. It may take a while. God KNOWS all secrets

Bill, do you realize that the first sentence of your post sounds like the first two lines of a song lyric? Needs a little tweaking, maybe, but you might try working with that bit and then see where it leads. Best of luck from another huge fan of The Beatles in general and Sir Paul in particular.

Totally agree! I feel the same way you do Bill. Paul is our light in those last difficult years we’ve been through. Glad he is still with us 🙏

I’ve always thought of Paul as the voice of optimism.

@@ellynmacgregor8210 Makes me think of “Hey Jude, don’t make it bad, take a sad song and make it better” funnily enough

loneliness: Eleanor Rigby, No More Lonely Nights, When I'm Sixty Four, "Lonely" Hearts Club Band, With a little help from my friends, John's "Yer Blues", She's Leaving Home, etc. There are several songs that touch on the theme of loneliness.

@Jazzinthecountry Well that was the fault of your early instruction, not of classical music itself, which is an astonishingly deep and broad well of inspiration and achievement.

Well, the point (the main point) of learning classical piano is to be able to play classical piano pieces. You can however learn a huge amount by analysing classical piano pieces as you learn them. But it does take effort.

Cool!🙂

What if his entire career is not what people think it was?! What if he didn't write anything for the Beatles, and he only played what the band manager asked him to play, as everyone else in the band?! What if the Beatles was a political project in the first place?! 😉

@@dncviorel well it worked out for them because they made some actual British money and toured the world.

Same here. I remember when I first started playing piano when I was around 10 or so, sitting there playing around with the keys and realizing that certain keys played together sounded nice. If not, nice, then they at least sounded 'right'. Then putting those chords with other chords. It made learning so much more fun when you have moments of discovery like that.

@@keymaster430 After a while you get tired of the normal chords and you start adding spicey stuff. I've been at that point for two or three years now with music. I literally had a day where I was "this sounds generic, let's put "wrong" notes in".

Are you saying you have an eighth of what mc Cartney has ? 😀 fair play

@@Magicalfluidprocess hahaha I wish I had an eighth, what he has is simply unique, we can't compare ourselves, it's not fair 😁

Paul has his abilities and you have yours. The good thing you have going for you is that there will never be another you so be the best version of yourself, no one else can do that but you. Good luck.

hes already dead!, that one is a fake!

@@antoniach4190 the fake McCartney is clearly the best then. Lol

@@stephendorn5875 lol literally

I'm going to be curled up in a little ball for a week. That will be the biggest musical loss of my lifetime. I'm not looking forward to that inevitability.

Let's all listen to Bob Dylan & Bruce Springsteen & Joni Mitchell while keeping in mind that they'll soon be dead. Really, let's not.

Rock on!

Hopefully they release this series. It's from McCartney 321 on Hulu.

As a home composer, musician and producer (who is currently at a music school [learning bass, guitar, piano, drums and trumpet] and at a sound engineering school]) I don't know what to think of this either. Apart from: why the fuck do people teach other people music in such a dumb and unimaginative way?

Exactly. Paul makes the best melodies from the simplest chords.

feel you brother, saw him as well couple years ago - i relate to every word u saying ♥

Same here man. I was late 30's when I saw him at MEN Manc. Cried a few times. Never seen such a happy crowd of all ages smiling and laughing, dancing, crying. It blew me away. When he played Here Today solo, wow.

Best concert I’ve ever been to (saw him in ‘88)

you're not confined to rules when you learn the rules either. you just know them. and there's a million 'rules' anyway, no one will learn them all.

Classical composers had stopped following the rules of harmony by the 20th century. I think Debussy lead the way. Jazz musicians don’t follow the rules. Not following the rules doesn’t mean they hadn’t learnt them when they studied music.

Someone said the same about Lionel Bart's melodies they do things no "music theory" would do, they shouldn't work according to theory, but they do.

@@soupdragon151 that's probably someone who didn't know a lot about theory. theory can make sense of literally anything.

@@mmeditatio But the intuitively understood theory and could expand upon it.

Ha ha. I thought he was speaking to God..

Hah! At first I thought it was Lee Sklar.

@@petearvo8918 he kind of was 😉

@@bcoldwell1 me too!

Agreed

True, and I think that for a number of years, that quality may have worked against him--with music critics, especially; because he makes it look so easy, some people (jealous much?) apparently got the idea that he wasn't taking his work seriously. Nowadays, far more people appreciate that, while he DOES take his work seriously, he doesn't take himself seriously--which means (duh) he has a sense of humor!

it is easy, the greatness is a marketing illusion. Most people can make music if they sit at a piano and play for a while. It really just takes the drive do learn and try . . .and the reason is simple: harmony is a universal language. so much money has been made on the idea that its 'hard' to make music. it's harder to play sports because you have to compete directly with others in each game. music is easy when you compare it to physical labor and such

it's pretty simple..

@@HunterBelkiran Being a retired physicist, I could say that about the creation and annihilation operators for the energy eigenstates of a quantum harmonic oscillator, but I don't think it would be for the average person.

Yes, and without using his right Thumb! As in prebaroque time

That is a good point I hadn't noticed that, no piano teacher would teach you that way it'd be the right handed way

ALL piano players play the bass with their left hand and chords or melody with their right. To do otherwise you'd have to cross your hands over!

It's only pop shite - a couple of minutes tops, in one key that doesn't develop or go anywhere. And to compare yourself with Bach...

@@limdongcheol well, there's great classical music that is actually pop.

Many people have written great melodies since there’s so many songs with great melodies out there. The difference is that Paul has the ability to do it over and over again and hasn’t stopped. Even in his late 70s and 80s, he can still write a remarkable melody like it’s nothing

The man has woken up with melodies floating around in his head...he's on another level.

Hit the big time like George’s ‘Honey Pie’ ?

Speaking words of wisdom, if you will...

@@johngore7744 that was Paul’s song

@@ghostriderinthesky6685 but George sang it and played Uke on it ala George Formby if you have family from the UK (North) you’d know what I mean.

@@michaelr6616 Let it be.

No we won't go back to the dark ages...their music lives on forever.

The beatles have spawned so many groups.

The Beatles have inspired so many groups.

Indeed, 90% of piano teachers thinks so. Because piano was making history of music since 18th century. It's an instrument for classical music.Rock is a brigth but short comet in music history, they thinks. For me rock'n'roll is bigger than Bach, but I'm not sure that my grandsons will thinks so. Cheers!

I love Paul, he’s brilliant! Been listening since their Ed Sullivan appearance in 63. I happen to be a music teacher, classically trained but not a classic snob:) I love when students get to the point where they have enough skills to start choosing different songs & styles of music to play. However I must admit the teacher in me cringed watching his right hand 2-3-4 chord fingering 😳😊

@@vzeroshik1082 So true - but a lot of the "classical" music composed for the piano was just showing off the technical capabilities and what you could do with thee new fangled "even tempered scale". To me it sounds annoying, even grating, like the 18th century version of Yngwie Malmsteem. I like to think there was a time, when the piano was new, all the old school musicians who'd learnt things like violin or flute scoffed at these new fangled pianists making music "just pushing buttons on machines" that takes "no talent - you want a middle C you just push a button and bang, perfect middle C. No talent or skill required!"

Did you hear Jimmy Page playing Chopin? All music is music. You aren't an ex student of Mrs Nettleton and her nasty knitting needle are you? Don't get the same note wrong twice in a lesson or whack.

@@phyllislicata4392 I noticed his weird fingering of those chords as well! I figured, sure if it works for him, but it looked awkward to me.