Bennie And The Jets - Piano Solo
ALBUM
Here And There - Remastered
DATE
1976 / 1995
Midi
2 KB
Score
63 KB
MP3
73 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Live - Madison Square Gardens
DATE
28-Nov-1974
Key: G	 
 
I've gotten a lot of requests for Bennie over the years. It's a much beloved song and a concert favorite. You can find an excellent transcription of the original studio version in the Elton John Keyboard Book by Bob Leso.

Like many of his great songs, Bennie has changed in subtle ways over the years. This version of the solo is a little more technically challenging and interesting than the original. It's basically a written out solo rather than an improvised one. He's played it about the same way for many years and, since its pretty much become part of the song, he'll probably keep it this way.

When Elton decides to really cut loose on Bennie, it usually takes the form of an extension after the normal end of the song.

 


The Bitch Is Back - Piano Solo
ALBUM
Caribou
DATE
1974
Midi
4 KB
Score
99 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Live - One Night Only
DATE
20,21-Oct-2000
Key: G	 
 
By request, here's the piano solo from one of Elton's best rock and roll songs. You better have some serious talent to pull off this one! This is a straight rock-blues solo that's played at a lightening pace, yet Elton's playing is never out of control. He rips through it with all the rhythmic precision that only a virtuoso has.

Believe it or not, I think I've given you a simplified left hand from what he actually plays. In these guitar dominant songs, it's hard to hear the left hand. Using the dvd version of this song in slow motion and carefully adjusting the EQ on the cd, I was able to hear the top note of the left hand.

This is a great example of a blues solo that's derived from the traditions of boogie woogie. Good luck!

 
 

 Burn Down The Mission - Excerpt
ALBUM
11-17-70
DATE
1971
Score
132 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Live Trio Version
DATE
1971
 	 
 
For me, this album will always be one of the great rock albums of all time, at least from the standpoint of the piano. You just can't find many rock piano trios in music period. And this one just jumps out of your speakers with all of Elton's fire and fury, pounding the keys with incredible energy. The performance is a classic, even if some of the songs aren't among his best.

This brief excerpt is the double time section from Burn Down the Mission. I put it together as a favor for someone. I hope to finish the whole song someday. Enjoy!

 
Crocodile Rock - Excerpt
ALBUM
Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player
DATE
1973
Midi 1
6 KB
Midi 2
8 KB
Score 1
144 KB
Score 2
222 KB
MP3
1.0 MB
ARRANGEMENT
Version 1: Studio Version;
Version 2: Live Solo Version MSG
DATE
1973;
15-Oct-1999
Key: G	Structure: A-A-B-B-C-A-A-B-B-C-A-A-B-B-C-C
 
We've always known that Elton changes the way he plays a song over time. And I think many of you know that when Elton plays solo, he has to beef up the arrangement somewhat from what he might play when he has the whole band backing him up.

So this time I thought it would be fun to compare two versions of the classic hit Crocodile Rock. First looking at the piano for the original studio version, and then contrasting it with the live version from Elton's incredible solo tour in 1999.

And note: THESE ARE ONLY APPETIZERS! Not the full versions. Just enough for all you students of Eltonology to understand the basic concepts at work.

ORIGINAL STUDIO VERSION
First of all, you can find a complete transcription of the original studio recording of Crocodile Rock in that most excellent book, The Elton John Keyboard Book, from Hal Leonard Publishing. Generally speaking, I don't like to compete with already published transcriptions. B-U-T-T-T-T, I have some major problems with their transcription of this particular song.

The fact of the matter is, the piano is REALLY REALLY HARD to hear in the original recording. And if the piano is hard to hear, the left hand is almost impossible. There are a lot of differences between my version and their version. I hate to say it Hal, but for the 18 bars I'm presenting here, I THINK MY VERSION IS MORE ACCURATE!

The original recording is dominated by a Farfisa Organ, an organ that has been popular for decades because of its cheesie sound. It was one of the few portable keyboards available for bands in the early 1960s. Crocodile Rock is a tribute to the bubble gum and dance craze songs from that era, and the farfisa really captures that throwback sound.

Harmonically, Crocodile uses one of the oldest and strongest pop chord progressions of all time - the I - vi - IV - V. Its been the basis of countless popular songs and it certainly helps to create that very retro 60s sound for Crocodile. You'll find it in the intro and during the "La, la-la-la-la-la" parts.

Elton's piano is mostly providing rhythmic jabs behind the farfisa. You'll notice in the following example though that he tosses in a descending walking pattern to transition from the E-minor to the C. This is a typical little ornament for this type of music. Then in the next bar, he goes back to his rhythmic jabs, or "chord banging" as I sometimes call it, alternating between the left and right hand on the C chord. Nothing fancy here!



During the verse, Elton switches to a variation of the intro progression, a I - iii - IV - V.

The main thing to notice here, is how the piano takes a fairly reserved role throughout the song. In terms of technical difficulty, the playing may seem a little easier. But, much like the role of a rhythm guitar, the emphasis is on how the piano supports the arrangement in terms of the overall harmonic landscape as well as the rhythmic propulsion of the song.

LIVE SOLO VERSION
I've given you about 45 bars of the live version, a VERY generous helping indeed for an appetizer on the café menu. This takes you all the way through the chorus – I may complete the entire song at a later date.

Playing Crocodile Rock solo requires Elton to replicate the farfisa part in his playing. To give the song some rock and roll punch, he takes a big 2-handed approach, pounding octaves in the bass and 4-note chords in the right hand. You might also notice how he extends the 3 intro chords, allowing him to ham it up for the audience.



And, like most of Elton's playing, this song is packed with beefy piano riffs. Check out what he does on the C-chord in the next example, and the G chord a couple bars later. It's this kind of stuff that makes Elton's playing so rich and so much fun to play. His inventiveness never ceases to amaze me.





I think it's easy to see the vast difference between the two versions - and therefore it makes a nice case study for all of us music students majoring in the science of Eltonology.

Now go home and study. Class is dismissed!

 


 Dan Dare - Intro
ALBUM
Rock of the Westies
DATE
1975
Midi
3 KB
Score
73 KB
MP3
472 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Solo Piano Demo Version
DATE
1975
Key: C	 
 
Here's a few bars of a tune that shows off Elton's funky side. In my opinion Dan Dare is not up to Elton and Bernie's standards of excellence. Reportedly the recording session for this album was a fairly drugged out affair and that may explain the less than stellar results. But nevertheless Elton's playing is fantastic. He shows off the same bluesy funk style more well known in Take Me To The Pilot, with lots of "crushed" notes and roll-offs.

This recording is supposedly a demo version of the song from the recording sessions. It sounds very close to the recorded final version of the song, but with no other instruments. You get to clearly hear Elton's playing in all its unabashed glory.

I'd like to finish this tune someday because it seems like a fun one to play. Hope you enjoy the little bit I've transcribed, a teaser.

 



Flying - Intro & Excerpts
ALBUM
It Ain't Easy (Long John Baldry)
DATE
1971
Midi
8 KB
Score
243 KB
MP3
6.1 MB
ARRANGEMENT
Studio Version
DATE
1971
Key: G	 
 
 

In memory of Long John Baldry
January 12, 1941 - July 21, 2005

This is an amazing song that almost nobody knows about - a real rarity. It was written by the Faces (Rod Stewart, Ronnie Lane and Ron Wood) and covered by Baldry for his 1971 album, It Ain't Easy. Elton manned the keyboards and helped produce the session. Long John was a legendary British bluesman who's career began in the 1960's along with so many other great British bands. In 1971, Elton's solo career was beginning to take off in a big way, but he still took the time to record this with his old friend. My thanks to Pat D. for introducing me to it. And now I share it with you!

This is British blues in all its excess and splendor and Elton just rips through it all. The song has several sections and a long, long, long jam section at the end. Elton uses 3 distinct styles of playing through it:

The first part of the song uses what I would call the Nicky Hopkins style: lots of open octave work, chord partials with added 9ths, etc. (In case you don't know, Nicky Hopkins defined rock and roll piano in the 1960s as a session player on albums by the Rolling Stones, Beatles, the Who, the Kinks and others. He also sat in with Jefferson Airplane on the Woodstock album.)
In a couple of brief interludes, Elton plays a "tinkling" piano style.
And finally, Elton does some real blues-bangin right hand riffs ala Jerry Lee and Little Richard at the top of the piano. If you ever wondered what the heck those guys are playing, here's your chance to see it notated.
It's all great stuff and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

 Look Ma, No Hands Intro
ALBUM
Songs From The West Coast
DATE
2001
Midi
2 KB
Score
51 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Studio Version
DATE
2001
Key: E
 
This one seems like a really fun one to play. I've jotted down a few of the opening bars to get you started. Maybe you can figure out the rest!

 
 

 Love Lies Bleeding - Intro
ALBUM
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
DATE
1973
Midi
2 KB
Score
78 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Studio Version - Piano Only
DATE
1973
Key: A	 
 
This is undoubtedly one of Elton's greatest rock tunes. I've written down 16 bars of the intro but I can promise you I'll finish this one in 2006.

 


	
Mellow - Intro
ALBUM
Honky Château
DATE
1972
Midi
3 KB
Score
92 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Studio Version
DATE
1972
Key: F	 
 
Mellow is a great example of how Elton blends New Orleans with gospel. The result just oozes with the kind of southern style that seems impossible for someone from England to have. Elton references Leon Russell as an influence, and I suspect this is one example of Leon's influence.

I've received several requests for this song, especially the intro. Frankly, the published intro isn't too bad, however the rest of the song is a real humdinger and the sheet music is a real let down. Be sure and include that light swing feel to the song when you play it.

Unfortunately, this first page is all I can provide for now.

 


	 

Peachtree Sampler
ALBUM
Peachtree Road
DATE
2004
ARRANGEMENT
Studio Version
DATE
2004
 
 
 
Peachtree Road, like much of Elton's recent work, is primarily filled with ballads. While some fans would have preferred some uptempo songs, there is no doubt that Elton's songwriting ability is as strong as ever. In fact some of the songs are as harmonically rich and sophisticated as anything Elton has ever written. There is much to appreciate here even if there isn't a strong Top-40 single on the album.

But I have to admit, when I look at an Elton album, I look at it as a piano player. A piano player who loves playing Elton's music. For me, the big problem with this album is there isn't much piano playing going on here. There are some great songs here, but with the exception of Too Many Tears, we're presented with song after song where Elton just bangs chords on a quarter note pulse. IT'S A MAJOR CASE OF BORING HERE!

For the beginning piano player however, this is a good album for learning how to play from a chord chart. Visit my friends over at Elton John Chords and you can pick up the chord charts for Peachtree.

So for this sampler plate, I'm gonna give you some bits and pieces from some of my favorites on the album.

For you guys who are new at playing Elton, compare these scores against the chord charts. My scores show the actual voicings that Elton is playing, but ultimately, the exact notes Elton plays are not that important. Elton will play them differently every time he sits down. Get used to working from a chord chart. You'll be better off in the long run.

The Peachtree Sampler Plate gives you partial scores to 4 luscious songs. No midi files this time! Just enough of these songs to get started on your own. Maybe sometime I'll complete these songs or perhaps maybe I'll even add a couple more.

 

Weight of the World	
Verses, Chorus, Solo
Elton starts off the album with a superb statement about the tranquility that one can find later in life: when you let go of the world's problems and just concentrate on the little things around you. As a guy who is only slightly younger that Elton, I find these to be very, very wise words indeed.

Weight might seem like a simple song, but its very deceptive. Like most of Peachtree, the piano work consists of straight chords played on the quarter note, with a few riffs tossed in. If you're an experienced keyboardist, you're probably familiar with the chord pattern in the verse.

|| I - V/I -| IV/I - - - | ii7 - - - | V - - IV | I - - - ||

We start off with chords played over a constant G-bass, a harmonic device used mostly by keyboardists that is known as pedal point. Note that the verses consist of 5 bars, not the usual 4. This happens because Bernie's lyrics are (as they often are) asymetrical in their structure. But you also have to marvel at how easily Elton is able to extend and bend our perception, making a 5-bar verse sound perfectly normal.

The chorus shifts to the relative minor key (E minor) of the root key of G. In this section, the chord progression becomes quite complex. Elton uses a ii7b5 as a dramatic substitute chord for a V (bar 16). Also the descending chromatic bassline (bars 17, 18) leads to a stunning turnaround back to the root key.

Also note, the chorus consists of 7 bars. Once again, it starts with the shape of the lyrics, but Elton then crafts an oddly sized verse and chorus that sound smooth as silk. You don't even realize how uniquely structured this song is.

In a nutshell, THIS IS MASTERFUL SONGWRITING OF THE MOST ADVANCED KIND!

I've also included the solo in the score. This is a relaxed little bit that reminds me of Bruce Hornsby. Enjoy!

Answer in the Sky	
Intro, 1st Verse - 24 bars
Answer is one of the simpler songs on the album. It's also an upbeat and positive song and I guess that's why I like it. To me it sounds like it could of been written for Lion King.

It's written in Bb, one of Elton's more common keys. As I've mentioned many times in these writeups, keys such as Bb and Eb work out real well for Elton. As you finger the chords on the piano, you'll discover that these keys allow the thumb and little finger, your 2 shortest digits, to spend most of their time on white keys. Your other fingers will take care of the black notes. Much of Elton's playing style and his sound rely on this approach to playing and voicing chords.

My Elusive Drug	
Verse, Chorus - 23 bars
In my mind, Elusive represents the most stunning song on Peachtree. The lyrics are just raw emotions. This is something that Elton and Bernie (for all their good points) don't give us very often. Elton matches it with some of the most sophisticated harmonies he has ever devised. The result is a poignant, melancholy masterpiece.

I'm not going to try and analyze this one - it would just take too long. The harmony bounces around so much, this is a difficult song to even pin down what key we're in. Here are a few key points.

How about the opening 2 bars? A parallel modulation from F to Fm. The F chord is in Bb. The Fm chord is in Eb, Ab, or its relative minor key of F-minor. WHAT KEY ARE WE IN? Elton isn't going to make it easy for us to know.
He again uses the 7b5 chord to dramatic effect. For some reason I didn't write it on the score as a 7b5. I guess just to keep it simpler for you guys. I call it a Gm/E in the score, but that's the same thing as an Em7b5. The Gm7/E is actually an Em9b5. The crazy thing is, this chord is used to modulate from Eb to D-minor. Or are we in Bb? Holy cow this is complicated!
He liberally uses ii and iii as dominant 7ths in order to modulate. Again, these pop up every few bars, and it keeps the harmony jumping.
And how about that ending.

| F A/C# Dm Dm/C | Bb - F/A - | G7 G7/B C - | Db Ab/C Bbm - | C - - - | Fm - - - ||

Elton said in an interview when he was talking about Your Song, "It has quite a lot of chords." My Elusive Drug also has quite a lot of chords.

Too Many Tears	
Intro, Verse, Chorus - 27 bars
Now here's what I call some piano playing! Elton gives us a bouncy, fun song to play - really the only song like it on Peachtree. Elton's approach should be familiar to veteran Elton piano players.

Many thanks to Brian who pointed out how similar this song is to the classic Where to Now St. Peter from Tumbleweed Connection. The intros are virtually identical!

This is another song that starts off sounding rather simple, but its not. In this one, Elton dances all around the root key, without ever hitting it. The song is in A, BUT HE NEVER PLAYS the A chord. Oh he glances over it couple of times. But when he does, the bassline isn't playing an A.

Open your ears to what's going on here. Listen to the slightly unsettled sound of the verse as Elton manipulates us around the keys of E and D, the V and IV of A. Notice the delicious way he throws in minor chords. Notice the way he pushes the harmony in different directions. That unsettled feeling occurs because he never gives you a true harmonic resolution.

The chorus is at once an amazing contrast to the verse and yet it works so beautifully emanating from it. He starts off immediately teasing us with an A/C#. The last bar of the chorus is the only, and I MEAN THE ONLY time he finally resolves this incredible progression to the root chord of A.

I hope you've enjoyed this sampler. This approach is a much quicker way for me to get music out there for you. This gives you a good head start on these songs, but you'll have to do a little more work on your own. As I mentioned before, perhaps I'll get back to these songs another time and complete them.

Enjoy!




Pinball Wizard - Intro & Solo
ALBUM
Caribou - The Classic Years
DATE
1974 / 1995
Midi
5 KB
Score
159 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Studio Version
DATE
1974
Key: C	 
 
Pinball Wizard, one of the great songs by the Who, was recorded by Elton in 1974 in connection with the movie version of Tommy, the Who's seminal rock opera. The movie was released in 1975 with quite a bit of acclaim. Elton plays the Pinball Wizard, singing this scorching rocker in a 5-minute cameo appearance. It wasn't released as a single until 1976. Years later it was added as a bonus track to the reissued Caribou album.

Before Elton, no one could have imagined that this classic guitar song could be played on the piano. All Elton did is re-make it into a hit of his own with the piano front and center. Besides the classic 18-bar intro, I've included 10 bars of the first verse to get you started. This song shows that the piano can hold its own in an arrangement that is largely based on guitar power chords.

Also, at the 3:34 mark in the song, Elton rips on a short 4-bar Jerry Lee style solo before letting Davey take over. This is a barn burner. Enjoy!

 


 Stan - Excerpts
ALBUM
None - 2001 Grammy Awards
DATE
2001
Midi
17 KB
Karaoke
20 KB
Score
105 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Version
DATE
2001
Key: Bb	 
 
This one is a little different. Elton's electric performance with Eminem at the 2001 Grammy Awards was a real mindblower. In case you missed it, Elton just absolutely ripped up the piano, tossing out a classic Elton performance. The song represents an amazing hybrid of styles and musical generations. Eminem's rap features powerful and disturbing imagery that is counter balanced by a chorus taken from a song by Dido. Elton plays and sings Dido's section, providing an even greater contrast than the original recording.

The recording I had was not too good, but I've put together 2:00 minutes worth of highlights that show some of those incredible Elton riffs. The midi file has a few special effects from the extended GS midi standard. If your soundcard doesn't support them, you'll just miss out on some thunder and rain at the beginning of the file. This is the first time I've tried to capture a rap vocal in a midi file. Geez what a pain in the ass. Since they're spoken, they're nearly impossible to get right. But the piano part is all I care about.

Somebody's got to document this incredible music Elton provides us. Hope you enjoy it.

 




 Amazes Me
ALBUM
Sleeping With The Past
DATE
1989
Midi
26 KB
Karaoke
29 KB
Score
188 KB
MP3
1.1 MB
ARRANGEMENT
Live Solo Piano Version
DATE
19-Feb-1999
Key: Eb	Structure: A-B-A-B-C-B
 
Originally released in 1989, Elton chose his 1999 solo tour to perform Amazes Me for the first time on stage. This particular version was performed at the Roanoke, Virginia concert.

