w

0

17 Easy Piano Songs for Beginners

11/05/2023

Have you started your piano lessons but don’t know what pieces to play? Check out our list of easy piano songs for beginners! 

On this list, we’ve included songs that are fairly easy to play in their original form so you can get the satisfaction of playing the original piece.  

We’ve left out pieces like “Happy Birthday” and “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” because you will almost certainly learn to play these in your lessons or from the tutorial book you’re following. This list is intended to give you ideas for tunes that maybe aren’t covered in lessons, books, or courses.  

Most of these songs are suitable for the beginning stages of learning the piano but don’t worry if you’ve only just started and some seem too hard at first. Once you’ve had a few lessons, you’ll find that they start to feel simpler. A few even have easier arrangements if you’d prefer to work up to the main arrangement! 

Our main tip for learning these piano songs is to start slowly. This can be difficult as you’ll really want to play the tunes at speed but a little patience is all that’s needed and then you’ll be able to. 

Some of the pieces, like “Well-Tempered Clavier” or “Gymnopédies”, can be played really slowly and still sound effective. If you want some tunes that provide satisfaction even during slow practise, then these two are great ones to learn. 

In a hurry? 

Here are our top 5 easy piano songs.

SongChordsDifficulty Level
“Gymnopédies” by Erik SatieGmaj7-Dmaj75/10
“Moonlight Sonata” by Ludwig van BeethovenC#m-C#m/B-A-D-G#76/10
“Four Chords” by Axis of AwesomeC-G-Am-F5/10
“Minecraft” by C418F#-D#m3/10
“My Funny Valentine” by Richard RodgersCm-CmMaj7-Cm7-Cm6 | AbMaj7-Fm7-Dm7b5-G7b93/10 (just chords)  6/10 (with melody)


The basic chords you’ll need  

Some of these pieces can be played by following chords. So let’s go through how to read them.   

Basic chords are written out like C or Cm. The first is simply a C major chord (C-E-G), and the second is a C minor chord (C-Eb-G) – minor is indicated by the small “m”.  

Some chords may have a slash in them like this: C/E. The letter after the slash indicates the lowest note to play in the chord. So in the example of C/E, E would be played at the bottom of the chord – making the notes E-C-G, also known as a first inversion C major chord.  

Chords with numbers indicate any extra notes to play on top of the normal triad. These are called extensions. For example, C7 has a minor seventh added to the chord (C-E-G-Bb); a major seventh is notated Cmaj7 (C-E-G-B). Don’t worry if the chord symbols look confusing – you can make it simpler at first by just playing the main triad and adding the extra notes later. 

A pianist playing the DP-12 Compact Digital Piano by Gear4music

17 easy piano songs for beginners 

So, which songs are best for beginner pianists? Let’s dive into the full list. 

1. Gymnopédies by Erik Satie

Difficulty – 5/10

Chords – Gmaj7-Dmaj7 

“Gymnopédies” is a simple, slow piece of piano music by French composer Erik Satie. There are three movements of sparse, dreamlike music that can be played at a leisurely pace.

You can play this piece very slowly and take advantage of the simplicity to really focus on the expression you’d like to add to your notes.  


2. Well-Tempered Clavier by J. S. Bach

Difficulty – 9/10 

Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier was composed for the then-brand-new even-tempered piano which could play in all 24 major and minor keys. There’s a movement for each key, and “Prelude and Fugue in C major” is the most well-known.

These movements can be quite challenging for beginners, however, we’ve included them because of their importance to piano musical history and how satisfying to practise they are. You can make your way through each movement slowly and it will sound great still – a testament to Bach’s composition skills.  


3. “Visions of Gideon” by Sufjan Stevens

Difficulty – 5/10

Chords – Db, Eb6, Fm, Ab/Eb7

“Visions of Gideon” was featured on the soundtrack to the movie Call Me By Your Name. It’s composed by Sufjan Stevens, who’s well known for his very pretty and melancholy music.

The trickiest thing about this piece is getting the rhythms right. But once you get the feel of the rhythm internalised, the rest of the piece should become much easier. 


4. “Opening” by Phillip Glass

Difficulty – 6/10

Chords – Fm-Eb-Eb/Db

Phillip Glass pioneered minimalism during the late ’60s and ’70s and eventually released Glassworks in 1981. Glassworks was more pop-oriented than his previous pieces, and it comprised shorter prices that were composed for recording in the studio. 

“Opening” is the first track in the album and, although it sounds complex, the piece is based on one repeating rhythm that’s easy once you crack it. The hardest part is counting the triplet rhythms against the main bass line.  


