Lean On Me Piano Letters

Lean On Me Piano Letters – In this free guitar lesson, I’ll show you how to play the chords to “Lean On Me” by Bill Withers. I focus on the song’s introduction. You play the same chord voicings that are played by the pianos on the recording. This requires some fancy finger work that is best suited for guitar players who are beyond the beginner stage.

“Lean On Me Key” is in the key of C and uses notes and chords from the C scale. Consider the harmonized major scale I teach in my book and video course, Fretboard Theory.

Lean On Me Piano Letters

The music moves up and down the harmonized scale, almost like an exercise. In fact, Bill Withers said the song came to him while running his fingers up and down the piano. If you are familiar with the piano, you know that it is easy to move horizontally on the white keys while playing triads. It takes more effort to do the same on guitar.

Midi File: Scared To Live

Since “Lean On Me Key” is performed on piano, the chord voicings are slightly different than what you would normally play on guitar. This requires you to stack notes a little differently.

I start with a regular open position C chord. Instead of climbing the strings with a pick, I use my fingers instead. The thumb plucks string 5. The index, middle and ring fingers pluck strings 4, 3 and 2. I pluck all the strings in a bunch to sound the notes together like a piano player.

The next chord is Dm/F. It is based on an open position Dm, but with the chord’s minor 3rd, F in the bass position. I pick this chord with just my finger. No thumb required.

Then simply slide your fingers up two frets to play an Em/G chord. From here you continue to climb the scale and land on F, which I play with a typical F chord fingering. When I get to this F chord, the fingers of my picking hand move over a string. My thumb plays the root F on string 4, and my fingers play strings 3, 2, and 1.

Lean On Me (lead Sheet With Lyrics ) Sheet Music For Piano (solo)

Moving on, at this point in the original recording, you hear an electric piano play an F6 to an F. After this, the lead piano returns to F in first position and plays the opening chords backwards. After the piano returns to C, you hear the electric piano play another fill using the chords F/C and C.

Then climb up the scale from C to Em, then go to the V chord, G. The G is played first as G6, then as G9. G6 contains the same notes as Em/G. The only difference is the addition of the low G on string 6. For this chord shape, the thumb of my picking hand moves over to string 6, but my other fingers stay put. G9 contains the same notes as Dm/F, also with a low G. You can also play these chords by milling the low G with your thumb.

The first half of the intro leads into the second half with filler. The second half of the intro is mostly the same, but with a few changes. The first difference in this second half is that you don’t play an electric piano fill. The next difference is in bar 7. You play a C/G instead of an Em/G.

Finally, the G chord at the end is simply played as a G7. The G7 chord is followed by a few notes that take you back to C.

Lean On Me Bill Withers Guitar Chords

The rhythm used to play these chord changes is quite simple. It is mainly based on eighth notes. But it is syncopated, so pay attention when playing on and off beats.