ARRANGEMENT
The entire Sleeping With The Past album is dedicated to the soul pioneers of the 60s and 70s. On the studio version, Amazes is performed in a gospel style. Elton's piano is understated and the song features gospel-style backing vocals and an absolutely searing Davey Johnstone guitar solo.

BUT IN THIS VERSION, Elton seems to ditch the gospel style soon after the intro and just go with his patented pop style of playing. I can only speculate that he was uncomfortable with the sparseness of the original arrangement in the context of playing solo. For me it's a little disappointing that Elton didn't put more effort into staying in the gospel genre. Make no mistake, Elton knows how to play gospel!

LYRICS
The lyrics are sparse but, like so many of Bernie's lyrics, highly evocative, painting a picture in one's mind. The title of the song is restated continuously, driving home the spiritual reverie that is at the core of this song. Bernie places the title at the end of all but one of the lines of the verses and at the beginning of each line of the chorus. It's also restated at the end of the bridge section. The second verse consists of the same line repeated twice. This is exactly the kind of thing that makes people accuse Bernie of being lazy. He only has two verses to write yet he ends up repeating himself.

MUSIC
The song uses a verse chorus structure with an added bridge. In contrast to the studio version, Elton leaves out the guitar solo section that occurs right after the bridge (dubbed the C section above). Elton instead goes straight from the bridge to the final chorus.

The song is in Eb and uses a 6/8 meter. 6/8 gives you a tuplet feel or, if you prefer, a waltz feel that is standard with the slow gospel style. But in contrast to a straight 3/4, 6/8 has a primary beat on 1 and a secondary beat on 4, giving you a sound that is more like 1-and-a-2-and-a. The following figure shows the intro which is a great example of pure gospel style piano playing.



Most of this song relies on the crucial Eb-G/B-Ab progression. Now THIS is a deeply American rooted chord progression which finds itself in many different styles of music such as jazz and blues in addition to gospel. HOWEVER, I've typically heard the bass walked up, i.e. Eb-G-Ab, with the crucial half-step climb to the Ab. G is a iii-major, a chord which doesn't occur naturally in the key of Eb. Harmonically the G is sometimes referred to as a dominant approach chord, a harmonic embellishment that anticipates or is used to approach the Ab.

Elton treats this progression a little differently, walking the bass downward through the B-natural bass. All I can say is that this is some kind of an Eltonism thing, giving a traditional progression his own little twist.

As mentioned before, after the gospel intro, Elton shifts into what I call his "Mozart" style of playing. I call it the Mozart style because he plays 16th notes in a broken arpeggio style that's reminiscent of the left hand patterns found in Mozart. Now this style is familiar territory for Elton despite my disappointment that he doesn't stay in gospel mode. The key aspect of this style is that Elton undulates and syncopates his arpeggio patterns pretty much at will, keeping the accompaniment interesting rather than repetitive. The following figure shows the Mozart style from the chorus.



The bridge shifts into Db and walks around the circle of 5ths (Db-Ab-Eb-Bb). Elton adds some rarely heard left hand work as shown in the following example. The left hand pattern used on the Db is VERY TYPICAL for a cocktail pianist or a new age pianist, people who often work in a solo format. But for Elton, this is definitely a rarity. It adds some dramatic intensity to the bridge.



Ultimately Amazes Me is a curious and delightful little treat. While not a major song, it illustrates many of the great elements that go into Elton's work. I hope you enjoy it!

 
 

 


Electricity
ALBUM
Peachtree Road Reissue Album
DATE
2005
Midi
10 KB
Karaoke
11 KB
Score
280 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Studio Version
DATE
2005
Key: A	Structure: A-B-C-A-B-C
 
Available as a download and also on the 2005 reissue of the Peachtree Road album, Electricity was considered the emotional high point from the musical Billy Elliot. With lyrics by the show's writer Lee Hall and music by Elton, the musical was an instant hit since its opening in May 2005.

Electricity is a song that explains the feelings of the young star when he's dancing. With the staging and choreography, the piece reportedly brings the audience to a standing ovation on a regular basis.

Since it was intended for the stage, Electricity cannot exactly be judged as a regular pop song. We can certainly hear the difference between Lee Hall's lyrics and Bernie Taupin's usual work with Elton. Hall's lyrics are much more direct with their expressions of personal feelings. Let's take a look at the music.

The actual piano work is pretty simple. Elton plays chords on the quarter note, and in the pre-chorus does some simple arpeggios. Harmonically though, the song is quite complex. For one thing, its got a number of modulations, some of which I haven't figured out quite how they work.

The intro uses a descending bassline pattern starting from the relative minor of A, F#m. I've also written in roman numeral format because it does a better job of showing the relationship to the tonic.

|| F#m - C#m/E - | D - A/C# - | Dm7 - Esus E ||

|| vi - iii - | IV - I - | iv (?) - V - ||

Alright now: SOMEBODY HELP ME WITH THIS ONE! A circle of 4ths progression is played over the descending bassline for the 1st 2 bars. It's the Dm7 that's the mystery. Is it some type of rootless B-diminished chord which serves as the V-of-V? It certainly resolves to the E chord in a wonderful way.

The verse starts off in A and again finds a way to use the Dm7 to E progression.

|| A - - - | A/G - - - | F#m - - - | B7sus4 - B - |

| Bm7 - - - | F#m/A - - - | Dm7 - - - | Esus - E - |

The 4th bar uses a true V-of-V. In the key of A, a B7 chord is used to modulate to the key of E. Since the B7 is the V-chord in E, and E is the V-chord of A, the B7 is called the V-of-V. But Elton trips us up by going from the B to the B-minor chord.

Our first modulation happens in the transition to a short pre-chorus section, shown below. Here Elton resolves the E from the verse not into A as one would expect, but into an A-minor. This is usually called modulating to the parallel minor.

|| Am - Em/G - | F - C/E - | Am - Em/G - | F - E7sus4 E||

Of course, you might expect the E7 above to resolve back again to the A or A-minor. But instead, it modulates to C, the relative major.

|| C - - - | Am - - - | Dm7 - C/E - | D/F# - G - |

| C - - - | C/Bb - - - | F/A - - - | Fm/Ab - - - |

| Am7/G - Dm7/G G | C - - - ||

Well anyway, like I said, this song's got some stuff going on that's a little more than my brain wants to take on. If you're a student of musical analysis, write me and tell me what you think is going on with these progressions.

My bottomline, this is a great song with some pretty sophisticated chord progressions. It's a massive hit in the UK and a highlight of Elton's hit musical Billy Elliot. Enjoy!

 	 

The Emperor's New Clothes
ALBUM
Songs From the West Coast
DATE
2001
Midi
15 KB
Karaoke
18 KB
Score
233 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Studio Version - Solo Piano
DATE
2001
Key: C	Structure: A-A-B-A-A-B-A-A-B
 
Elton's eagerly anticipated new album in 2001 opens with this song that immediately told fans everywhere that Elton and Bernie were back in a big way. The Emperor's New Clothes instantly recalls the classic Elton sound, ala Tumbleweed Connection, with a mature and world-wise lyric. It sets a tone for the whole album. It demonstrates that their songwriting genius is still intact even as they entered a 4th decade of producing music. There quite simply is no other songwriting team that has accomplished this.

Lyrics
Bernie's best lyrics always offer up a vignette of life, a character study set against a backdrop that he paints with words. His imagery is often quite vivid and this song fits perfectly into that mold. He spins a story of two people who live on chance and cheating the system. But these two people know that while they try to look good on the surface, their life is a disguise, a lie that they refuse to admit to. They hold back the tears, as the repo tows away their car, exposing their life for what it really is.

Elton's Playing
Elton's playing is very straight-forward here and might be best identified as a gospel style of accompaniment, a kind of confessional support for Bernie's lyrics. Although Elton's style is not a strictly traditional style of gospel playing, there are several elements that I look at:

the prominent use of octaves
the use of chromatic walkups such as a C/E leading to an F
the use of backcycling in the circle-of-4ths to lead in to a chord, i.e. jumping a 5th and then going down a 4th (see the 2nd bar in the intro).
As always his playing is rich and full, but this is not a pure "only Elton" sounding piece of work. You could easily imagine any number of other top notch pianists playing this song. Though, if you are a careful listener, you will hear a few prototypical Elton riffs along the way.

Here's the intro.



Song Structure
As indicated above, Emperor follows an A-A-B format. In this case, the B section is a bridge rather than a chorus. The title appears at the end of the 2nd verse and at the end of the bridge.

 I Need You To Turn To
ALBUM
Elton John
DATE
1970
Score
280 KB
MP3
2.5 MB
ARRANGEMENT
Live Solo Piano Version
DATE
1974
Key: Em	Structure: A-B-A-B
 
Sometimes I just get inspired to work on a particular song. With this one, it started with a fan sending me what he thought was a transcription of this performance. I'm always open to submissions from anyone, but they have to be of "reasonable" quality. As I was looking at it and noting the differences, I decided what the heck- I love this song. I'm just gonna do it!

And I especially want to dedicate this to my amazing and wonderful wife, Christine. You're my guardian angel!

I Need You is a good example of the classical sound Elton achieved on the Elton John album. It's in 3/4 (waltz) time, and features Elton's arpeggiating style. The original was played on a harpsichord, accompanied by acoustic guitar and of course Paul Buckmaster's incredible string arrangements. This solo treatment, recorded at a Christmas show in 1974, gives you a chance to see how Elton translated the song to piano.

This is an excellent song for the beginning to intermediate pianist, particularly if you've had a few years of classical training. One of Elton's dominant styles is an arpeggiated or broken chord style of play, which he uses in his right hand. Sometimes I'll call this his "Mozart" style of playing, in reference to the arpeggiated style that Mozart used in his left hand (usually referred to as an alberti bass style). But one thing you learn very quickly about Elton, he doesn't stick to simple arpeggios. He's got a highly evolved approach that's filled with riffs, passing tones and other devices that make his music an absolute treat to play.



The figure above illustrates my point. The basic chord progression is Em - D - G - A - Am - Em. Anyone could do some type of arpeggio figure with these chords and the song would sound alright. If you're a pianist, go ahead and try it. You'll see that it sounds fine.

But you'll also discover that it begins to sound repetitous and boring compared to Elton. That's exactly the point. Look at a couple examples of the types of things that Elton does when he's playing his "Mozart" style.

Added 9ths and 4ths. You can call these suspensions, sus chords, 9-3 resolutions or whatever you want. The bottomline is he tosses these in as riffs, either on-the-beat or off-the-beat, or as passing tones. And he rarely repeats himself with these devices. They change and evolve throughout a performance. He literally has dozens and dozens of variations of these at his command.
I call these anticipations or lead-ins. Elton leads into the harmony in the next measure by playing notes that are not in the chord from the current measure. MOST PEOPLE MISS THIS CRUCIAL ELEMENT IN ELTON'S PLAYING.
In a nutshell, this is what gives Elton's sound its richness. It's uniquely Elton.

As always, I hope you enjoy this addition to Elton's Cafe. Oh and my apologies. The MP3 file is a little off-pitch. I don't have a way to correct it.

 
 It's Me That You Need
ALBUM
Single (Never Released on Album)
DATE
1969
Midi
15 KB
Karaoke
17 KB
Score
151 KB
MP3
524 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Live Solo Piano Version
DATE
11-Oct-1971
Key: C	Structure: A-B-C-A-B-C
 
It's Me That You Need is a rarely heard early single put out by Elton and Bernie. It was released as a single in May 1969 in the UK and as the B-side to a re-release of Lady Samantha in January 1970 in the US. Elton kept it in his live set at least through 1971.

This version is taken from a bootleg of his first performance in Tokyo Japan, October 11, 1971. I've included the mp3 for your reference purposes. Elton had already begun his conquest of the US by the time of this concert and was preparing to unleash a string of hits that would make him an international star.

Elton's Mozart Style
What I like about this song is that it is the earliest example I've heard of the Elton John ballad style of piano playing. It's a style that he employed significantly in the Elton John album, which came out a year later. This is not a great song, not a bad one either, but the elements of his playing style are present and that's what I'm excited about.

For discussion purposes, I've nicknamed this style of playing as Elton's “Mozart” style. It's a style of playing where the right hand plays broken arpeggios in a manner similar to the left hand accompaniment that Mozart used in his signature pieces (also known as the alberti bass style). By itself, this style is a simple and effective approach to accompaniment that a beginning pianist could employ.

But of course the pure Mozart style would be boring if wasn't for Elton's ability to mix up the basic repetitive arpeggiation with different arpeggio patterns, passing notes, riffs and rhythmic syncopations. Combined with his articulation, these devices provide lots of subtle and fascinating shifts of emphasis that percolate beneath the melody of the song.

Starting with the opening bars, you can see how well Elton mixes it up. An important part of Elton's technique involves holding notes with the 5th finger of the left and right hands while the inner fingers do the work. Notice how he changes the accents from bar to bar with his lead notes.


The song is in 6/8 which is a nice change from a standard 4/4 time and provides a "1-and-a-2-and-a" or tuplet feel to the rhythm.

This is not an ambitious song. Harmonically it uses a descending bassline or diatonic approach to chord changes. It’s in the key of C; the verses center on the relative minor of Am with the chorus shifting to C. The song structure is in 8. After 2 8-bar verses, there is an 8-bar pre-chorus.

|| Am - Am - G - G - F - C/E - G - G || 2 times

|| F - C/E - G - C - F - C - G - G ||

The chorus also uses an 8-bar descending bassline harmony as shown in the following example.



Simple and compelling, I find this song to be of historic interest. I hope you enjoy it as well.

 

 
 

 I Want Love
ALBUM
Songs From The West Coast
DATE
2001
Midi
15 KB
Karaoke
17 KB
Score
136 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Studio Version
DATE
2001
Key: A	Structure: A-A-B-A-B-C-A-B-B
 
I Want Love was the first single from this eagerly anticipated album and it's a song that continues to fascinate me. While it is truly brilliant in its own right, it is also quite a different sounding song from what Elton fans might of expected. In fact that may just be the point from Elton's perspective. I Want Love is Elton's tribute to the Beatles sound. I say this for several reasons.

First the lyrics and Elton's delivery. I read one writer describe this song as aching and I would have to agree. The song comes off as an emotional open wound. You would be hard pressed to name 2 or 3 Elton and Bernie songs that present this kind of raw direct emotion. In fact the lack of honest emotions has sometimes been used as a criticism of Bernie's lyrics. For me it recalls the best of Lennon and even George's songwriting.

Then there's Elton's playing. This is simple unadorned playing, the kind of playing a lot of non-pianists employ because it is so straightforward and easy to play. It's just bangin chords on the quarter note pulse. This is really rare for Elton but very typical for John and Paul. (Note I've juiced up the transcription a little. I can't hear the piano that well so I figured I might as well make it a little more fun to play.) Also I don't know anything about effects, but to me the piano has a compressed sound to it - something else that's not Elton-like.

From the harmonic standpoint, there is a defining modulation throughout the song that most definitely has that Beatle flair to it. You can hear it right off the bat in the intro when Elton drops chromatically from the C#m to a C and then up to the D.

|| A - F#m - | C#m - - - | C - D - | A - F#m - | C - D - ||



This C to D move leading back to the root key of A is also used prominently in the chorus.

A couple other Beatle observations. Davey's electric guitar sounds pretty much like George Harrison to me, from the fuzzy tone to the simple but elegant lines he picks out throughout the song. And wonder of wonders, there's a guitar solo in this song that sounds like vintage George as well!

And oh yeah, lets not forget that Billy Preston, the 5th Beatle, adds some tasty little organ work to whole mix.

George Harrison died about 2 months after the release of this song after a long losing battle with cancer.

There's no dedication listed here, but I think it's pretty obvious that this is Elton and Bernie's tribute to the Beatles.

 
Let Me Be Your Car
ALBUM
Elton John Rare Masters
DATE
1973
Midi
35 KB
Karaoke
39 KB
MP3
646 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Solo Piano Demo
DATE
1973
Key: F	Structure:
 
This demo was written and recorded expressly for Rod Stewart. In other words it’s a private tape not intended for anyone else and its just Elton: raw, unpolished, and unproduced. Sorry but I never got a score put together on this one.

And just how raw and unpolished is it? Well Elton raw and unpolished is still some damn fine piano playing in my book. OK. I hear that pedal noise in the beginning. Elton’s rockin. OK. The playing gets a little sloppy. OK. It’s not the finest piece of work he ever did. It’s also too damn long. But so what. I don’t care what any of you think!

First of all, I love Elton when he’s solo on the piano. There’s a magic and intimacy to it like you’re somehow closer to the man and his genius. Second of all, listening to a demo is like you’re hearing the first cut of a song straight from a musical god. THIS IS THE KIND OF STUFF ELTON JOHN GIVES AWAY!

Now here’s what I like about this tune. The intro to this song is pure boogie and I perked up the first time I heard it. I knew I had to check it out. Well the tune is not really pure boogie, cause right away he switches into Elton boogie (more on that later). Nevertheless it’s close enough for me.



The song’s in F, a key Elton doesn’t use all that often. Ostinato boogie patterns on a Bb chord aren’t my favorite (jumpin around with my pinky on a black key causes me to flub), so Elton just skips the left hand riff some of the time to pound out some octaves. Large parts of this song are actually just straight chords in the right hand on the up beats pounding against a “4-on-the-floor” straight left hand. Pretty basic kind of stuff. . . . . for a musical god.

Here’s something rather charming. When he transitions from F to Dm, sometimes its through E, sometimes its through Eb, sometimes its through C/E, and one time its through two or these simultaneously. (I just picked C/E, more Eltonish you know) I don’t think he’d quite made up his mind on some of those pesky details. He let Rod’s boys figure it out.

Now what’s Elton boogie you say? Well you see it popping up a lot in many of his tunes. In this song, he uses it under the melody on some of the F and C chords, but its really evident in the solo section. Check out the examples below. Elton doesn’t solo so much as he riffs furiously, mixing traditional Jerry Lee Lewis / Little Richard type riffs with some of his signature riffs. When it’s combined with a boogie left hand, you got Elton boogie. There it is, on full display right here.





 

 
 

 Original Sin
ALBUM
Songs From The West Coast
DATE
2001
Midi
15 KB
Karaoke
18 KB
Score
369 KB
MP3
583 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Solo Piano Live -
Last Call With Carson Daly
DATE
29-Mar-2002
Key: Db	Structure: A-B-C-A-B-C-C
 
Elton keeps adding to the long list of great ballads that he's written. Original Sin is a beautiful and touching, melancholy interpretation of Bernie's smooth, sincere and heartfelt lyrics. There are some great lines in this song, recalling the best of Bernie's imagery-driven lyrics.