5. “Married Life” by Michael Giacchino

Difficulty – 5/10

Chords – F, F/C, Dm, Am/C, G7/B, C5, C5/G, C, Em, F, C 

Michael Giacchino composed this piece for the heartbreaking opening to the 2009 Pixar movie, Up.

“Married Life” is a lovely piece with a simple time signature and key. The trick to mastering it is to get the little offbeat rhythms correct in the melody, which you can do by listening to the original track and counting the rhythms.  


6. “For the Damaged Coda” by Blonde Redhead

Difficulty – 5/10

Chords (after intro) – Cm-Bb7/D-Eb-G/B-Cm-Bb7/D-Eb-G7/B- Cm-Ab-G-G7/B

This song gained popularity after being featured in the tv show Rick and Morty. Originally written by alternative rock band Blonde Redhead, “For the Damaged Cola” closes their album, Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons, with its well-known piano line.

This piece is fairly easy as its chord progression repeats and the tempo isn’t too fast. The most difficult skill to master when learning the song is moving your left hand around to play the bassline and chords when the melody comes in. 


7. “Prelude in E minor” by Frédéric Chopin

Difficulty – 6/10

Published in 1839, Chopin composed 24 Preludes, and, like Bach, he wrote them in all 24 keys. Prelude No. 4 in E minor is perhaps the most well-known.

It’s a fairly easy piece to play as the speed is steady and the rhythms aren’t too complex once you’re used to the basics. You should concentrate on getting the chords and harmonies correct; there are a lot of fancy chords that are typical of romantic composers such as Chopin.  


8. “Game of Thrones Theme” by Ramin Djawadi

Difficulty – 4/10

Ramin Djawadi was propelled to fame by his score and theme tune to Game of Thrones. His influences mean that some of his music is quite minimalistic and simple to play.

The “Game of Thrones Theme” is a great example of this. It consists of a repeated ostinato in the bass and a melody derived from it.  


9. “Ambre” by Nils Frahm

Difficulty – 5/10

“Ambre” is one of the quicker pieces on this list. Composed by German composer Nils Frahm, the main part is in the left hand. The right hand picks out a simple, single-line melody on top – quite simple!

What you should focus on in this piece is pedalling. You can add so much expression with just the pedal, so check out if the arrangement of this piece you have includes pedalling marks – otherwise, make your own up! 


10. “Saman” by Olafur Arnalds

Difficulty – 5/10

This piece of music is one of Olafur Arnalds’s most popular works, and it’s very accessible to beginners.

What you need to watch out for in this piece is the rhythms that cross bar lines. This has the effect of hiding the time signature, so you need to really lock into the 4/4 beat.  


11. “Moonlight Sonata” by Ludwig van Beethoven

Difficulty – 4/10

Chords – C#m, C#m/B, A, D, G#7

“Moonlight Sonata” is probably one of the most recognisable pieces of piano music ever written. The beginning section of is fairly simple, just repeated arpeggios with a single-line melody. It’s also not too fast, so you can easily play this without having to practise unbearably slowly.  


12. “My Funny Valentine” by Richard Rodgers

Difficulty – 3/10 (just chords), 6/10 (with melody)

Chords – Cm-CmMaj7-Cm7-Cm6|AbMaj7-Fm7-Dm7b5-G7b9

“My Funny Valentine” is a very well-known jazz standard that was originally written in 1937 by Richard Rodgers.

It’s a slow-moving tune in a dark C minor, and the opening chords are fairly simple to understand – even though the chord symbols look complicated. There’s a descending chromatic bassline over the C minor chord for the opening bars. The changing bass and melody recontextualise the C minor triad, changing how it sounds without actually altering the main chord.


13. “Summertime” by George Gershwin

Difficulty – 4/10 (just chords), 7/10 (with melody)

Chords – Dm6-Eø7-A7b13-Dm6-D7b9|Gm7- Eø7-A7b13| cont…

“Summertime” was originally written for Gershwin’s opera, Porgy and Bess, and has since become a jazz standard that’s played by many jazz musicians.

The great thing about playing jazz numbers is that the form is so much looser than classical pieces – you can improvise more and be creative with how you play the chords or what ornamentations you add to the melody.   


14. “How insensitive” by Antonio Carlos Jobin

Difficulty – 5/10 (just chords), 6/10 (with melody)

Chords – Dm9-C#°7|Cm6-G7/B|BbMaj7-EbMaj7|Em7b5-A7b9-Dm7-Db7

“How Insensitive” (known as “Insensatez” in Brazil) is another jazz standard that is great fun to play on piano.

As a bossa nova, this song has a very Latin feel and groove. It’s a good idea to practise the groove before moving on to the melody; you want to make sure you get that syncopated rhythm correct!

