KaranShah

Hey guys, here's a tutorial for one of my favorite instrumentals and one of the most beautiful pieces out there. Not sure why they did not release it, wish they would but here's a tutorial anyway :) Love how the chords have simple changes here and there and how the chord progression changes towards the end

Alrightyyyy here's the complete tutorial: :)

Hey guys, just uploaded the complete tutorial for Always In My Head (Acoustic Version): Hope it helps :)

You're welcome! You can call me Karan haha

Just uploaded part 1 of AIMH (Acoustic Version) - hope it helps guys, let me know what you think! :)

Alright guys, here's part 1: He plays variations of this throughout the verse, hope it helps :)

Thanks to you man, I love discussing about coldplay Atlas and Moving to Mars are two of the songs that pop up in my mind. Up n Up is on G major scale I believe. I haven't heard of bridge of Umbrella :O and good luck with the studying! :)

Yes you're right! It can vary and goes with the rhythm on the song. It is usually the root note. Gsilva is right too. Chris didn't learn the theory initially but he eventually learned scales and chords and stuff. I don't know music theory completely, but to know the root note you would have to know what chord you are playing.. I would recommend watching A lot of times artists like Chris like to change the key here and there which makes the beautiful and melancholic melodies

That's a great question. I think when he tries to mimic the bass notes, he hits the octaves with his left hand really hard. Although when he is changing to a different chord, he likes to hit both right and left thumb. I think his right thumb is stronger and mostly dominates in terms of tonality. When he is playing an arpeggio, he increases the force as the arpeggio moves from left hand to the right hand. Once the arpeggio is coming to an end, he likes to play the chord softly with his right hand. This technique actually needs practice but once you get it, it sounds so beautiful! So the root note is basically the defining note of a chord. For example C would be the root note for C major. Sometimes, when he plays augmented or diminished chords, he likes to play octaves of the key. If the song is played in C# minor key for example and the root note doesn't end on his thumb, he hits C# :) He does this with guitar tunings too. Best example would be Violet Hill. The higher strings are tuned to C# to give the ringing effect, it always sounds nice in verses! Another example would be Oceans. Look at this video of christmas lights, his right hand almost never leaves the D note in the verses. Which is interesting because the song's key is G major. Although, G major triad is basically G-B-D. Since D is a naturally harmonic to G, he plays D repeatedly... So there are exceptions and a formula cannot be derived for his insane talent! Also from 2:04, again he plays both left and right thumbs before moving to a different chord... right thumb is more intense.

Also, most of the arpeggios begin with the left-most note of the left hand and end on the right-most note of the right hand. It's so hard to explain it by text! His cover of Life on Mars is the best example. At 0:53, 1:09 or so, watch his left hand, he is playing an arpeggio of the chord. He does this a loottttttt. Also note how he uses his thumb before almost every chord change. Specially at the chorus (1:30) It's fucking beautiful man, I can't explain it

Thanks man! Moving to mars was around 60% by ear. I learned Miracles on Flowkey, it is arranged by Katherine Cordova.

Yes, on the piano! I have been learning his style of playing, he likes to do a lot of arpeggios within a chord. Almost everytime when you hear a key being played very hardly compared to other notes, it's most likely his thumbs. He likes to keep his thumb on the root note on either the key OR the chord being played most of the times and likes to hit it before the chord changes. You can see this in Up in Flames, Everglow, AICTAIY, Trouble, Up n Up, Gravity, The hardest part (live), The Scientist (Unstaged), We all fall in love sometimes and many more! Another thing I have noticed is he likes to foreshadow the melody in some way :) He is inspired by Elton John's piano playing style I suppose. His sense of rhythm is very unique. He relies on his instincts a lot of time and hence, hitting the root note will almost never make him sound bad. Most of the live shows, he is always up there playing songs in a different way than before.. These are just my observations, I'm sure he has lots of other amazing tricks and attributes

I'll post it here if I'm able to transcribe it for sure

Hey guys, Hope this tutorial helps someone :D

Agreed, his style is crazy beautiful, he uses his thumbs a lot lol

WOWOWOW I might try this, never heard this version, it's soooo beautiful. Thanks for sharing, I'll definitely try to transcribe it :)

Hey everyone! Just made a tutorial for Moving to Mars :) I hope you like it, and happy learning!

Hey guys, I have this video for Aiko: I think it is quiet close, I can try doing a tutorial if you want!

it sounds like A2 B2 C#3 E3 and A2 B2 C#3 F#3 Edit: looks like he is playing C# E A and C# F# B on the second octave :)

Oceans

Hi Carolina! It is: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLX4UwmvGC9a9bzaMA17tIw

Hi, My name is Karan and I live in Toronto. I'm a huge follower of Coldplay and I always wanted to join a community filled with coldplayers :) I also have a YouTube channel where I post piano covers (mostly of Coldplay!), looking forward to interact with y'all here. If you live in Toronto as well, let me know! :)