The melody of this song is a thing of profound beauty that when combined with Elton's aching delivery, brings to life Bernie's lyrics. There are several moments that touch me in this song, but especially when he soars up to "And tell me why, I shudder inside" he might as well just be reaching straight into my soul.

This particular version of Original Sin was performed by Elton solo on the Last Call With Carson Daly show, March 29, 2002. As you know, the piano is fairly muted in the studio version. So what we have here is your basic Elton playing style with all the intimacy, warmth and fullness that he brings to his solo piano performances. Sorry I don't have an mp3 of this to share.

Elton's Playing
The song is in the key of Db, giving the song a richness and a distinct quality, as well as reflecting the lower registers that Elton sings in these days. It's a great example of Elton's "default" style of playing. If you're not scared of the flats, this is a great piece for learning Elton. Here's the intro.



And why do I say this is great example of Elton's basic playing style?

He uses his standard rhythmic syncopation - coming in on the upbeat before the 3 in most bars. (see bars 1-8 above)
He uses his standard approach to working with chord inversions, usually choosing an inversion that puts the thumb or little finger on a white note. He works with a 4-note octave version of each chord, usually sustaining the note played either by the thumb or little finger, whichever comes first. (bar 5)
We have as always a wonderful variety of piano riffs. Elton's riffs are usually on interior notes while the bass and top note stay on a drone note.
We find the usual interplay between the left and right hands - the left hand completing what the right hand starts.
MOST of the time, when Elton plays a chord, he leads with the little finger, putting an accent on the top note.
As always, his left hand is very controlled, blending with the right hand rather than being used in a percussive fashion. 
Harmonic Structure
Harmonically this is a very simple song and I'll try to illustrate why I say that. Elton sticks to a straight 8-bar structure and the song stays within the Db key signature.

The intro is basically a I to V progression - just about as simple a setup as you can have for a song. The Ebm and the slash chord Db/Ab provide some harmonic variation, but the basic I - V structure guides the harmony direction.

Intro:
|| Db | Ebm Db | Db/Ab Ab | Ab || 2 times

The verse follows a I - IV - V - vi - IV - V route. Since the vi is the relative minor of I, this could be further simplified to a I - IV - V - I - IV - V. Again it doesn't get much simpler.

Verse:
|| Db | Gb | Ab | Ab | Bbm | Gb/Bb | Ab | Ab || 2 times

The pre-chorus, which is a setup for the chorus, switches the emphasis of the song to the sub-dominant Gb. This is of course just one step up on the Circle-of-4ths from the Db. And then what we have is some diatonic noodling. This pre-chorus can be simplified to a IV - V - IV - V pattern. By dropping to the relative minors of Ab (i.e. Fm7) and Gb (i.e. Ebm7) Elton makes this basic harmony more interesting.

Pre-chorus
|| Gb | Gb | Ab | Fm7 | Gb | Ebm7 | Ab | Ab ||

The chorus soars through a I - V - vi - iii - IV - V - I - I pattern. The first 2 bars of this pattern are Db and Ab. The 2nd 2 bars use the relative minors of these chords, i.e. Bbm and Fm. This gives you a parallel harmonic motion to the motion in the first 2 bars, using the minor keys. Listen for this simple but beautiful parallel relationship. The chorus then ends with the simple IV - V - I.

Chorus
|| Db | Ab | Bbm | Fm7 | Gb | Ab | Db | Db |

| Db | Ab | Bbm | Fm7 | Gb | Ab || back to intro

This is just an all around well-crafted song: simple, elegant and with gorgeous lyrics. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

 
 

 Recover Your Soul
ALBUM
The Big Picture
DATE
1997
Midi
22 KB
Karaoke
25 KB
Score
222 KB
MP3
604 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Live Solo Piano Version
DATE
19-Feb-1999
Key: G	Structure: A-B-A-B-C-B
 
Recover Your Soul is one of a number of the beautiful ballads off The Big Picture. For some reason this album didn't click with people. I'm not sure I understand why. It could be the syrupy arrangements. Personally I think a lot of the songs are well crafted and this song in particular is an uplifting look at recovering from a broken relationship. As with many of Elton's songs, I believe the solo piano arrangement helps to bring out the inherent beauty that might get lost in the orchestral arrangements. This version is taken from Elton’s 1999 Solo Tour, Roanoke Virginia, recorded on 02/19/1999. I've included an mp3 for your reference.

Basic Piano Style
This is an excellent tune for the intermediate pianist. Like many of the songs on Elton’s solo tour, Elton’s voicing and technique are superb. I've discussed these elements in other articles. His basic style includes:

The right hand is always positioned over a 4-note chord.
Rhythms are based on a straight 16th note pulse.
Chords or partial chords are played on the downbeat of 1 and 3, the upbeat before 2 and 4, and/or the upbeat after 2 and 4.
Single notes from the chord played on most of the other 16-note intervals.
Left hand work is stroked and phrased rather than just struck in a purely rhythmic phasion; the left hand sometimes supports the right hand work and other times interplays with the right hand.
The chords frequently include some kind of movement or riff including the use of different inversions, suspensions or added notes.
The left hand primarily plays on the octave or occasionally on the root and 5th of the chord.
The left hand work in this example is reminiscent of Tiny Dancer in that Elton creates lines with the octave and 5th, giving some counterpoint to the right hand. It’s easy to treat the left hand as if it were merely a rhythmic element rather than a harmonic element. Elton voices it very carefully so that it is an integral part of his playing style. The riff over the G chord is one of my all time favorites.



Harmony
Recover is in the key of G and uses a descending bassline approach for the harmony to the first half of the verse. Across a 4-bar structure we have

|| G – Bm/F# - | Em – G/D – | C – G/B – | D – D – ||

If you just look at the 1st chord in each bar - treating the 2nd chord as a passing chord - this harmony is essentially the time honored I – vi – IV – V chord progression first introduced in classical music and the basis of much of popular music. In the 2nd half of the verse, Elton covers the same harmonic ground in a slightly different way.

|| C – B7 – | Em – Em – | C – G/B – | D – D – ||

You can see that the 1st chord in each bar is the same, but the 2nd chord varies. The B7 chord is called a secondary dominant. In the key of G, the Bm chord is the diatonic chord of the chord that occurs naturally. The B7 chord is the natural dominant chord in the key of Em, and by playing it, you get a slightly stronger sense that a temporary key shift has occured.

The chorus really takes off on some interesting twists and turns. :

| C – G – | Am – Em – | F – G – | D – D – |
| Am – B7 – | Em – C – | D G/F C/G D |

This example shows the descending bassline harmonic approach to the verse. Elton's playing style is on perfect display here: his basic approach to rhythm, the use of right hand riffs to provide movement and harmonic interest, and a carefully articulated left hand that's interwoven with the whole thing.



All in all, it’s a great example of Elton’s work. Hope you enjoy it!
 
 

 Someday Out Of The Blue
ALBUM
Elton John's The Road to El Dorado
DATE
2000
Midi
39 KB
Karaoke
42 KB
Score
162 KB
MP3
578 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Live Solo Piano Version
DATE
26-Mar-2000
Key: Bb	Structure: B-A-B-A-B-C-A-B-B
 
Someday Out of the Blue was the first single released from Elton's music for the animated film The Road to El Dorado. Unfortunately the film didn't do so well and, even though the songs are excellent, they didn't do well either.

This version is from Sir Elton’s appearance on the Rosie O’Donnell show in March 2000. In my opinion, this is not quite Elton at his best. It feels rushed and a little heavy handed, but since it’s the only solo version I’ve heard, maybe that’s how he’s choosing to perform it. I don’t know, but I’ve tried to recreate that feeling with this midi. After all, I want to capture Elton faithfully with 100% accuracy, even if its not quite up to his standards of excellence.

There are several reasons I’m saying this; they’re not good or bad, they just ARE. First of all, this version clocks in at about 45 seconds faster than the studio version. Second, although Elton starts off with a more gentle left hand, he later shifts to pumping quarter note pulses in the lower registers of the piano. Finally, this version is far more syncopated than the studio. He starts off in the more relaxed “on-the-beat” feel of the original studio version, but he soon shifts. By the time he’s 6 bars into it, he’s consistently playing on the up beat. I don't know, maybe he had a clock on him and he needed to rush it. Maybe he was sick of it already!

The song definitely has “movie song” stamped all over it. With its lyrics about love and yearning, its almost impossible to not conjure up scenes from the movie. I'm (favorably) reminded of another great animated movie song “Somewhere Out There,” from those mouse movies - you know the ones I'm talking about!

The song is in Bb, one of those pianist-friendly keys. (Pianists prefer the song key to have 2 or 3 black notes because our thumbs and 5th finger’s are much shorter than our middle fingers.) He pretty much stays in key. Besides plenty of I-IV-V type harmony, he throws in lots of IIm, IIIm, and VIm. He also does things like play a Bb with a D bass just to keep things interesting (a standard Elton device). Resolving the chorus to Gm at the end is also an interesting twist.
Structurally it’s really kind of different: intro-chorus-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-verse-chorus-chorus. The 2-bar intro is followed by an 8-bar chorus that is sung 5 times throughout the song. The verses are placed in between the choruses and they are 8 bars in length with an added 6-beat tag-along bar. The bridge is 8 bars and consists of a little repeating descending bass line figure.

The playing style should be very familiar to Elton fans. This is actually an excellent tune for the intermediate pianist who wants to sound like Elton. Most of the song consists of his standard chord riffing style that he’s used throughout his career, all the way back to “Your Song.” Here's the intro.



He also intersperses his Mozart style of arpeggiating in the softer parts of the song. I particularly loved the following part. Classic Elton on display here. Gotta love it!



 
 

 Something About The Way
You Look Tonight
ALBUM
The Big Picture
Live at the Ritz
DATE
1997
1999

Midi
19 KB
Karaoke
22 KB
Score
278 KB
MP3
670 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Live Solo Piano Version
DATE
15-Jan-1998
Key: F	Structure: A-B-A-B-B
 
Elton performs this version of Something About The Way You Look as a solo piano number on the specially released Live at The Ritz album. The recording is from a January 1998 performance. As originally released on 1997's The Big Picture album, the song had a rather generic adult contemporary sound to it. It was as if Elton was trying to create elevator music. The arrangement featured strings, Paul Carrack doing some gospel style organ and a very smooth restrained vocal.

But the fact of the matter is, even though the arrangement hides it, Elton is still a great songwriter. When he reinvigorates it through this solo piano arrangement, you get a very different perspective on the song. It features a full bodied piano assault, chock full of prototypical Elton flourishes, and a passionate vocal. Let's take a look.

Something About has a very strong gospel feel to it, lyrically, stylistically and harmonically. The intro immediately evokes this feel as Elton uses a parallel hands descending chord progression. This leads to an echoed C-F-C figure and then right into the verse. Elton regularly employs this gospel feel in his work.



The song is written in the key of F and uses a strong 8-bar structure. Elton employs his 16th note Mozart style of accompaniment, liberally tossing in chord riffs, syncopations and 32nd note flourishes throughout the song. Combined with a dynamic, almost aggressive performance, and lots of big chords throughout, this treatment makes Something far more exciting than the studio version.



The little octave run at the end of the first bar is also characteristic of the gospel style.

Looking at the chord patterns, the verse first makes a jump from the F to the Am7. How does that work harmonically? Well the Am7 is the relative minor of C which is the V-chord in F. You can think of the Am7 as a substitute chord for a standard I-V progression. But what the Am7 does for you is set you up for a circle-of-4ths move to the Dm, the vi-chord. We then descend diatonically to the Bb and then to the relative minor of Bb, Gm. This is the ii-chord which then naturally leads to C, the V-chord.



The chorus starts off with a great variation on the verse by jumping to the A7 in the 2nd bar. This a very common harmonic device in gospel music. Harmonically you're playing the dominant chord of a key, also called a secondary dominant, representing a temporary modulation. In this case, the A7 is the dominant of the D-minor key. A bar or 2 later, he goes from a Dm to a D7, the dominant of the G-minor key. G-minor allows him to get back to C, the dominant for the home key of F.



I think this is a fun song to play because of the flourishes and the gospel feel. It's another strong example of Elton's style and I hope you enjoy it as well.

 
 

 Sugar on the Floor
ALBUM
(originally available as a single only)
Rock of the Westies - The Classic Years
DATE
-
1996
Midi
13 KB
Karaoke
15 KB
Score
350 KB
MP3
4.2 MB
ARRANGEMENT
Studio Version
DATE
1975
Key: F	Structure: A-B-C-B-C
 
For the most part, only hardcore Elton fans know about this beautiful song. Written and recorded by Kiki Dee, Elton's cover version was released as the B-Side to the single Island Girl. Elton had signed Kiki to his own Rocket Records label and was heavily involved in producing her 1973 album, Loving & Free. Elton played keyboards on 7 of the tracks and Elton's band also appears on numerous tracks. Elton and Bernie even contributed 2 songs to the album. Although it was critically acclaimed, the album didn't sell well. Sugar, written by Kiki, was one of the standout songs from the album.

Frankly speaking, Bernie has rarely provided Elton with the kind of emotional and heart-felt lyrics found in this song. And Elton's interpretation is very sparse, focusing on the melody and wringing every bit of emotion out of the words.

You won't find any traditional Elton playing here. It's simple chords (and sometimes not so simple chords) played on a quarter note pulse - no riffing and none of Elton's standard accompaniment style. Here are the opening bars.



The song doesn't really follow much of a structure per se. It just sort of slowly evolves, ending with the title being sung twice. Since there seem to be 2 distinct sections prior to the brief chorus, I'm calling this as an A-B-C structure. The A section consists of 2 8-bar phrases, roughly following a I-I-IV-ii form. The B section starts at bar 21 and introduces the subdominant EbMaj7 chord. This section is a little more odd since it has a couple of added 2/4 bars in measures 23 and 27. We end up with 14 bars in this section.

(From a notation standpoint, these can be notated as 2/4 or they can be added to the end of the previous measures which would then be shown as 6/4 bars. It's all subjective and I prefer the 2/4 approach.)

The little 4-bar chorus turns around and goes back to the B section.

I've had a couple of folks request this song over the past year. As you know, I also share an interest in Elton's more obscure songs. Thanks to their prompting, I'm very pleased to present this rare treat. Enjoy!

 
 

 Talking Old Soldiers
ALBUM
Tumbleweed Connection
DATE
1971
Midi
13 KB
Karaoke
15 KB
Score
112 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Studio Solo Piano Version
DATE
1971
Key: Cm	Structure: A-A-B-A
 
Elton John doesn’t write much in the minor keys but when he does, the results are often excellent. This one is an all around treat, most notably for the evocative lyrics and Elton's heart wrenching vocal. It has definitely achieved cult status among hardcore fans and the occasional live performances of it are eagerly anticipated. That makes it a perfect item on the Café menu.

The simple solo piano accompaniment is a very welcome change of pace even within the more stripped down approach to arrangements in Tumbleweed. Rather than arpeggiating this song like he does so many of his (particularly early) ballads, he plays chords on the beat. With the more subdued accompaniment, Elton has room to throw in lots of improvised blues riffs (keyboardists just love C blues riffs).



Talking is all about expression and feel. A variety of means are used to accomplish this within the confines of the simple Cm-G-Ab harmonic structure. The tempo is rubato, slowing and speeding up throughout the song. Some bars are extended by an extra couple of beats to draw out a passage. The chord voicings vary from soft 3-note chords in the middle register to fortissimo 7-note chords across a 4-octave register span. Elton’s singing also ranges from soft to ferocious with lots of vocal ornamentals thrown in to the basic melody.

As with many of Bernie's great lyrics, he seems to be describing a scene or a picture that exists in his mind. Frequently his pictures are filled with interesting characters and some kind of story that unfolds before you. Talking is another one of these vignettes. Combined with Elton's melody, it's a beautiful and melancholy view of the world from one tired old soldier.
 
 

 Ticking
ALBUM
Caribou
DATE
1974
Midi
33 KB
Karaoke
37 KB
Score
568 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Studio Version
DATE
1974
Key: F	Structure: A-A-B-A-A-B-A-A-B
 
INTRODUCTION
A truly fascinating song, Ticking is a greatly overlooked near masterpiece. Frankly, when the Caribou album was released, I mainly listened to The Bitch is Back and Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me and pretty much ignored the rest of the album. But Elton brought Ticking out of the closet on his 1999 solo tour and I, like a lot of people, was completely blown away. How did I miss this song? I can't tell you. I know some people are disturbed by the subject matter. If you ask me, it's another one the great story-song from the pen of Bernie Taupin.

Because of its length and dramatic subject, Ticking is an epic song. It is very different however from Elton's other epic tunes. Songs like Tiny Dancer, Levon and Funeral for a Friend for instance are divided into distinct sections, usually 3 distinct sections. All of those songs have a full band and/or orchestra to fill out their arrangements.

Ticking on the other hand is a very simple verse-chorus song AND it relies almost entirely on Elton and his piano. Elton's brilliance takes us on a 7 minute 48 second pianistic journey that evolves from a simple beginning to dense and complex flourishes at the end. We'll also find that Elton borrows riffs from his Levon vocabulary in this tune.

Let's explore further, shall we?

GENERAL ACCOMPANIMENT STYLE
The basic accompaniment style that Elton uses in this song is one that he doesn't use very often however it is one that is VERY VERY common in rock vocabulary. In my other writeups I have described Elton's standard approaches to accompaniment: his default style, his Mozart style and his funky style. What we have here is simply a great basic rock style that can be used for any uptempo song. If you are a budding rock and roll pianist, you must learn this pattern.



HARMONIC STRUCTURE 
Harmonically the song is firmly rooted in the key of F - in fact hardly ever moving off of it. The intro uses a pedal point chord progression, similar to other songs from Elton and scores of piano player /songwriters. And why not! This kind of chord progression works better on the piano than just about any other instrument. What we're talking about is holding the bass note constant, in this case on F, while shifting through different chords in the right hand. The intro uses a 2-bar pattern. The opening F chord moves to a C/F, then to a Bb/F, resolving back to an F. Other songs using this device include Your Song, Tiny Dancer, and Levon (which is also in the key of F).

