this excerpt from the public television program the piano guy
is brought to you by the Roland Corporation
Let's work through a tune called Ob La Di Ob La Da
it's really a fun party tune that The Beatles did
although it has a lotta syncopation when you hear it on the recording
what I wanna go through with you now are the very basics of the tune
I always recommend when you're just first starting to learn a new tune I think
it's really important to just learn
the chords and the melody line that goes with it and then when you have that kinda
foundation
you can add to it all the tricks and tips and things like that so
let's go and dig right in on this one now the chords on all these
I'm going to suggest that you look up as always with chord charts
I know we talk about that a lot but the reality is when you're learning to play
in this style using lead sheet with the melody line and chord symbols
you really just need to to get those chords underhand and although I'll show you
on screen here
my suggestion is to find chord charts whether in a chord Book, chord wand,
online or in an electronic devices called
a chord finder however you do it
the trick is to just learn the chords once and then it kinda like learning how
to ride a bicycle you'll never forget it you keep using it on and on
Let's dig in, now this tune starts with a simple G chord
right there and again don't imitate my finger positions here I'm doing this
so you can see it well on TV
starts out
goes to a D7 chord
back to the G
Simple enough and then to a C major chord
G,
okay but that's the first little section there
one comment I wanna make about the melody as well, understand that you
absolutely positively should not try to play the melody exactly as its notated
you know you need to use a lead sheet as a guide so you want to get started you
need to know in this case it started on a B note but you certainly wouldn't
want a play it exactly as it is notated like this
you know something very stilted and very straight and metronomic that's
not the way we want to play in this style
instead you wanna play you know kinda the way you would have heard on the
recording or the way you would sing at her hum it
so go ahead and feel free to do that as well now pushing on
Were now at the section where it starts doing ...
so we are on G chord
and the melody goes okay it just spells out the exact same chord in your right
hand
going to Bminor
to Em and then back to G
same thing
B minor to be Em back to the G
D7
G. now the bridge to this tune, which is the second section we usually talk
about
an A section and sometimes a B section or bridge section they call it. this one
doesn't follow it exactly but it's close
kinda the second section in this tune jumps down to a C major chord
Back to the G and does it one more time from the C
then back to the top again
going to do this in tempo a little bit
We'll leave it at that we worked our way through it
and again understand that this is really just kinda like
I don't know that the DNA of the song it's just the simplest melody line with the
simplest chords and very intentionally not putting in a lot spices
and tips and tricks and things on top that's something that you need to do
once you get this basic stuff underhand
and then you can really start having fun turning into a more interesting piece to
music that maybe
sounds more like what you want to sound like or what it sounds like on the
recording
so remember let's get through Ob La Di Ob La Da basics first
and then you move on to turn into a real tune. have fun playing piano
this excerpt from the public television program the piano guy
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