A fun way to practise is to find a YouTube video that has a drum, bass, and melody, so you can play along with some groovy piano chords. This is known as “comping” in jazz and it’s an important skill for a rhythm section player.   


15. “He’s a Pirate” by Klaus Badelt

Difficulty – 8/10

Chords – Dm-Bb-Dm-Bb-F-C-Dm-Gm/Bb-Gm-Dm-Bb-Dm-A

Here’s a classic that most musicians will play at some point, regardless of their instrument. Hans Zimmer originally wrote the themes and then passed the sketches to Klaus Badelt who composed the score for Pirates of the Caribbean.

When learning “He’s a Pirate”, focus on keeping that 6/8 feeling throughout the whole piece – accentuate in groups of three. It can be tempting to accentuate in groups of two and switch to a 3/4 feeling by mistake.  


16. “Minecraft” by C418

Difficulty – 4/10 

Chords – F#-D#m 

Composed while the game was still in development, “Minecraft” is one of the more recognisable pieces from the soundtrack. If take a look at the sheet music, you might get a bit worried about the key signature – six sharps even make professional musicians grumble! But don’t worry, all the notes you need to play are just black keys. So in reality, it’s actually quite simple.   


17. “Four Chords” by Axis of Awesome

Difficulty – 5/10 

Chords – C-G-Am-F 

This song parodies the fact that many popular songs are based on the same basic chord progression. As a result, you can play a huge number of tunes by just learning one chord progression. They may be in different keys originally, but you can still play them. You can also try transposing the chords into a different key for extra music theory practice! 

Core skills you’ll learn with these songs

Reading music

Not all of these songs can be communicated just through chord sheets as melodies and rhythms are better communicated through sheet music. Learning some of these songs via their sheet music can help you practise your skills in reading notes and working out rhythms. 


Following chord charts and improvising

Some of these songs can be learned through reading chord charts. This provides the harmonic framework of the song and gives you the flexibility to determine how to voice the chords and the rhythms. The jazz numbers on this list are especially good for this. You can listen to different recordings of the songs and work out what the piano is playing in your favourite recording.  


Counting rhythms

One of the most difficult parts of learning piano is coordinating both hands to play complex rhythms and harmonies. So, learning some of the more rhythmically intricate pieces can be very valuable. The key is subdividing, meaning you split the bar into as many beats as you need to work out the correct way to play. For example, if there are semiquavers and crotchets then you could count in semiquavers. 

You can read more about how to play piano in our 11-step guide here.


Scales and keys

Some classical pieces, Well-Tempered Clavier, in particular, are very technical in their harmonic construction.

These are perfect for practising scales and learning some music theory behind key signatures. In Well-Tempered Clavier, each piece is based on a particular key. If you want a more exciting way of practising scales and keys then choosing one of the movements from this work is a great idea.  


Expressive playing

Some of these pieces are simple enough for you to learn the notes and rhythm quite quickly. But this doesn’t mean you’ve learned the whole piece! You now have an opportunity to practise playing with expression.

Think about the melodic contours of the piece and where it feels like it goes. Consider the dynamics marked – how quiet is a p in the piece? Are you playing legato or more spaced notes? There’s so much to consider and there isn’t necessarily a right or wrong answer – it’s how you feel the piece should be performed.  

A pianist playing the black Gear4music DP-6 digital piano

FAQs

What are the best simple piano notes?

Some of the most simple piano notes are the white notes that lie in C major or A natural minor. In fact, both of these keys are exclusively made of white keys, making it easy to remember the right notes to play. You can also play just the black keys, this makes a pentatonic scale and you can play pretty much any notes together and they’ll still sound great. 


Can I learn piano in 3 months?

You can learn the basics of the piano in three months, but you probably won’t quite get to professional levels in that time. It’s often stated that it takes 10,000 hours to master anything – this is a lot of time and takes years of practice to achieve that level of skill. 


What are the best songs to learn first on piano?

We recommend these songs to learn first in addition to the songs you’ll learn through lessons, books, or courses.  

  • Gymnopédies by Erik Satie 
  • “Moonlight Sonata” by Ludwig van Beethoven
  • “Four Chords” by Axis of Awesome 
  • “Minecraft” by C418 
  • “My Funny Valentine” by Richard Rodgers 

Final thoughts

These easy piano songs for beginners have been chosen to provide you with some inspiration for what you can play soon after starting piano. Not all of these songs will be playable immediately, but it gives you something to aim for! 

You can find even more great songs to learn in books. If you like film music then you’re spoilt for choice in simple piano songbooks from movies. Your favourite artist may have songbooks published as well. You can even try a more structured book that teaches you fundamental skills like playing chords or music theory.      

 

RELATED ARTICLES

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Share This