The pedal point intro in F is understated and beautiful, setting up a firm 
harmonic base for the entire song



The verse uses an A-B format. The first 8 bars again utilize the pedal point F approach, alternating between the I and IV chords. This establishes a very cozy base that from a harmonic standpoint projects sort of a droning or trance-like calmness. This calmness starts to build some tension. As a listener, you begin anticipating that time when we jump off from that F base. Boy and when it happens in the B section, it's dramatic and bold. The B-section unleashes all of that tension as Elton jumps to the A-minor chord. A-minor is the iii in the key of F and shares 2 notes in common with F, making it a real nice place to jump to. The subsequent G-minor, C and Bb resolve back to the F. Elton uses bass notes under the C and Bb that keep the progression diatonic in sound. That keeps us harmonically closer to the F than using their roots in the bass.



The 4-bar A-minor and G-minor section (the iii-m and ii-m above) are what really distinguish Ticking. Drawing from classical influences, Elton rips through some incredibly dramatic and technically advanced flourishes. I'll talk about those more in a moment.


With the intro and verses keeping us so closely tied to F, we are in a perfect position to go somewhere else in the chorus. Elton obliges by taking us on a journey around the Circle of Fifths. For those who don't know, the Circle of Fifths is a circle with chords that are a fifth apart from each other if you go one direction, and a fourth apart from each other if you go the other direction. The circle covers every possible key. Western composers for centuries have long known that there is a "naturalness" to chord progressions that follow the circle. The chorus advances in fourths from D-minor to G-minor to C to F. The A-7 or III7 is the dominant of the vi-minor or D-minor. Since it is the dominant for the key of F, its usage here is referred to as a secondary dominant. This chord is a device that takes us out of the circle and back to where we started.



THOSE WAY COOL FLOURISHES
The A-minor and G-minor flourishes in this song are, to the best of my knowledge, unique in Elton's lexicon of piano tricks and riffs. I don't believe I've heard him use this particular device in any other song. What he's playing can be explained in harmonic terms fairly easily, but you need to be an advanced pianist to execute them with the precision and expression that Elton achieves. THESE LICKS JUST ABSOLUTELY RIP!

The following example shows how these chords are constructed. Personally I associate this type of chord structure with Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman of Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Yes fame. In my youth I dabbled in the music of these legendary prog rockers and they employed these chords frequently. Since Wakeman sat in on some of Elton's recordings, I have to believe Elton was influenced. To be specific, if you listen very carefully, you can hear Wakeman using this exact same chord in "Razor Face" from the Madman album.



The right hand chord is built off either the 5th or 7th of the root chord. You can call it a suspended tritone or a quartal chord (a chord based on 4ths - invert it and you get perfect 4ths). Either way it uses upper partials of the 9th or 11th chord in A or G. The resultant chord is stunning and dramatic.

Here are a couple more examples of how Elton uses them in Ticking.





CONNECTION TO LEVON 
One of the things that has always attracted me to Elton's playing is his riffing style. There are lots of other paino players out there in the rock and pop genre, but by and large I find they mostly play their chords pretty straight. When they play a C chord, they play a C chord PERIOD! Elton on the other hand arpeggiates it, suspends it, plays passing tones, adds a temporary 9th or other devices. It makes his playing rich and interesting. For me, it was this aspect of his playing that elevated him above most other popular pianists.

Because of the physical shape of black and white notes on the piano, Elton's voicing of riffs tends to be specific to certain keys. A riff that works in F may be difficult to execute in Ab. Now Ticking and Levon are both in the key of F. But more than that, both songs use a pedal point F throughout the verses, making them very similar harmonically. Both songs hold the F bass constant while alternating through F, Bb, and Eb chords. Given this, there is a whole lot of similarity in the riffs he plays in both songs. Here are a few examples of riffs that could have come straight out of Levon.







USE OF THE LEFT HAND
I've been asked by people to discuss how Elton approaches his left hand work. In general the left hand serves a rhythmic role in Elton's songs, defining the beat of the song. Elton usually uses either the root of the chord or the 5th. What that means is that when he plays a C-chord, he's either playing a C in the left hand, an octave C, or a C and a G. Sometimes he will alternate, play a low C then a high C, play a low C then a G.

How does he decide? Well that's partly a subjective decision, partly an artistic decision. Don't expect him to play it the same way every time. That's the sort of thing that he can change on a whim. As a pianist, your left hand should always be prepared to play the octave or the 5th.

There is a practical way to make these decisions. The following example shows 3 different ways to handle the F-chord depending on what the right hand does. If the right hand gets in the way of playing an octave in the left hand, you can switch to playing the 5th (the C) as in the 1st example. Of course you could eliminate the right hand note that's in the way as in the 2nd example. OR, as in the 3rd example, you can drop the left down an entire octave. Each choice gives you a little different sound. As the artist playing this little ditty, you decide!



In Ticking , Elton does not use the lower octaves until the very end of the song. He keeps the left hand in the middle range of the keyboard. Its just one of those artistic decisions that he made that contributes to the overall sound of the song.

This is just a simple overview of the way that the left hand is used in the majority of his songs. Elton also incorporates passing tones and other little devices in his left hand work. When he gets funky, well then we start to get much more sophisticated things going on.

CONCLUSION
What we have here in Ticking is many of the elements found in Elton's greatest works. Melodically this song doesn't quite give the listener the soaring payoff in the chorus that songs like Tiny Dancer and Levon do. But we do have some incredible piano work, at times its pretty technically daunting.

One thing's for sure, I've really fallen in love with this number. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

 
 

 Tonight
ALBUM
Blue Moves
DATE
1976
Midi
73 KB
Karaoke
75 KB
Score
724 KB
MP3
5.4 MB
ARRANGEMENT
Live Solo Piano Version
DATE
15-Oct-1999
Key: Dm || Cm || Dm	Structure: A-A-B || C-D-D-D || A
 
Tonight is one of what we might call Elton's epic compositions. It features two distinct sections, the first one being an instrumental, and a total length of just under 8 minutes. This is probably as close to classical music as Elton has ever gotten, a point I'll discuss in greater length. This particular version was another part of Elton's fabulous solo tour as performed October 15th/16th, 1999 at Madison Square Gardens, New York. (Elton's piano triggers a synthesizer through portions of the song, providing a string sound.)

The original Blue Moves version featured the incredible orchestrations of James Newton Howard. Howard graduated from USC with a classical piano degree, but was hugely interested in how to use an orchestra in the pop-rock medium. He was a big fan of Buckmaster's work with Elton's first few albums and had been quoted as saying the strings in "Levon" and "Tiny Dancer" were seminal pieces in the history of popular music. He welcomed the opportunity to work with Elton for several years, appearing on six albums and touring for two years. From the reputation he gained with Elton, Howard moved on to work with artists such as Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand, Cher, Neal Diamond and many other major stars. He is now one of the great film soundtrack composers, doing several major films a year.

Now let's talk about this performance. Tonight is a song that presents emotions, both musically and lyrically, as it takes the listener through the journey of a relationship that is falling apart.

SECTION 1
The first section presents the melancholy opening theme. It's a sad yet hesitant theme that is built from a simple motif that's repeated in D-minor, B-flat and G-minor. It's voiced in a manner to give it elegance, using sixths and octaves. For the most part, restatements of this theme use the same approach, although Elton will shift octaves and dynamics so that the theme is never repeated in note-for-note exactness.

[Note for pianists: although not always the case, Elton tends to play with a heavy thumb. For the octaves in the right hand, he leads with his thumb.]

We find here some of the most significant left hand work that we've ever seen from Elton. Although staying within simple harmonic boundaries, the left hand provides a bed to support the right hand theme. Elton plays it with great expressiveness, his phrasing incorporating dynamic and tempo swings in the classical tradition. The 4-bar theme ends with a dramatic Am7-sus4 voiced as a quartal.



From a classical composition standpoint, Elton does not expand his themes using devices such as theme development, exposition, or call-and-response techniques. Rather Elton uses the piano to state the theme and then leaves it to Howard to work these into the orchestra. This is fairly standard in the pop format and its why I tend to refer to this as quasi-classical - it has the sound of classical music, but its simpler structure is easier for the audience to digest.

After the first 8, Elton takes off into a rumbling section in A. This is a colorful and menacing followup, perhaps expressing an anger or mounting rage that is purely designed for the orchestra. It also sounds great in this solo piano rendition, with the repetitive left hand figure providing the low rumble while he replicates the fast moving strings with his right hand. It resolves up a half step into a Bb mixolydian run that jumps in 4ths, Bb - Eb - Ab, up the keyboard.



The harmonic contrast of this second 6 from the first 8 is magnificient, perhaps representing the conflicting emotions. The run up the keyboard resolves neatly back to D-minor.

SECTION 2
After repeating the entire 14-bar section, Elton resolves his piano run to Eb to begin the second section of this song. In this section we shift to something a little more familiar to Elton fans. Elton uses his 4-note arpeggiating style with 16th notes in the right hand and octaves in the left hand. It starts with a melody neatly woven in Elton's right hand in kind of a tinkly piano style. The harmony uses a descending bassline starting from the Db, the flat-7th of the tonic.



The first section can be viewed as presenting the conflict between the emotions of sadness and anger. This section serves to calm things down before the singer finally begins to express his feelings lyrically. The Eb gradually evolves into its relative minor key of C-minor. Rather than the simple 4-bar theme statements of the previous section, this section evolves and slowly moves towards a target.

After all of the emotional build up of the instrumental portion, we finally reach the song itself.



[Note for pianists: As always, the pianist should observe the voicing. Elton anchors either the bottom note or the top note in his right hand with either the thumb or the 4th or 5th finger. This helps to provide a smooth legato phrasing to his 4-note arpeggio figures.]

The song uses a straight verse - verse - verse structure. The title of the song is stated at the beginning of the first 2 lines of each verse. No chorus per se. The odd number of lines works out to an 18-bar song structure. This is merely a reminder that Elton and Bernie have worked with and created songs with diverse structures throughout their career.

After a brief restatement of the opening section, Elton ends the song with a grand classical flourish. I've done my best to suggest how to play this run up and down the keyboard.



While Tonight never gained the stature of some of Elton's other so-called epic compositions, it has grown in reputation over the years. It has become recognized as a significant accomplishment and Elton's fans love to hear it in concert.

 
 

 American Triangle
ALBUM
Songs From the West Coast
 	
DATE
2001
Midi
43 KB
Piano Midi
12 KB
Karaoke
39 KB
Score
172 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Studio Version
DATE
2001
Key: C-minor	Structure: A-A-B-A-B-C-B
 
American Triangle is a magnificent piece of work in my judgement. Harrowing, dramatic and stately are words that come to my mind as I listen to this song. The lyrics paint a picture of stark images contrasted against John Ford like western scenery. Elton's singing is passionate. And it's made all the more poignant by the fact that it's based on the sad but true-life murder of Matthew Shepard.

You don't find many pop songs set in minor keys but this is one and it serves the song well. American Triangle is in C-minor, the relative minor of Eb and as you know, one of Elton's favorite keys. The intro is a descending diatonic progression that most musicians should recognize. The slash chords facilitate the melodic bass line movement.

|| Cm - G/B | Cm/Bb - Fm/Ab | G7/F - Cm/Eb | Ab - Bbsus ||

But just as importantly, Elton's intro is a carefully crafted, elegant phrase that is played over classic harmonies. The right hand melody line "sings" over the softer harmony voices. In bar 4, Elton uses a familiar little Bb riff to modulate up to Eb and begin the song.



The bridge, where the music stops entirely except for some very darkly voiced piano chords, is one of the most dramatic musical moments Elton has ever created. Personally the voicing reminded me of Beethoven and it's played with a classical reverence. Elton's singing brings out the passion in Bernie's lyrics. A great moment.



 

 
 

 Blues For Baby And Me
ALBUM
Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player
DATE
1973
Midi
83 KB
Karaoke
86 KB
Score
315 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Studio Version
DATE
1973
Key: G	Structure: A-B-A-B
 
This album is just chock full of quality music. But by 1972, Elton had so many hits from several albums dominating the radio at the same time, I think Don’t Shoot Me was largely overlooked except for its huge 2 singles: Daniel and Crocodile Rock. It’s not overlooked by serious Elton fans however who rank this one up there among perhaps the top 5 of Elton’s albums. I know its about number 5 in my book.

Blues for Baby shows just how sophisticated Elton's songwriting and Paul Buckmaster's orchestral arrangements had become since their earlier collaborations. At 5:47, it is too long by pop standards, a standard that Elton had frequently begun to ignore. And although it uses a classic A-B-A-B structure, the entire song is built around a 5-bar riff, giving it a uniquely different feel from most songs.

The song opens with solo piano playing the motif that is the basis for the song. I honestly had difficulty deciding what meter to use in notating the song: Was it 5 4-beat bars or 4 bars with 5 beats? I don’t know the right answer, but I decided to stay with a standard 4/4 meter because the song breaks into 4/4 a little later.

The song is in the key of G major. The verse however stays largely in the sub-dominant key of C, which builds a very strong sense of anticipation. It works beautifully, keeping us harmonically suspended until the chorus when it finally resolves to G. Elton uses a slash chord in the main riff, D/C, a chord which is relatively common to keyboardists. Slash chords work real well when they're used with a pedal tone in an alternating triad pattern. Here's the 5-bar riff from the intro.



The intro is 10 bars in length. This is repeated for the beginning of the verse and then it shifts up to a pedal tone F for another 10 bars.



Elton then shifts us into a standard 8-bar 4/4 pattern that leads to the chorus. He repeats an abbreviated version of his motif however within the 8-bar pattern, providing a beautiful transition both structurally and harmonically to the chorus. The verse ends up being 35 bars in length.

With its strong 8-bar feel and its strong basis in the root key of G, the chorus takes us on another harmonic journey. I-IIIm-IV-I is followed by I-V-IIIm-VIm. The last section of the chorus, rather than resolving back to G, cuts back to the intro after 6 bars.



With its off-beat meter, its extended length, trademark melodicism and harmonies, this song encapsulates much of Elton John's genius.

Let me add a few words about the arrangement. In their early days, I felt Buckmaster sometimes overwhelmed the very simple, simple little tunes Elton was constructing. But by the time we get to Madman and Don’t Shoot Me, Elton’s music had grown much more sophisticated, and Buckmaster’s orchestral arrangements became a more complimentary part rather than a dominating part of the songs.

The strings, flutes and french horns are used to great effect in Blues For Baby, building to a dense and exciting climax. Davey Johnstone’s wah-wah guitar work is also a really great touch to this tune. MY ONLY complaint today is the sitar. Sounded great in its day, but the sitar is an instrument that will be forever associated with the 60’s. Just the sound of it kind of time-warps you back to hippies and flower children. Fortunately, it’s used to a minimum and therefore doesn’t date Blues for Baby too badly.
 
 

 Candy By The Pound
ALBUM
Ice on Fire
DATE
1985
Midi
42 KB
Karaoke
46 KB
Score
N.A.
ARRANGEMENT
Studio Version
DATE
1985
Key: G	Structure: A-A-B-A-B
 
 
I don’t know what it is about this album, but some people feel it’s among Elton’s worst. As for me, I really enjoy hearing Elton move out in some different directions with his music, even if he's not entirely successful. I think if you stay open minded, you might just find some real gems on this album. On the other hand, maybe I’m just too hardcore of a fan to be all that critical.

Candy is a soul tune. One of the problems here, and let’s be honest, Elton doesn’t have a great soul voice. And even though he's occasionally cracked the R&B charts, he really doesn't have much credibility in this genre. In the hands of Hall & Oates or someone else with a soul reputation, who knows? Maybe this song could have been a hit.

From the structural standpoint, Candy doesn't have a chorus section. This might be part of what throws off Elton fans even though its a fairly common approach to songwriting. Rather than having a chorus which states the song's title, each verse ends with the song's title. The B-section in this song is a bridge since it is a complete contrast to the verses rather than a climactic conclusion of them. Again, the lines of the bridge end with the title.

I don't comment much on lyrics, but these are not Bernie at his best and probably another turn off for fans. They start off as an expression of feeling good since his new girl friend came around. Later on they take more of a nasty turn with lines like "with you underneath" and the old girl friend "screamin murder, beatin my door down." HUH? What are you thinkin about Bernie?

What I do love about this song is the horns, and this horn arrangement is HOT, HOT, HOT! Elton only occasionally features a strong horn section and that makes this one special. A 5-piece section is at work here: 2 trumpets, 2 saxes and a t-bone. And they don't just repeat their licks each time through a verse or chorus; they add new layers, they shift emphasis between instruments, they modify a passage. It’s great work and damn tough to replicate in midi. (I spent a few months agonizing over this midi, before I finally gave up.

The tune is in G and fairly straightforward harmonically. One interesting note is that most of the song is in swing time (or triplet eighths) but the bridge switches into straight time (duplet eighths).

The backup vocals are also interesting. I had a tough time with those also, but I think this midi captures the spirit of the song even if some parts aren't entirely accurate.

I haven't prepared a score for this tune. Elton plays the electric piano on it and I could not really hear a left hand part. The following example shows the intro with a one-handed keyboard part and a walking bass line.



Here's one of the great horn riffs that I loved in this song. With midi, and the poor quality of the sounds that most people have on their computers, you have to double up some of the voicings to get a fuller sound.



Another great horn riff.



 
 

 

 
 

 Can I Put You On
ALBUM
11-17-70
DATE
1971
Midi
64 KB
Karaoke
69 KB
Score
543 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Live Trio Version
DATE
17-Nov-1970
Key: G	Structure: A-B-C-A-B-C-B-C
 
This is another rocker from one of the most important rock piano albums ever recorded (according to Keyboard Magazine), 11-17-70. Can I Put You On was part of the little heard Friends soundtrack that became a standard in Elton’s early repertoire. The Elton John trio rocked on this tune like nobody's business. In case you didn't know it, piano trios are a real rarity except in the jazz medium. You look across the history of blues and especially rock and you won't find many. There's one good reason: it's damn hard to pull off successfully.

Like many of their early tunes, this one features terrific interplay between Elton, Dee and Nigel. This was just one of many tunes that totally blew away audiences and propelled Elton to superstar status.

Overview
Elton starts the song off with a gentle rollicking pattern that gradually builds in intensity. The song's lyrics come in and Bernie spins one of his patented story songs, this one about hard working men trying to earn enough to buy a few extra things for the family. As always, Bernie's imagery is wonderful, bringing to life the gritty work conditions in a foundry and especially the man with the trilby hat who comes around on weekends.

Elton's melody is consistently interesting, featuring vocal leaps and building to a climactic joyous chorus. The song ends with a great sing-along section that the band jams over for several minutes. Ultimately this song rocks out and it's a shining example of a hard-pounding two-fisted approach to rock and roll piano.

And for trivia buffs, Elton and his bassist Dee Murray trip over each other several times in the song. For example, in the intro, Elton establishes a 4-bar G-G-F-E pattern in the left hand for the first 12 bars. When Dee comes in, he's just plays a G throughout the entire 4-bar pattern. In bar 15, Elton hits the F, and it goes clunk against Dee's G. So Elton immediately jumps back up to the G before going down to the E. Check it out. It happens very quickly and of course I've notated it exactly the way Elton plays it. These little boo-boos give the song a kind of raw authenticity.

Song Structure Genius
While it may be tempting to dismiss this song as a simple showcase for rocking out, a closer look reveals many of the elements that are associated with Elton's genius. In particular we're going to look at how easily Elton modifies traditional song structure in a musical way that seems so natural that it goes by unnoticed. Observe.

You're presented with a set of lyrics from Bernie. The verse consists of 4 lines with a simple A-A-B-B rhyming pattern. As a songwriter, this looks like a setup for a traditional 16-bar verse, 4 bars per line. BUT NOT TO ELTON.

Here's the chord chart for the first verse. The first 3 lines use the 4 bars per line pattern as one would expect. BUT IN THE 4TH LINE, Elton finds some musical and very natural sounding extensions that result in a total of 7 bars! Astounding and it happens so smoothly you don't even realize it. This shows that even at a young age, Elton has a flexibility in his musical thinking that goes way beyond your average songwriter.

Verse
G - G - F6 - F6
C/E - C/E - G - G
Am - C - Gm/C - Gm/C
G - Am - Am - C - C - F/C - F/C

Bernie next presents Elton with 5 or 6 lines (depending on how you count the lines) that look sort of like a chorus. Elton splits this into 2 sections, the first 3 lines representing what is sometimes called a pre-chorus. Here he uses a straight 4 bars per line approach.

Pre-Chorus
F - G - F - G
F - G - F - C/E
Am - Am - C/D - C/D

The 2 (or 3?) lines of the chorus are fairly short, but Elton stretches out the last line to 5 bars, ending it with a 2-bar F/C chord.

Chorus
G7 - G7/B - C - C/D
G - C - C/E - F/C - F/C

Harmony
At this point, one might also notice that none of these sections ends with a resolving chord. Which brings up the question, What key are we in anyway?

The song is basically in G, but the chords are all from the key of C. Elton doesn't give us a clear V to I resolution anywhere in the song. One might conclude we're in the modal key of G mixolydian which is probably the best answer. One can definitely say that he keeps us off balance the entire song through his use of the "slash" chords.

Those Elton Piano Riffs
If anything defines Elton's piano style, it's his piano riffs. ELTON IS A RIFFING MONSTER and it makes his accompaniment incredibly rich and delicious to listen to. By contrast, most piano players play chords in rhythmic patterns connected by passing tones. This song has just too many variations of riffs to try and catalogue, but lets look at a few. First this beauty.



The opening riff, a "9 to 3" resolution riff, is usually played in a root-position triad. Elton however opens it up, using the octave G and letting his right hand thumb cover the 2 notes on the bottom. He resolves to the 3 with his 2nd finger and then into the open 5ths.

The 2nd bar shows a patented Elton voicing on a standard blues riff. Elton puts a G on the bottom and a G on the top of the chord. All of the riff work is done with the inner voices, both in the left and right hand, as highlighted in the red box. MOST PIANISTS play this type of riff from a standard root position triad. You know that old standard blues riff: G - G - G7 - C (2nd inversion). This is Elton's unique variation.

Here's another example of the same inner voice riffing. This time its a G - C(2nd inv.) - G7 - C(2nd inv.) blues riff, reconfigured by Elton. Again, the riff work is done with the left thumb and the right #2 finger.



This riff shows the interaction between right and left hand to create a classic riff.



 

 
 

 Carla-Etude
ALBUM
The Fox
DATE
1981
Midi
33 KB
Piano Midi
11 KB
Score
157 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Studio Version
DATE
1981
Key: B	Structure: A-A-B-B-C-C-D-D
 
You know, deconstructing a song in order to create these midi files allows me to gain an appreciation of a song in a way that no other process can. I was aware of Carla / Etude; I thought it was nice, and I heard Elton play it solo in 1999, but I can tell you now that THIS IS ONE INCREDIBLE PIECE OF WORK. I’ve provided both the full orchestral version and the piano solo version for your enjoyment.

Overview
Carla / Etude is an instrumental tune with a classical sound. Yes, yes, yes Elton creates a wonderful piano landscape that sets the tone, but in my mind this song comes alive because of James Newton Howard. Howard had quickly established himself as a master of creating lush orchestral arrangements for pop music’s biggest stars when he got involved with Elton in the late 70s. This song is one of many where Howard shows his brilliance. He’s since moved on to become one of the great film composers of our time.

For more well rounded music lovers, Carla is probably best characterized as quasi-classical. That's not a knock on the music, but lets not confuse it with Beethoven either. Elton sticks to triad harmony throughout. His melodies are certainly strong and well crafted, but he repeats them rather than developing and expanding them in the classical tradition. His structure is simple and follows pop sensibilities, primarily working in a 4-bar framework and moving from one short section to another.

Elton's Piano
Elton exhibits none of his trademark playing style in this song, preferring an approach that is more like a traditional cocktail piano style as played by thousands of pianists in bars around the world. Hallmarks of this style include the left hand playing up and down arpeggios in 8ths or quarter note intervals. Elton doesn't fill up a lot of space with his right hand playing, doesn’t do his Mozart style arpeggiating, doesn’t do his syncopated rhythm stuff, doesn't riff. No. He just concentrates on the melody, keeping it very simple with just basic chord support.



One of the keys to achieving this classical sound is that Elton rarely plays on the root of his harmonies, using voicings that are open and expand the triad palette of sound quite a bit. The result is a strong counter melody in the bass that Howard absolutely capitalizes on with his orchestration. Another key to Carla is that while Elton uses a rigid pop structure, his chord patterns by contrast are much looser. The chords flow effortlessly from one key to another in a rather deft fashion that allows the song to evolve and stay interesting.

Orchestration
Of course, this song gives Howard tremendous room to explore an amazing assortment of orchestral riffs that are woven in and out and around the melody. His orchestra includes strings, acoustic brass (french horn) and woodwinds (flute, oboe and bassoon) which he combines in different ways to create different textures and moods under Elton’s playing. A 4-bar melody will be accompanied one time with the entire orchestra, providing a triumphant and grand sound. The next time, that same 4-bar melody might be accompanied by a flute and a bassoon, achieving a more delicate mood. The variations are staggering and it reveals Howard to be a truly gifted orchestrator. Its very different from Paul Buckmaster’s efforts: grander, more sophisticated, more counter melodies, greater use of the orchestral sections to create different colors.

Here's one brief example of Howard's brilliance. The flutes start the line in bar 37. Then the oboe joins in on the lower harmony in the next bar. Then the oboe finishes the line in the next 2 bars with the flutes shifting to a supporting role. The arrangement is just packed with these little nuggets.



Listen to the lines folks. Listen to the way the instruments interplay, exchanging the lead role, the flute hands off to the violin, the french horn picks it up. This is a thing of beauty. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

 
 

 Harmony
ALBUM
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
DATE
1973
Midi
23 KB
Score
198 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Studio Version
DATE
1973
Key: Eb minor	Structure: A-B-A-B-outro
 
Here's a true B-Side classic. Harmony was originally released as the B-Side to Bennie and the Jets, one of many great songs on what is arguably Elton's finest album, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

Harmony is one of those irresistible Elton songs. The melody and lyrics in the chorus, kicked off by a 1-octave vocal leap, are so memorable that you can't help but sing along. This is definitely an Elton melody at its very very best. Ostensibly the song is about Elton's relationship with his musical muse who is personified by the name Harmony. This gives the song an element of introspection even though the lyrics SEEM to be more about a love relationship with a person.

Harmony's Harmony
So let's look at the music. Harmony starts with one of the most beautifully ambiguous chords I've come across. The piano plays an open Cb-major chord with an Eb bass. No problem there. But Elton sings the major-7th. When combined with the Eb bass, this sounds more like an Eb-minor chord. Check it out. You'd swear you were listening to a minor chord, but it's not. I labeled this chord a CbM7/Eb.



OK then you say, so WHAT ABOUT ALL THOSE DAMN FLATS? Sorry guys. That first chord is a Cb chord. I know you want to call it a B because it's easier. B and Cb are enharmonic equivalents, but there is no way theoretically to modulate from B to Eb. I'm trying to maintain some musical standards here! Therefore the song has to be notated in the key of Ebm (the relative minor of Gb) so that it can make a parallel modulation to the key of Eb at the chorus. Frankly, once you get used to the flatted C, it's not all that hard to play.

It's also worth mentioning that in recent years, Elton has lowered Harmony a half step to Dm. The transcription presented here is from the original recording.

The remainder of the verse moves downward towards a true Ebm and then to a Bb7 turnaround with a 2/4 extension tag. The Bb7 also serves as a segue, being the dominant 5th for the Eb major key as well.

|| CbM7/Eb | Db | Abm Gb | Ebm Bb7 || Bb7 ||

The modulation from Ebm to Eb at the chorus is one of the most dramatic and glorious moments in Elton's songwriting history. Bb7, which is the V-chord in both keys, is the modulation chord. The power of this moment is heightened by several elements.

First of all, the melody in the verse is mostly in the lower register. But when we reach the chorus, we get that 1-octave "you know, oh, oh, oh, oh" melodic jump and the melody stays up in those upper registers throughout the chorus. All by itself this heightens the excitement. 
Second of all, the strings, which were arranged by Del Newman, and backing vocals are brought in as well. From the sparse sound of the verse, the chorus literally jumps out at you with a huge dense sound.
And finally, as mentioned before, that modulation from Ebm to Eb just sparkles. Starting with the ambiguous opening chord, there is a harmonic tension in the verse as it moves diatonically downward along the pentatonic scale. That tension is released dramatically through the modulation to Eb-Major where the harmony shifts to a circle of 4ths progression.


Harmonically the chorus follows an old standard pop progression: ii-V-I-vi, ii-V-I. Although he mixes it up a bit, this pattern creates a sing-along feel to the chorus. You old-time piano players may hear the "Heart and Soul" piano chords in this section. Elton's truly taking one from the classics here.

Elton's Playing
Elton's playing in Harmony is not terribly difficult. He takes a fairly open approach to his accompaniment, not filling up the space with piano. The overall approach is Eltonish in feel and rhythm, but there really isn't much in the way of trademark riffs to point to.

This is a great song from a great album. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
 
 

 Jack Rabbit
ALBUM
Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Piano Player - The Classic Years
DATE
1972
Midi
30 KB
Karaoke
32 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Studio Version
DATE
1972
Key: Eb	Structure: A-B-A-B
 
Eeeh-Hah! There's no piano in this one as Elton once again displays his love for country western with this “bit of flak” as Bernie refers to it. His explorations into country on the Tumbleweed album weren’t just a passing fancy for Elton because Don’t Shoot Me has two of them and he would return to the genre in later albums also. The fact is, Elton could package a pretty decent country album if he chose to and he could add it to his duets with some of country’s luminaries.

Well I’m no expert at this subject so I don’t know how to characterize the arrangement. There’s a banjo, acoustic guitar, mandolin and pedal steel guitar in this one. (What! No fiddle!) Is it bluegrass? Whatever it is, it’s fairly quick paced and a toetapper. You gotta love the way these instruments blend together. There’s also a lot of moving parts. At times, 3 of the 4 instruments are following separate lines. The counterpoint is what makes it interesting to me as a musician.

The guitar pretty much just sticks to a rhythm role (hey someone’s gotta do it). The engineer gives everyone their own separate space in the mix so you can check them out. The drumming of course is fairly limited and the bass sticks pretty much to a oom-pah role.

This is a pretty straight tune harmonically although there are some small variances. In the key of G, the verses are

||G | G | G | C | A | A | D | D||

A two bar tag leads into the chorus which is

||C | C | G | G | C | A | D | D |
| G | G | C | A | G | G | D | G||

Using the major II (instead of the minor) is fairly common in country and other forms of American music. It's sometimes referred to as the V-of-V since A is the dominant V chord for the key of D.

Originally released on the B-Side of the Saturday Night’s Alright single, Jack Rabbit is a fun little diversion for me.Poor Cow
ALBUM
Reg Strikes Back
DATE
1988
Midi
43 KB
Karaoke
46 KB
Score
336 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Studio Version
DATE
1988
Key: C-min	Structure: A-A-B-A-B-C-B-B
 
OK I agree that the lyrics to this song, no matter whether Bernie intended this to be a biting social commentary or not, come off as a hateful sounding song. Bad choice of words Bernie, particularly the title. Bad taste Elton - you should have dumped this one. You all wonder why Bernie is accused of misogyny? Here's a good example. But I’m not here to discuss lyrics so get over it.

What we have here is a tasty little bit of music with some character to it. It’s not synth rock, but Elton puts a nice buzzy synth at the heart of this arrangement, driving the bass line and creating an aggressive feel to this song. Fred Mandel, an excellent synthesist, gives it that buzzy feel. But if you listen carefully, there are lots of little subtleties to be discovered and enjoyed in this tune: the quick vibe run towards the end, the vibra-slap in the percussion, the shifting backing vocals, and some real nasty bass riffs. Personally this song reminds me of Danny Elfman and the Oingo Boingo sound.

You won't find any prototypical Elton style playing on this song. The synth part provides a straight quarter pulse mirroring Elton's left hand. Elton mans the electric piano, tossing in some little riffs here and there. It's a fairly simple piece to play.

Structurally this song is built around 12-bar sections including verses, choruses and the bridge. Much of the song is based on a 4-bar instrumental line over the Cm and Ab, a line that kicks off the song in the intro and is repeated multiple times throughout. Its a great nasty aggresive line, perfect for the tone of this song. It'is also the basis for the melody. Harmonically, the verses are in Cm and the chorus is in the relative major key of Eb. Here's that intro electric piano line.



As you know, I like to include some of the more obscure Elton songs here at the café, and all in all I think this is a nice addition to the menu. Enjoy.

 
 Razor Face
ALBUM
Madman Across the Water
DATE
1971
Midi
57 KB
Karaoke
60 KB
Score
512 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Studio Version
DATE
1971
Key: C	Structure: A-A-B-C-A-B-C
 
With Razor Face, Elton turns to a New Orleans style sound for a song that could have easily fit into the Tumbleweed album. He puts it behind Bernie's lyrics which, in a few brief lines, describe a broken down booze-hound with the evocative nick name of Razor Face. The lyrics are really quite sparse here. I suppose the reference to a "truck stop inn" gives the lyric kind of an American reference. But its really Elton's music that turns this into an homage to an American character.

With out a doubt, this is a band song with Elton's piano playing a support role. It has a highly produced sound to it much like the other songs on Madman. But while he's not out front in the mix, Elton's playing is filled with Eltonisms, those non-stop riffs that are distinctly Elton's trademarks. The song gets really tasty support from Elton's studio band of Roger Pope, David Glover and Caleb Quaye who supplies a fabulous guitar riff in the chorus.

There's an accordion player listed in the credits, but the really scary presence on this song belongs to Rick Wakeman, credited with playing the organ. You have to listen carefully, but during the chorus you can here the keyboardist from Yes pulling off some of his trademark fleet fingered organ runs. The all-out solo at the end of Razor Face, although it sounds like a accordion, I swear must also be Wakeman. We'll discuss this later.

There are many aspects that contribute to the overall New Orleans character to the sound besides the obvious use of an accordion. We can start with the simple intro, with its gentle emphasis on the C7 chord, resolving to an F. Note that Elton uses an E in the bass, which minimizes the harmonic movement to the F.



The use of C/E chord is part of an overall harmonic strategy designed to avoid playing the tonic. The song is in the key of C, but you rarely get a firm landing on a C. The intro sets the stage for this with its C7/E-to-F pattern that would seem to be a V-to-I in the key of F. This is only a temporary flirtation with F.

(Also a note to pianists. I find the middle-C on the 2nd downbeat of the F a little unnatural to play. It's definitely there and serves as kind of a pivot note for the syncopated F-riff. Personally I prefer to leave it out.)

Part of the brilliance of the Madman album comes from Elton's harmonic vocabulary that expands the notion of what we consider to be pop music. The following chord layout of the verse shows how the song moves all around using diatonic harmonies while avoiding the tonic. The diminished flatted-three chord (Eb°7) provides a nice chromatic bridge between the Em7 and the Dm7 and contributes to the overall New Orleans character of the sound.

|| I | IV | vi7 | ii7 | iii7 | biii°7 | ii7 | iii7 |

| IV | vi - I | IV | IV | I | IV | vi9 | vi9 | vi9 | vi9 ||

This is a 16-bar pattern, not the standard 8 of pop music, and Elton extends it 2 bars with a cluster chord built around A-minor. This cluster chord gives you the sound of tension or confusion in the sonic landscape. It resolves nicely into the G major chord that kicks off the chorus. Elton uses this cluster chord device several times on the Madman album including on the title song and Indian Sunset. He voices this cluster chord a little differently each time he hits it. The following example is from the end of the 2nd verse where he plays a series of suspended chords (you might call them quartals) built from the chord tones of Am9.



For most of the song, Elton uses his standard syncopated rhythm style of chord playing. One of the great joys of Elton's playing is his riffing. These riffs, consisting of passing tones or suspensions, put color and movement in Elton's playing that are cornerstones of his unique style. This is Elton!



Without a doubt the all out jam at the end of Razor Face is an amazing bit of music. I dare say most people don't even remember it. What you get is well over 1-minute of Elton, his guitarist and Rick Wakeman going at it simultaneously. Although Elton stays in the background, this is an absolutely stellar example of his funky solo style. THIS IS PURE ELTON AT HIS BEST!



This is not soloing in the jazz sense of playing a horizontal line. Elton has this funky riffing vocabulary built around the blues style. What makes it "soloing" is the infinite variations that he weaves in his solo sections. You'll never find him repeating himself per se. It's more like improvised riffing interspersed with blues runs.

This section of the song took me a long time to transcribe (particularly the Rick Wakeman solo). That gave me plenty of time to hear the subtleties of Elton's playing which are pretty well buried in the mix. Here's something we find Elton doing occasionally. This is an example of 2-handed parallel voicing. The F stays constant on the top while the movement happens in the lower voices. This is very much like jazz comping. But I guess if you're reading this, you already know that ELTON IS JUST SIMPLY AN AMAZING PIANIST!



The midi file contains Rick Wakeman's solo - 100% accurately transcribed. I haven't put it to notation because this song has taken me just too long to finish. Its filled with 16ths, 32nds, and triplet-32nds. THIS GUY IS NUTS! Unbelievable work. Sorry but it's time for me to move on.

Hope you enjoy this song as much as I have!

 
 

 Razor Face
ALBUM
Madman Across the Water
DATE
1971
Midi
57 KB
Karaoke
60 KB
Score
512 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Studio Version
DATE
1971
Key: C	Structure: A-A-B-C-A-B-C
 
With Razor Face, Elton turns to a New Orleans style sound for a song that could have easily fit into the Tumbleweed album. He puts it behind Bernie's lyrics which, in a few brief lines, describe a broken down booze-hound with the evocative nick name of Razor Face. The lyrics are really quite sparse here. I suppose the reference to a "truck stop inn" gives the lyric kind of an American reference. But its really Elton's music that turns this into an homage to an American character.

With out a doubt, this is a band song with Elton's piano playing a support role. It has a highly produced sound to it much like the other songs on Madman. But while he's not out front in the mix, Elton's playing is filled with Eltonisms, those non-stop riffs that are distinctly Elton's trademarks. The song gets really tasty support from Elton's studio band of Roger Pope, David Glover and Caleb Quaye who supplies a fabulous guitar riff in the chorus.

There's an accordion player listed in the credits, but the really scary presence on this song belongs to Rick Wakeman, credited with playing the organ. You have to listen carefully, but during the chorus you can here the keyboardist from Yes pulling off some of his trademark fleet fingered organ runs. The all-out solo at the end of Razor Face, although it sounds like a accordion, I swear must also be Wakeman. We'll discuss this later.

There are many aspects that contribute to the overall New Orleans character to the sound besides the obvious use of an accordion. We can start with the simple intro, with its gentle emphasis on the C7 chord, resolving to an F. Note that Elton uses an E in the bass, which minimizes the harmonic movement to the F.



The use of C/E chord is part of an overall harmonic strategy designed to avoid playing the tonic. The song is in the key of C, but you rarely get a firm landing on a C. The intro sets the stage for this with its C7/E-to-F pattern that would seem to be a V-to-I in the key of F. This is only a temporary flirtation with F.

(Also a note to pianists. I find the middle-C on the 2nd downbeat of the F a little unnatural to play. It's definitely there and serves as kind of a pivot note for the syncopated F-riff. Personally I prefer to leave it out.)

Part of the brilliance of the Madman album comes from Elton's harmonic vocabulary that expands the notion of what we consider to be pop music. The following chord layout of the verse shows how the song moves all around using diatonic harmonies while avoiding the tonic. The diminished flatted-three chord (Eb°7) provides a nice chromatic bridge between the Em7 and the Dm7 and contributes to the overall New Orleans character of the sound.

|| I | IV | vi7 | ii7 | iii7 | biii°7 | ii7 | iii7 |

| IV | vi - I | IV | IV | I | IV | vi9 | vi9 | vi9 | vi9 ||

This is a 16-bar pattern, not the standard 8 of pop music, and Elton extends it 2 bars with a cluster chord built around A-minor. This cluster chord gives you the sound of tension or confusion in the sonic landscape. It resolves nicely into the G major chord that kicks off the chorus. Elton uses this cluster chord device several times on the Madman album including on the title song and Indian Sunset. He voices this cluster chord a little differently each time he hits it. The following example is from the end of the 2nd verse where he plays a series of suspended chords (you might call them quartals) built from the chord tones of Am9.



For most of the song, Elton uses his standard syncopated rhythm style of chord playing. One of the great joys of Elton's playing is his riffing. These riffs, consisting of passing tones or suspensions, put color and movement in Elton's playing that are cornerstones of his unique style. This is Elton!



Without a doubt the all out jam at the end of Razor Face is an amazing bit of music. I dare say most people don't even remember it. What you get is well over 1-minute of Elton, his guitarist and Rick Wakeman going at it simultaneously. Although Elton stays in the background, this is an absolutely stellar example of his funky solo style. THIS IS PURE ELTON AT HIS BEST!



This is not soloing in the jazz sense of playing a horizontal line. Elton has this funky riffing vocabulary built around the blues style. What makes it "soloing" is the infinite variations that he weaves in his solo sections. You'll never find him repeating himself per se. It's more like improvised riffing interspersed with blues runs.

This section of the song took me a long time to transcribe (particularly the Rick Wakeman solo). That gave me plenty of time to hear the subtleties of Elton's playing which are pretty well buried in the mix. Here's something we find Elton doing occasionally. This is an example of 2-handed parallel voicing. The F stays constant on the top while the movement happens in the lower voices. This is very much like jazz comping. But I guess if you're reading this, you already know that ELTON IS JUST SIMPLY AN AMAZING PIANIST!



The midi file contains Rick Wakeman's solo - 100% accurately transcribed. I haven't put it to notation because this song has taken me just too long to finish. Its filled with 16ths, 32nds, and triplet-32nds. THIS GUY IS NUTS! Unbelievable work. Sorry but it's time for me to move on.

Hope you enjoy this song as much as I have!

 
 

 This Town
ALBUM
Ice on Fire
DATE
1985
Midi
74 KB
Karaoke
77 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Studio Version
DATE
1985
Key: Eb	Structure: A-B-A-B-B-B
 
I didn't prepare a score for this one. As you can see from the following example, Elton's keyboard work is minimal. Visit my friends over at EltonChords.com and grab the chord chart. You'll be fine just playing the chords. This is the chorus.



This Town is another quality tune from what I believe is an under appreciated album, the Ice On Fire album. It’s definitely B-Side material, but mostly because it’s such a departure from the straight ahead pop music Elton is associated with. While I’ll agree that it’s an inconsistent album overall, Elton is definitely exploring the soul and R&B sound with many of these tunes. He uses a new group of backing musicians on the album, most of whom I don’t recognize, to help him achieve a different sound.

Like other songs on this album, This Town again features a very hot horn arrangement. [Have I mentioned that I have a real weakness for horns?] I love them and this song is no exception. This is mostly a 5-piece arrangement with a trombone, 2 saxes and 2 trumpets. The sax solos throughout the song demonstrate just how difficult it is to reproduce horns via a midi file. A lot of those solos sit mostly on a single note, but the player inflects, articulates, trills and otherwise injects a whole lot of personality into that single note. I spent a ridiculous amount of time on that sax, exploring every possible way that the general midi standard could be used to replicate the original. I also spent a lot of time on the basic horn arrangements throughout the rest of the song. I must say, this is my finest horn work ever. I am real happy with the horn results and I hope you have a good enough sound card to hear them too.



Elton’s keyboard work in this song is low key and mostly in the background. The best I can make out is that he’s using a chorused electric piano sound that is either triggering or being duplicated by a synth pad. Davey Johnstone also stays in the background doing mostly muted guitar work that adds to the mix in a subtle way.

The bass and drums in This Town are locked into a disco style beat. The bass player throws in some octave “whoop-dee-doos” every so often and the drummer is locked in a groove that probably includes more cymbal and hi-hat work than I’ve captured in this midi. The combined sound of these guys however is really punchy and works great against those hot horns.

Harmonically it’s a simple little tune. The intro is Cm (or Cm7 if you prefer), the verse is Cm7 and F, and the chorus shifts up to the relative major with Eb, Bb, and F. A G major chord is used to transition back to the Cm. Structurally, the 4-bar intro leads to 2 6-bar verses and an 8-bar chorus and then the whole thing repeats. There’s no bridge per se unless you count a little segue between the song and the multiple repeat choruses at the end. Those repeat choruses give the sax player lots of space to rock out.

Attention there you detail freaks. Midway through the 2nd verse, Elton sings about canes tapping on the pavenment. Did you hear the canes tapping on the pavement? Yeah, I got that in the midi too!

Hope you like it.

 
 

 This Train Don't Stop
There Anymore
ALBUM
Songs From The West Coast
DATE
2001
Midi
29 KB
Piano Midi
22 KB
Karaoke
32 KB
Score
(Sample)
ARRANGEMENT
Studio Version
DATE
2001
Key: F	Structure: A-B-C-A-B-C-D-B-C
 
Please help support this website! The full score is available for a nominal fee. The money is used to pay for the domain name and the web hosting service. Open the sample score above to learn how to acquire the full score.

Another of the magnificent songs on this album, some might even argue that This Train is the best of them all. It's set to an easy going swing beat and, like the rest of the album, places Elton's piano and voice prominently in the mix. It again features a stripped down sound, not even a guitar in this one, and Paul Buckmaster adds an elegant but restrained string arrangement. Elton himself has compared this song to the breezy swing sound of Burt Bacharach.

The intro is in Ab. Elton does a tasteful little diatonic downward progression to the Db. At the end, he modulates to the key of F by dropping chromatically to the C7. The chromatic move lends a jazz feel. Along with the swing rhythm, it clearly establishes a smokey-bar ambience to the whole affair. Too bad Elton didn't bring in a stand up bass to complete the mood.

Now when faced with the swing 8th rhythm, there are two ways to notate: either with tuplet 8ths or with 16th notes. Neither one is strictly correct. I chose to use 16ths.



Elton sets the verse against one of the simplest and oldest of harmonic patterns, the I - vi - ii - V pattern, used by the great songwriters from the 1930's and the early jazz era. Elton spices it up with jazzy 9th and 7th chords. The melody is memorable and so very easy to sing along with.

Elton modulates from a C7th back up to the Ab for an 8-bar pre-chorus. This modulation works because there is a common note, i.e. C, between the two keys. This leads to the chorus which follows a IV - V - I - vi - ii - V - I harmonic pattern. Notice that this is only a slight variation from the verse, albeit in a different key. By ending on the I or Ab chord, this is a perfect segue back to the intro.



Bernie's lyrics are powerful and bittersweet. Elton's singing and phrasing wring every bit of heartfelt sentiment out of this tale of growing older, wisdom and reflection. Elton's train may not stop there anymore, but his brilliant songwriting continues its journey down the tracks.
 
 

 Without Question
ALBUM
Elton John's The Road to El Dorado
DATE
2000
Midi
43 KB
Karaoke
45 KB
Score
200 KB
MP3
704 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Live Band Version
DATE
17-Feb-2000
Key: G	Structure: A-B-C-A-B-C-C
 
In 2000, Elton once again teamed up with lyricist Tim Rice to write a dozen songs for the animated film The Road to El Dorado. As part of the promotion for the movie, Elton made personal appearances and performed several concerts with a full band to play several of the tracks from the movie. This version of the song is taken from a performance on VH1 recorded in February and broadcast in March. Pretty much it's identical to the studio version.

The word that first came to mind when I heard this song was beautiful. Elton has done it again. He absolutely has conquered the animation song medium. In conquering it, he set a standard that will be difficult for others to match. I've included the mp3 for your reference. You can tell Elton's in a great mood as he introduces the song with a brief story complete with some baudy humor.

There are several key things to note. First of all, the piano is very much a role player rather than being in the forefront of this arrangement. By in large, and even more so in the studio version, the piano stays in the background interwoven with the other instruments. There is no prototypical Elton piano playing here.

Nevertheless, this is a beautifully crafted song filled with simple little parts shared by all of the other instruments. The strings really embrace the harmonies and melody. The little organ part blends in beautifully and compliments Elton's singing in the opening verse. The fretless bass - just gorgeous even though limited to 2 well placed riffs in the song. And finally that little horn riff pops out. Truly amazing! This is producer Patrick Leonard's work and it makes the song just shine.

As with all great Elton songs, there is a signature riff. This one is a trip around the circle-of-fourths starting at Eb. It shows up in the beginning, middle and end of the song and stands out as an excellent contrast against the G-major palette established in the rest of the song. Through syncopation and harmony, it provides both movement and focus.



The verses follow a simple ballad path using I-IV-V-I. The chorus modulates to C, leading to an amazing and dramatic Em7b5 under the words "I love you" which then resolves to an A7. Those 3 words, "I love you," have probably been used in more songs than any other 3, but I challenge anyone to find an example of a piece of music which more passionately supports them musically than this song. It's a beautiful moment in a beautiful piece of music.

Ultimately the movie was not much of a success. As a result, the music didn't do so well either and Elton soon dropped it from his set lists. It's really a shame if you ask me because I still love it here at the Music Café.

 
 

 
Bennie And The Jets
ALBUM
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
DATE
1973
Midi
33 KB
Karaoke
36 KB
Score
875 KB
MP3
6.5 MB
ARRANGEMENT
Live Solo Piano Version
Madison Square Gardens
DATE
15-Oct-1999
Key: G	Structure: A-B-A-B-A-B-C
Sponsored by Daniel
 
Without a doubt, Bennie is one of Elton's most idiosyncratic songs. The song kind of careens from a weird march into a pop-sounding verse and then somewhere later it breaks out into a bluesy solo. The lyrics, which really don't make much sense at all, can only conjure up images for those who are halucinogenicly inspired. Meanwhile Elton delivers the song as if he's a musical Ringmaster presenting Bennie at a 3-ring circus.

And you know what? IT ALL WORKS! In fact it works spectacularly. It's one of Elton's greatest hits, a staple at all of his shows and one that the whole audience usually sings along with.

Among all the versions of Bennie out there, this one is fairly unique. Sometimes referred to as the "In the Mood" version, it features a lengthy jam that breaks into the old Glenn Miller swing tune "In the Mood." Elton breaks into some incredible boogie woogie playing that shows off his piano virtuosity. You aren't gonna believe it!

As both a pianist and fan, Elton's solo tour in 1999 continually impresses me as one of the greatest achievements of his career. It's my privilege to share this classic music with you.

THE INTRO
Elton has always been famous for his piano intros, and this one is no exception. While not a "riff" in the way we usually think of riffs, it is nevertheless a piano statement that is instantly recognizeable and in fact can only be used for this song. That's right. Think about it. You can't play a major 7th chord like this for any other song now. Elton has removed it from the piano vocabularly and reserved it exclusively for Bennie.

The studio version starts off with a single F-Major7 (FM7), before launching into the slow "march" in GM7. The tempo turns out to be perfect for the kind of strutting and preening that one can imagine for the glam-rock subjects in the lyrics. The song is in the key of G. Since Maj-7th chords don't exist side by side in classical music theory, the whole step drop to F represents a temporary key shift. Whole step drops from I to bVII however are so common in rock and pop, that we no longer think of it as a key shift. The basis for this is the blues or from the mixolydian mode, both of which allow a wholestep down from the I.



Of course, Elton doesn't just play straight Maj-7th chords. Throughout the song, you'll see lots of little variations, giving the chords some shifts and movements that keep things interesting.

VERSE
For the verse, Elton shifts into more of a pop style using his standard arpeggiation style on the piano. As I've explained many times on these pages, this involves playing various patterns from the notes of a 4-note chord. He generally plays the chord on the quarter note beat, and the patterns on the 16th notes.

We start with a simple ii - V - I chord progression, as seen in the following example.



This is a standard cadence straight out of the circle of 4ths. After that, rather than shift to the relative minor chord of Em, Elton uses the E7. This is a dominant 7th chord which doesn't naturally occur in the key of G. The function of this chord is to lead us back to the Am chord, hence it acts as a dominant V chord. As a result, the E7 is usually referred to as the "V of ii."

Elton follows this up with some variations. You can see the pattern.

|| ii · V · | I · VI7 (V of ii) · |

| ii · V · | vi · · · |

| ii · iii · | IV · · · ||

In the 2nd pass, instead of going to the I-chord (G), he goes to the relative minor (vi or E-minor). In the 3rd pass, he moves diatonically up the scale. Note that the iii (B-minor) is the relative minor of D, the V of the scales.

CHORUS
The chorus takes us in another direction in this crazy song. Elton shifts into a swing rhythm and his playing goes from his standard arpeggiation style into his funk style. It's most evident when he yanks off this riff on the C7th.



Solo
Of course we're all familiar with the following non-improvised solo that had it's roots back in the original studio recording of Bennie. Elton has always played this bit with only slight changes. It's built off the chords to the verse and it's got a memorable bluesy swing feel to it.



Later on, Elton launches into a blues based jam based on the G7 and F7 chords. Elton has an astonishing vocabulary of blues lines and licks that he draws from. In keeping with the general character of this song, he infuses this solo with a great sense of playfulness. But make no mistake. He's executing this playful solo with razor sharp precision. You can hear the snap in his left hand rhythm - precise as a metronome. The phrasing of the right hand lines comes from short legato lines that end with one or more stacatto notes or a chord stab. The grace notes sort of whipsaw into the chords or lines. I've tried my best to show this with articulation symbols in the notation, but listening to the original will be your best guide.



And finally, Elton breaks into some serious boogie woogie. You gotta have chops to pull this off.



As always, I hope you find as much enjoyment in these songs as I do, documenting the greatest songwriter pianist of our times.

 
 

 Candle in the Wind
ALBUM
Live in Australia With the 
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
DATE
1987
Midi
20 KB
Karaoke
24 KB
Score
164 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Live Solo Version
DATE
1986
Key: E	Structure: A-B-A-B-A-B
 
This version of Candle is a complete remake of one of the first songs I ever transcribed. Unfortunately that earlier version had numerous errors. We've probably all heard enough of Candle - no one actually requested it from me. Nevertheless, it is one of Elton's biggest hits and from a personal standpoint, I needed to get it right for the record. - Glen

 

INTRODUCTION
Candle in the Wind has an astonishing track record, even by Elton's lofty standards. As a single, the song has been released 3 times: 1st in 1974, this version which was released in 1987, and finally the Princess Di version released in 1997. The amazing thing about it: each release was more successful than the previous.

Here I'm presenting the 2nd version, a version that has always fascinated me. When it was first released, I was intrigued because HIS PLAYING IS TOTALLY DIFFERENT FROM THE ORIGINAL! Alright, alright it's not such a big thing, but it was a revelation to me in 1987. I loved the original version of Candle, but it had not gotten all that much airplay back in 1974. By the way, you can find a transcription of the original from that excellent book The Elton John Keyboard Book that I frequently reference in these pages. It's the only other source of accurate transcriptions besides mine here at the café.

This version, with the new arrangement, skyrocketed up the charts and made it one of Elton's greatest hits. Was it the arrangement? Was it the timing? Who knows?

ELTON'S PIANO WORK 
So lets take a look at what makes Candle work. Like most of Elton's great songs, it opens with a great piano riff. In this case, it's a simple 2-bar descending pattern, descending from the B (the V of the scale) down to E or the I. But there's magic in the way Elton handles this simple riff. Notice how his lines are built off the notes from a 4-note chord (a simple triad with one note doubled an octave higher). This is the essence of how Elton voices most of his piano playing.



Elton also liberally incorporates sus-chords or suspended chord resolutions. The first one is built off the A+9 chord or the added 9th (that's the B in an A major chord). It's called a 9-to-3 resolution since the B resolves to the C#, the 3rd in A major. The second riff is a true suspended chord, the E-sus. The term suspended usually refers to the use of the 4th (the A in an E major chord). It can also be called a 4-to-3 resolution. But no matter what you call them, they make simple chords much more interesting. All of these little chord lines and riffs are what make Elton so much fun to play. They also define his playing style.



After the intro, Elton launches into his arpeggiating style of playing. You may remember that the original version of Candle has a much more sparse and open approach to the accompaniment. Because of that open approach, the original is more dramatic, allowing the lyrics to really sink in while piano chords reverberate. With the approach he takes in this version, he's laying down a soft undulating bed of harmony to sing over. It's a more soothing gentle approach to the sound.

You can see again that Elton's lines are based on a 4-note chord, although there can be exceptions. He always anchors a finger, in this case the 5 of both the left and right hands. This keeps the lines legato and facilitates some of the riffs that he throws in. The left hand will usually play either an octave or, as in this case, an open 5th. You'll also notice that Elton frequently anticipates the next chord. The last note in this bar is a B, part of the E-major chord that appears in the next bar.



For me, the following riff is what really made this version of Candle stand out. It's the 2-bar turnaround that leads into the 2nd verse. Elton does a flourish on the E that didn't exist in the original and frankly may not of worked with the approach he had taken in the original. It may have of been too much with the understated accompaniment in the original. But with his arpeggiating style, it works to perfection. I believe by changing the accompaniment and adding this riff to the song, Elton really caught the attention of a lot of people who maybe hadn't noticed the song before.



Although the album is with the Melbourne Orchestra, the orchestra did not accompany Elton on this particular song. Midway through the song, what you hear is a whole bank of synthesizers that are being triggered by Elton's piano. What makes this sound so dense and full is that the piano is divided into zones that are triggering different sounds. ITS HARD TO BELIEVE THAT THIS MUCH MUSIC CAN BE GENERATED FROM ELTON'S FINGERS! It also makes it difficult to figure out exactly what the heck Elton is playing. I'm pretty sure though that he begins playing full chords in his left hand as in the following.



Besides creating a thick chunky sound to the piano, the strings and synth pads he's triggering are dense and rich. His left hand is triggering sounds that are an octave lower than these notes. This is what creates the huge sound you hear on the recording.

STRUCTURE AND HARMONY
Candle is really one of the simplest songs Elton has ever composed, both structurally and harmonically. THIS IS NOT A BAD THING. It merely places a lot of emphasis on the other elements of the song. We've already discussed the wonderful elements of his playing, the underpinning of the song. On top of it, you've got the lyrics and melody. The lyrics of course are among Bernie's best. He takes an icon in Marilyn Monroe, and paints a remarkable portrait in just the briefest of verses. The title itself, Candle in the Wind, is an incredible symbol of Marilyn's life and, in a universal way, speaks to how fragile and precious all of life is.

So lets analyze this song. Careful, if you're skimming, you'll miss the whole analysis! The verse is just I - IV repeated through 8 bars. The G# bass adds a little tension to the 3rd and 7th bars, but that's about it.

|| E | A | E/G# | A | E | A | E/G# | A ||

The chorus is also 8 bars with a 2-bar turnaround. The focus shifts to the V of the scale, also known as the dominant. In the 6th bar, Elton introduces the only chord besides the basic I-IV-V of this song. The C#m is the relative minor of E and the vi-chord of the key. Because it shares 2 notes with the E, it can be viewed as a substitute chord for the E. It adds a little spice to the mix, but from an analytical point of view it serves the same purpose as the E.

|| B | E A | E | B | A | C#m | B | A | E | B ||

So then if we simplify this progression by replacing some of the chords with their functional harmonic equivalents, you get B-A-E, B-A-E, B-A. Pretty darn amazing, isn't it? As I mentioned, this is a darn simple song.

Oh, and let's not forget the song structure: Verse - Chorus - Verse - Chorus - Verse - Chorus

SONGS DON'T GET TOO MUCH SIMPLER THAN THIS!. But that's OK. Sometimes we have to sit back and admire how much beauty can arise out of such a simple little thing. A great artist like Elton can make it happen.

 
 

 Funeral For A Friend
ALBUM
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
DATE
1973
Midi
13 KB
Score
434 KB
MP3
7.2 MB
ARRANGEMENT
Live Solo Piano Version
Moscow, Russia
DATE
28-May-1979
Key: Am	Structure: || A-A-B | C-D | A-A ||
Sponsored by Lawrence Wilson
 
Here's a song that has stood the test of time. In the lexicon of rock and pop, you just can't find many instrumentals that have become more popular than this one. For decades Elton has used it as a grand opening to his shows. With its brooding polysynth tones and the dark atmosphere it conjures up, it provides a dramatic background for Elton's entrance. In the 1970's of course, the anticipation of Elton's entrance was heightened as everyone strained to see the latest outlandish costume that Elton would be wearing.

SONG VERSION

Since its original recording, Funeral has mostly been played in combination with other songs; most frequently Loves Lies Bleeding, but also with Tonight. However here we have a rarely heard solo piano performance, with Funeral as a stand-alone song, captured on Elton's Russian tour in 1979. The recording is from a BBC broadcast on May 28th from Moscow. Elton is accompanied by Ray Cooper, adding his unique and dramatic percussion to the songs.

As a special treat, I've included some variations in the piano score from the To Russia video. We all know that Elton doesn't play songs exactly the same way every time. At the suggestion of Lawrence, I thought it would be fun to include some of these variations in the score. In addition, I've included an alternate ending to the song that allows you to transition to Love Lies Bleeding. You can end Funeral the way Elton does on this solo version, or you can play the transition section.

Funeral, like most of Elton's greatest songs, is broken into 3 distinct sections. These sections can be thought of as movements in a mini-sonata. Using the terminology of classical composition, they are as follows:

Adagio - a slower and highly expressive statement of the main theme;
Allegro - a fast paced statement of a new "B" theme; and
Marcato - a restatement of the "A" theme in a funeral march style.
The sections don't change in tempo however as they would in a classical composition, but rather the rhythmic focus changes. Section 1 is oriented around a quarter note pulse; section 2 is focused on the 16th note; and section 3 is oriented around 8th notes. This gives the illusion of changes of tempo, without the tempo actually changing.

BASIC APPROACH TO PIANO PLAYING

Funeral begins in a relaxed style as is appropriate for its somber tone. The playing primarily focuses on the melody with only a little bit of embellishment from the chord tones.



But it isn't long before Elton is filling it out with his typical broken chord accompaniment style. As always, his approach is based around a 4-note chord. His hand always hovers over the 4-notes of the chord as he alternates between playing chords and individual notes from the chord. Elton's playing is always VERY VERY precise and rhythmic; a music student should practice getting that metronome like precision.



Of course all of us love that thundering allegro section with the pounding A's in the bass and galloping right hand. The published sheet music is egregiously screwed up, I MEAN IT'S REALLY SCREWED UP, in this section and I am really happy to finally correct this long standing problem for you. Why do they publish sheet music that is so wrong?



Elton does change the right hand part somewhat in other performances, but personally I like this one. For me, the most difficult part is switching the left hand to the E bass in the 2nd bar. HEY I'M NOT THAT GOOD A PLAYER ANYMORE! So what I do is just play the top E with my index finger and forget about jumping to the full octave. NOBODY SAID PLAYING LIKE ELTON WAS GONNA BE EASY!

In the 3rd section, Elton switches to a march format as he revisits the opening melody. The melody actually gets played in double time - you can see that the chords are changing 2X per bar rather than 1X. The "oom-pah" of the march is supplied by the left hand playing in ragtime "stride" style. At times Elton is just jumping between octaves.



HARMONIC ANALYSIS

As I study pop and rock harmony more, I discover that sometimes a song just defies the normal conventions of harmony. How else can I explain the chords from the first section of Funeral? The first 3 bars follow the Circle of 4ths. The G chord is followed by E, which is the V of A (or Am). OK this is pretty standard and it gives us the Am in bar 5. But next is a BbM7. My best estimate is that this is a substitute for Dm - essentially a Dm with a Bb bass (a Dm/Bb). This is followed by an E, a tritone jump from the Bb.

|| A - - - | Dm - Dm/C - | G/B - - - | E/G# - - - |
.| Am - - - | BbM7 - - - | E - - - | E - - E7 |

| A - - - | Dm - Dm/C - | G - - - | E/G# - - - |
| Am - - - | BbM7 - - - | E - - - | Am - - - ||

So I'm led to conclude that Elton is using chords from both the Am harmonic minor scale and the mixolydian mode (hence the G chord). Of course, that conclusion only works if we treat the Bb as a harmonic alternate of Dm and if we set aside that Elton is jumping between Am and A. Explaining all of this through conventional harmony gets to be pretty difficult.

The next section is a little easier as Elton romps through a series of chord changes in intervals of 4ths. The 4th, sometimes called the "amen" cadence, has always been one of the strongest intervals in harmony. This leads us back to an E chord, the V of Am.

|| G - - - | C - - - | Bb - - - | Eb - - - |
.| C - - - | Fm - - - | D - - - | G - - - |
.| E - - - | Am - - - | D - - - | Em - - - | E - - - ||

The allegro section is quite simple harmonically since it's just focused on the A-minor chord. After establishing this motif over the course of 8 bars, Elton repeats it for 2 bars on a G-major chord, then 2 bars on an A-major, and then finally back to the E chord.

The marcato section restates the opening melody however the melody is in double time. You can see this in the chord chart. In the solo version of the song, this is where the ending occurs.

|| A - Dm Dm/C | G/B - E/G# - | Am - BbM7 - | E - E7 - |
.| A - Dm Dm/C | G/B - E/G# - | Am - BbM7 - | E7 - Am - ||

Of course, most of us are more familiar with no ending at all. Instead of ending on the A, Elton usually begins an intense dramatic build up that leads us to Love Lies Bleeding. This is done with a throbbing A pulse in the left hand while the right hand chords climb chromatically. It's a thrilling way to build a climactic segue.

|| Bb/A - B/A - | C/A - Db/A - | D/A - Eb/A - | E/A - F/A - | etc. ||

I've presented this as an alternate ending on the score. Perhaps one day I'll get around to working on Love Lies. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy this version of Funeral.

 
 

 Levon
ALBUM
Madman Across The Water
DATE
1971
Midi
32 KB
Karaoke
33 KB
Score
269 KB
MP3
6.7 MB
ARRANGEMENT
Live Solo Piano Version
DATE
27-May-1999
Key: F	Structure: A-A-B-C-A-A-B-C-C
 
For me, Elton’s solo tours in 1999 and 2000 have become major sources of inspiration. We all love the great songs he’s written over the years, but the solo tour really put the spotlight on his piano skills. Oh we knew he was good. We knew he was really good. BUT THIS ONE IS SCARY GOOD! Be forewarned. This one rocks and you need to be a pretty good player to take it on.

It’s really a pleasure for me to sit down and work out one of Elton’s greatest songs. Levon’s got it all: classic Elton piano playing, a great melody, a fantastic bluesy solo, and the greatest piano intro ever written. 
THAT INTRO
Alright, I’ve said it before. Elton's intros come straight from the God of Music. His piano intros are nearly unmatched in the annals of popular piano playing. Anyone who has ever seriously thought about playing piano in the last 30 years, has played a few of his intros. Guitarists copy his intros. They are iconic, readily identifiable and irresistible.

Although Elton always does little variations on it, the Levon intro remains substantially the same as the original recording. The key to the intro is the use of what some musicologists call the 9-3 riff, or the 9-to-3 resolution. This refers to a chord or a partial chord that utilizes the 9th tone in the scale, most of the time in combination with the 1st and/or the 5th, and then resolving it to the 3rd. See the examples below.



For those who are curious, country pianist Floyd Cramer invented this riff in the 1950’s, and it forever changed the way country, pop, and rock piano was played. Check out his song “Last Date.” It’s an instrumental based entirely on this riff.

THE PLAYING STYLE
Elton's approach to the piano should be very familiar. It uses what I've called his default style, which features broken chord arpeggiating, over octave patterns (or sometimes 5ths) in the bass. Rhythmic syncopations and riffs are worked into the mix in almost every bar. These are the essential elements that create that lush full sounding accompaniment that defines Elton's piano playing.



Elton can play like this all day and night and still keep it interesting. Rhythmically and dynamically, he has perfected (and I say patented) this style of playing. He is able to spin hundreds of little variations to this basic approach: different chord inversions, different chord patterns, different accents, different rhythmic variations, different riffs, different left hand patterns.

Frankly this style is so identified with Elton, I believe other pianists have to consciously avoid playing like this because they would just sound like second rate Elton copy cats.

THE SONG STRUCTURE 
Levon follows a song pattern that has proven to be very successful for Elton, namely the A-A-B-C pattern. This pattern involves two verses followed by a pre-chorus and then the chorus. It’s the same pattern he used in Tiny Dancer (and also Razor Face for that matter). There are many others, (e.g. Philadelphia Freedom, Crocodile Rock)

For contrast compare it to the very simple A-B pattern of Candle in the Wind (verse-chorus) or the A-A-B pattern of Your Song (verse-verse-chorus).

For reference, the pre-chorus in Levon begins with the line, He was born a pauper to a pawn, and continues through the line, Alvin Tostig has a son today.

The point I’m making here is that Elton’s pre-choruses are simply brilliant. A pre-chorus acts as a transitional element between the verse and the chorus. It’s usually related harmonically to the verse, but it takes a different path. Most pre-choruses are innocuous variants of the verse.

But Elton’s greatest pre-choruses, like the one in Levon, serve to build up an incredible amount of dramatic anticipation and tension. As the melody reaches to higher notes, the tension builds up and in the process the song moves you upwards to a whole new level. That intensity that he builds and sustains over several lines is finally released in the chorus. Part of what makes the chorus so wonderful and enjoyable, is the quality of being released from the anticipation that preceded it.

It’s a lot like being on a roller coaster ride, courtesy of Elton John. 
THE HARMONIC STRUCTURE
Harmonically, Levon stays strictly within the root key of F. Even the casual listener can hear that much of the song consists of alternating between F and Bb, the I and IV chords in F. For a song that stays strictly in one key, I think it's fascinating how Levon rarely hits the C, the V of the key.

He also uses his diatonic minor chords extensively: Gm, Am, and Dm, the ii, iii, and vi of the key respectively. Let's take a closer look at the major sections of Levon.

Verse

|| F · Bb/F · | F · · · | Bb · · · | F/A · · · |

| C/E · · · | Dm · · · | Am7 · Bb · | Gm7 · · · ||

Elton uses a parallel bass pattern in bars 3-4 and 5-6. First he descends from Bb to A, jumps a 4th, and then descends from E to D. In both cases, he's using the 3rd of the chord as the bass (also known as the 1st inversion) to create a much richer and smoother transition from chord to chord. These 1st inversion chords use the slash notation, as in F-slash-A and C-slash-E. This approach to harmony illustrates the principle of voice leading.

By contrast, if you tried using these chords with just the roots in the bass, you'd get Bb to F and then C to D. You'd notice how different the chords would sound. The transition from chord to chord would be more jarring and disconnected.

I also note how Elton holds out the Gm7 in the last bar. Many of us would expect to see a C-chord of some type here. After all, that's the way we usually transition back to the beginning of a verse in the key of F. Maybe something like this:

| Gm7 · Gm7/C · ||

Try it out. I MEAN IT! TRY IT OUT! It works, only it's not as good.

Pre-Chorus

|| Am7 · Dm F/C | Bb · F/A · | Gm7 · F · |

| Bb · F/A · | Gm7 · · · | Gm7 · · F/A ||

While the pre-chorus stays in the key of F, there are several really different ways in which Elton approaches this section:

2 chords per bar instead of the more leisurely 1 chord per bar in the verse. This gives you more movement.
No pauses between the melody phrases. The verse consists of 1 bar of melody, 1 bar of pause. This gives the section more urgency.
6 bars instead of 8. By eliminating any pauses between the phrases, Elton contracts the section to 6 bars.
Chorus

Harmonically, you can't get much simpler than the chorus to Levon. The focus is on the Bb, the IV of the key, but otherwise it just alternates between the F and Bb. The chorus is the only place where the C appears in its traditional dominant role, anticipating the return to F.

|| Bb · · · | F/A · · · | Bb · · · | F/A · · · |

| Bb · · · | F/A · · · | Bb+9 · · · | Csus · C · ||

In the original studio version, this section showed off the revolutionary string arrangements of Paul Buckmaster. At the time Levon was released, Elton and Buckmaster were at the very forefront of establishing how strings could be incorporated into a rock and roll setting. The Madman album was one of the greatest examples of this for its time, and represented a model that many future orchestrators would learn from.

After the chorus, we have a short transition back to the verse. Rather than repeating the opening riff , Elton goes into a 4-bar section that consists of a droning F. Again, in the original, we had Buckmaster's strings carrying the musical burden. In the solo setting, the emphasis is placed on Elton's arpeggiating piano work.

THE JAM SECTION
Elton closes the song out with a fabulous jam over the two chords F and Bb. He uses his funky blues style and it's filled with riffs that should sound familiar to Elton fans. It will take some serious chops to make this music snap to the beat and play it at the breakneck tempo that Elton plays it at. This is the stuff we go crazy for!

WARNING: THIS IS ADVANCED ROCK AND ROLL PIANO PLAYING OF THE HIGHEST ORDER!

Here's some Elton funky style stuff. The grace notes are crushed, not articulated.


Here's an Elton variation to a classic blues riff.


And it climaxes into some pure rock and roll pounding at the top and bottom of the piano.


So there it is. I hope this analysis has helped give you greater insight into Levon and the piano skills of Elton John. Enjoy!

 
 

 Philadelphia Freedom
ALBUM
None - Single Only
Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
- The Classic Years
DATE
1975
1995
Midi
63 KB
Karaoke
68 KB
Score
1.1 MB
MP3
1.1 MB
ARRANGEMENT
Live Solo Piano Version
DATE
15-Oct-1999
Key: Bb	Structure: A-B-C-A-B-C-C
Sponsored by Paul Ochs
 
One of Elton's masterpieces, Philadelphia Freedom was released during Elton's golden era when everything he touched turned to gold. It was originally released as a single. Although it was recorded about the same time as Captain Fantastic, it didn't fit into the autobiographical concept album. However it was later included on the 1995 re-release of the album.

The original recording of Philadelphia featured the orchestra arrangements of Gene Page (d. 1998), one of the great Motown arrangers who gave 100s of songs their classic R&B / soul sound. This solo arrangement leaves out many of the characteristic riffs which are played by the orchestra. This includes the famous opening riff with its single-note string pulse and descending horns followed by a flute flourish. When he plays in the band, Elton typically reproduces the original orchestral arrangement with Guy Babylon covering the orchestra parts with his keyboards.

This particular version, like many I've featured lately, comes from Elton's 1999 solo tour, with the performance recorded on October 15/16, 1999 at Madison Square Gardens.

OVERVIEW
Of course its normal to make changes or leave certain things out in a solo piano arrangement. With this arrangement, Elton decides to transform Philadelphia into a little more bluesy sounding tune. The following figure shows the basic blues figure that Elton uses throughout the song when he's not singing. It features a pulsing left hand and a right hand pattern built on the Bb blues scale.

In this particular performance, Elton doesn't cut loose much during the blues sections. I've heard other performances from the 1999 solo tour in which he adds more riffs and improvised flourishes. Maybe you can find your own blues licks to add into this version.





Elton maintains a rocking left hand pulse throughout the song, as shown in the following figure. But don't feel like you have to rigidly follow what's written down on the sheet music all the time. Depending on what's going on in the right hand, sometimes I find myself playing just straight quarter notes. Elton switches it up all the time too. After all, IT'S ROCK AND ROLL, not classical music! Do whatever feels good to you.



 

SONG STRUCTURE
Philadelphia Freedom is a fairly lengthy song, even without the extended blues sections Elton adds into this live version. The basic song structure incorporates an A-section (verse), a B-section (pre-chorus) and a C-section (chorus). Each of these sections is approximately the same in length. The A and B sections are 16 bars, the C section is 18 bars.

HARMONY
There are plenty of interesting things going on in Philadelphia. The song stays within the framework of the root key of Bb, but each of the 3 sections are fairly independent of each other. Each of them uses a different harmonic logic. Look at the following overview of the harmony.

 	
Harmonic Transition
 
A Section

Bb
to
Bb	Static; very little chord movement
 	
 	 	 
B Section

Eb
to
Bb	Shift to the subdominant key of Eb; 1st half works on the I, IV, V chords of Eb, Ab, and Bb; the 2nd half features chromatic descending chords that eventually return to the Eb.
 	
Ab
to
Eb
 	
 	 	 
C Section

Bb
to
D	Back to the root chord; 1st half ends with a secondary dominant, the III (D chord); 2nd half uses circle-of-fourths and diatonic progressions through various minor and major chords.
 	
Gm
to
Cm7
HAVE WE MENTIONED THAT ELTON JOHN IS A SONGWRITING GENIUS?

What gives Philadelphia Freedom a lot of its unique sound are chord structures and chord progressions that Elton doesn't use too often. Take a look at these chromatic chord progressions. In most of his music, when Elton moves the bass chromatically, the chords themselves are not chromatic, but rather inversions built from the circle-of-fourths. In this song, he uses straight major and minor chromatic chords to move from point A to point B. The first example is from the A section.



This example is from the B section where Elton travels chromatically from Ab to Eb.



 	 
Elton uses a lot of cluster chords in Philadelphia and incorporates them into his riffs. Cluster chords usually involve grabbing one or more of the notes that fall in between the notes of the triad.	

 


As always, I've tried to give you some insight into Elton's particular genius at the craft of songwriting. It is my great pleasure to share a classic like this one for all of you aspiring musicians and fans like. Enjoy!

 
 

 Rocket Man
ALBUM
Honky Château
DATE
1972
Midi
39 KB
Karaoke
43 KB
Score
954 KB
MP3
2.3 MB
ARRANGEMENT
Live Solo Piano Version
DATE
15-Oct-1999
Key: Bb	Structure: A-B-B-A-B-B-improv
 
One of Elton's greatest and most enduring songwriting achievements, Rocket Man is one of a handful of signature songs beloved by all. Bernie's evocative imagery and Elton's soaring melody combined to create a powerful ode to the conflicts felt by a man whose job takes him away from his wife. For years Elton has played an extended version of the song, using the piano and his voice to create a dreamy feeling of drifting through space. Originally released on the Honky Château album, this particular version was performed October 15th/16th, 1999 in a solo piano show at Madison Square Gardens, New York. The album is only available to members of the EltonJohn.com fan club.

This particular version of the song is well over nine minutes in length and captures all the power and beauty of the performance. Elton noodles over two of his favorite chords, Bb and Eb, for over five minutes, showing off a seemingly infinite variety of riffs, licks, and runs throughout. In the process he takes us through several dynamic sections, each one building up to a thundering climax and then bringing us back down.

HARMONIC STRUCTURE
At its core, Rocket Man has a fairly simple chord structure, but Elton uses cluster chords, added 9ths, suspensions and slash chords to add lots of harmonic interest to the sound. The following figure shows the basic chord structure. Many of you may notice that Elton handles the C-chord differently in this version than the original studio recording. In the original, the C in bars 2 and 4 of the verse was played as a C9. Throughout this version, Elton uses variations of the slash chord Gm7/C, which emphasizes the F (the 11th in C) and eliminates the E found in the C9-chord. The lack of an E is why I chose not to label this a C11-chord.



Rocket Man is in the key of Bb - 2 flats. But the C-major chord does not occur naturally in the key of Bb. That chord and the | Gm | C | pattern really suggest that we're in the key of F, the dominant of Bb. It's only when we get to bar 5 where the Eb is introduced that we shift to the home key of Bb. While not a dramatic key change, it enhances the harmonic palette in a manner that should sound very familiar. Elton's not inventing anything new here. This particular device has been prevalent in rock and blues since the beginning. It's just worth pointing out. If you close your eyes and listen, you'll hear the harmonic center of gravity shifting in bar 5.

A SIGNATURE RIFF
Starting with the 5th bar of each 8-bar verse, the song descends diatonically, ending with an F/A chord. The A bass establishes a tension which gives the harmony the option of either flowing back to the Gm in the next verse or the Bb in the chorus. Elton punctuates this F with a riff which he repeats mostly unchanged throughout the song. The following figure shows this riff - perhaps the most defining riff in Rocket Man. It's a strong, full-handed, solid riff that will take a little practice to perfect. In particular, the phrasing of this riff should achieve some snap or rhythmic propulsion.



THAT ELTON SOUND
The chorus and the extended solo section employ Elton's familiar arpeggiating style of accompaniment. The beauty of this is that it provides a soft rippling cushion of harmonic innerplay and rhythmic energy, played to an absolutely brilliant melody. While Elton uses this same approach in a lot of his playing, I am fascinated by the infinite variety of patterns he's able to inject into it. He transforms the arpeggio, generally thought of as a repetitive pattern of notes from a chord, into a palette of colors and shades that are uniquely suited for each individual song. The following figure is just one small example of this ability.



Elton uses several devices to keep things interesting in this style of playing:

Varying the arpeggio pattern
Incorporating passing tones and added 9ths
Accenting notes on off beats, frequently with thumb notes
Hitting a chord on the upbeat (e.g. 4th bar above)
One of the most crucial aspects of that Elton sound, namely his phrasing, is achieved through the use of anchors. Anchors are notes that he holds while playing others. In the left hand, he typically uses his little finger as an anchor while playing the 5th or the octave with his thumb. In the right hand, he shifts the anchor between his thumb and his little finger - a bottom anchor or a top anchor. The anchor keeps his playing legato without overusing the pedal. OVERUSE OF THE PEDAL is a crucial problem for beginning pianists. USE THE ANCHORS to achieve a legato sound.

The use of anchors is reflected in the voicing. The following figure shows how Elton's right hand anchors are always shifting.



In the first 3 beats, he anchors his thumb on the 2nd 16th note of each beat, i.e. the G below middle C. Using this anchor, he is able to phrase and accent the following notes anyway he chooses. For instance, he can easily accent the Eb that occurs prior to the 2nd beat. BUT THE POINT HERE IS is that he shifts his anchor in the 4th beat and into the 2nd bar. The Eb before the 4th beat becomes the anchor (most likely played with the 4th finger). In the 2nd bar, the Bb, played with the little finger, becomes the anchor. Then in the 3rd beat, the thumb becomes the anchor. This shifting of anchors is what opens up all of the richness in Elton's playing.

CONCLUSION
I am thrilled to present this song to fans of my website. As with all my transcriptions, the intent is to document one of the greatest songwriters ever, and one of the greatest pianist / performers of all time. In the process I hope to provide a little bit of insight into his genius.

 
 

 Someone Saved My Life Tonight
ALBUM
Captain Fantastic and the 
Brown Dirt Cowboy
DATE
1975
Midi
56 KB
Karaoke
61 KB
Score
263 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Studio Version
DATE
1975
Key: Ab	Structure: A-B-A-B-C-B
 
Back in 2001, when I began this site, I wasn't aware that Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation had published a transcription of this song. You can find it in The Elton John Keyboard Book. It’s an excellent book – the only book of transcriptions other than the ones at my web site. It does a pretty good job with about 8 A-list songs and another 8 or 9 B-list songs. I recommend you buy this book because since I discovered it, my policy has been that I won't repeat any of the songs found in it.

Someone Saved My Life Tonight is one of Elton’s great achievements. When I take on a song of this stature, I feel its important to provide a serious analysis of the music so that Elton-a-holics can get some music appreciation in the process. Sometimes these A-list songs have so much genius in them, doing any justice to the analysis becomes a project in and of itself.

Part of what makes Someone Saved My Life so interesting is that YOU CAN’T TELL EXACTLY WHAT KEY ITS IN. From a harmonic perspective, Elton’s entire purpose is to keep the listener off-base about the tonal center for this song. He stretches this uncertainty out for the longest time, shifting between 3 different keys. When he does finally resolve to a root tonic, it’s only for a brief moment and then he takes off again. This tonal uncertainty is a perfect match for the dramatic lyrics about confusion and despair in Elton’s personal life. Combine this with a brilliant melody, a compelling vocal interpretation and an unforgettable piano riff and voila, you’ve got a monster hit from a pop genius.

Another important aspect of this song is the very obvious influence of the Beach Boys and the genius of Brian Wilson. Later in this analysis, I’m going to suggest that there’s a connection between this song and God Only Knows.

THE INTRO
Let’s first look at the piano riff in the intro. Elton is just incredible at coming up with signature riffs. This is another one, like Levon, like Bennie and the Jets, like Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me, like The One, etc. etc. The average listener only needs to hear about 1 second of this intro in order to identify the tune. Here's the classic intro riff with its partial scales in the left hand.



The intro sets the stage for the tonal uncertainty of the entire song. We start with an Ab over the Eb bass, a slash chord, notated as Ab/Eb. The uneasiness you sense is because it doesn’t establish if we’re in the key of Ab or Eb. The partial scale in the left hand that follows doesn’t help set the key since it could represent an Eb major scale or an Ab scale that starts on the 5th of the key. Either way, the Ab, which is the dominant of Db, seems to resolve to a root Db chord. The net effect of the 2 bars is that we can’t decide if the song is in Ab or Db.

THE VERSE
The verse is essentially a harmonic journey through 3 keys over the course of 12 bars (well, 12 and a half to be precise). The verse starts in that very tentative Ab key, arrives at Db at the midpoint, and then ends in Eb. These of course are the natural major chords in the key of Ab. The structure of the verse divides itself into three (and a half), three and six bars.

The first 6 and a half bars, which use a descending bassline to modulate into the sub-dominant key, are shown in the following example. Elton modulates to Db WITHOUT EVER ESTABLISHING the tonic in the first place.



The first 3 bars use a descending diatonic pattern, that is, the bass line follows notes in the scale and these notes are the basis for the chords. When he reaches the Bb bass note in bar 3, Elton plays a Gb chord over the Bb bass. Diatonically, a Bbm chord is the natural chord in the key of Ab, but Elton has changed keys on us. The Gb chord, which can be interpreted as the bVII (flat-7) of Ab, actually functions as the IV of Db in this instance. You can hear it resolve very solidly to the Db, although Elton uses the Db/Ab, maintaining the diationic pattern. The last few bars shift between the IV and the V of the new key, finally resolving to a root position Db.

While the first 6 and a half bars basically use half note harmony changes, the following 6 bars shift to whole note harmony structure. It uses a VI7 (depending on what key you think we’re in) to modulate.



The second half of the verse is a build up to the chorus. It uses the natural tension of a I to VI7 chord change. The VI7 is a secondary dominant. It acts as V7 in a new key, Eb. This tension builder is repeated while the melody climbs higher and higher, finally climaxing with the resolution into the key of Eb.

Hello. You've just been taken from Ab to Db to Eb.

THE CHORUS
True to form, Elton doesn’t stay with the Eb, but does an immediate direct modulation back down into Db. At this point, one just has to marvel at the grace with which Elton has transported us from one key to another. Just take a minute to compare this with your typical pop progressions: I-IV-I-IV; I-vi-ii-V; etc. They never, never, never would have measured up for this song.

The chorus starts off with a 2-bar pattern on I and vi. This is repeated once. On the third repetition, Elton goes back to the I - VI7 pattern (i.e. Db - Bb7), a guaranteed tension builder. As it was in the verse, this tension-building pattern is used as a harmonic undercurrent for a melodic climax at the end of the chorus. But this time, instead of taking us to the Eb, Elton shifts back to Db and a descending bassline that leads us back to the intro riff.



THE BRIDGE
The bridge neatly slides into a reflective tone which provides some relieve from the almost non-stop melodic and harmonic climaxes that the song has taken you through. It utilizes the Db and Ab tonal centers and their associated relative minors. Of course to bring us back into the song, Elton once again employs his I-VI7 device which lifts us up into the final chorus.



THE ARRANGEMENT
Elton sticks to a 4-beat straight chord accompaniment style with the piano. It’s basically a gospel style with very few flourishes or ornaments (except for the intro of course). The Rhodes electric piano doubles the piano, providing a soft, ringing pad in the mix. By taking this simple approach to the piano playing, it concentrates your attention on the vocal.

The overall length of this song at 6:40 is astounding (although not uncommon for Elton) and must have been a real problem for radio programmers. The drums and bass provide just the lightest of accompaniment to the piano. The bass stays very simple and unobtrusive throughout the entire song, essentially following Elton’s left hand. The drum provides a simple cymbal beat until a whopping 2:20 minutes into the song when it comes alive with a crash and a rock beat. All of the mini climaxes and tension builders provide the drummer with plenty of opportunities for tom rolls and crashes, and Nigel supplies these with his characteristic style. For me, Nigel’s drum work is part of the signature sound of many of Elton’s hits.

The bridge brings in some guitar, organ and synth into the mix. If you listen carefully, you’ll hear the guitar providing harmonics in the closing refrain.

CONNECTION TO THE BEACH BOYS
I think most people immediately recognize the Beach Boys vocal harmony style in the backing vocals. In general, backing vocals do not play a prominent role in Elton’s songs. That’s why these stand out. Although limited, they are a focal point of the arrangement when they come in. The “Oo, Oo, Oo” at the end of the chorus is just as important as the melody. It contributes significantly to the emotional empathy that the song invites you to feel; kind of a sad and reflective response to the climatic call to fly away and be free.

In transcribing the backing vocals, I have to admit that I have some difficulty hearing group vocals and / or replicating them in midi. Beach Boy vocals are noted for their counterpoint and suspensions, for their fullness, and for their high register melodic leaps. I’ve tried my best to capture that in this midi.

Beyond the vocals though, this song draws quite a bit in particular from the Beach Boys’ hit song God Only Knows. Part of Brian Wilson’s genius was to stretch the harmonic vocabulary of pop music in a lot of different directions. In God Only Knows, he set about to achieve the same goal as Elton does here, namely to avoid establishing a tonal center. Both songs employ a lot of the same harmonic tricks, specifically, they both rarely hit the root of a chord, preferring to use inversions with the 3rd or 5th in the bass. Both songs also shift between 2 keys that are a 4th apart from each other. In that regard, both of them achieve the same sort of uneasy feeling with respect to a tonic key.

I make no attempt to compare Elton and Brian. In terms of harmonic complexity and diversity, Brian Wilson has few peers; just sheer genius in a way that’s very different from Elton’s. But by employing some of Wilson’s brilliance to his own style, Elton achieves his own zenith.

CONCLUSION
The Elton John / Bernie Taupin partnership may have reached a peak on this song. I don’t know, but as an Elton fan, going through this song from beginning to end over the course of the many hours it took to do this work, I have to admit to being absolutely overwhelmed. This song is a treasure, a jewel in the Elton John crown. I hope you’ll take the time to get re-acquainted with Someone Saved My Life Tonight as I have.

 
 

 Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word
ALBUM
Blue Moves
DATE
1976
Midi
15 KB
Karaoke
17 KB
Score
273 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Studio Version
DATE
1976
Key: Bb (Gm)	Structure: A-A-B-A-B-A-B
 
INTRODUCTION
Sorry may be the best of Elton's melancholy ballads. He doesn't have many of them and most of them are wonderful, but this one is a stand-out to me. You can feel the pain right through your speakers as the words and Elton's delivery just ache. Reportedly Elton wrote the music before the words, something he rarely does, and also reportedly he wrote many of the key phrases before bringing Bernie in. More than 25 years after it's release, the song still can be heard on the radio on a regular basis. Ray Charles had been covering the song for several years and recorded a duet with Elton in 2004 shortly before his death, once again revitalizing interest in it.

The arrangement features strings, bass, accordion and vibes from Ray Cooper. It gives the song a cabaret feel. Let's take a look at the music itself.

ANALYSIS
The music for Sorry hinges on 2 descending chord patterns. These patterns really illustrate some key harmonic issues. So let's take a look at them. First up is the intro. Like many of Elton's greatest songs, it's has a distinctive piano hook. The solo piano plays a lonely, quiet and expressive pattern that perfectly sets the mood for the song.



The pattern uses a series of what are commonly called "slash" chords - the name being derived from the "/" symbol in the chord which indicates the bass note. You won't find the slash chord in classical harmony, but the term has become standard in popular music because it accurately represents exactly what's being played. I find it fascinating that the song STARTS with the Gm/F, NOT a Gm. The F gives it an off balance feel right from the start.

Naming chords is part science, part art. Theoretically you can come up with a lot of different names for a given chord, but ultimately the purpose is to accurately convey what's being played. Let's look at some different possible names for these chords:

Gm/F	Gm7 3rd inversion	F13
Gm/E	Em7b5	 
Gm/Eb	EbM7	 
Gm/D	Gm 2nd inversion	 
Now technically, you probably wouldn't want to call the first chord an F13. With extended chords, you typically expect to see the 3rd or the 5th from the root of the chord (A or C in the case of F). My point is though, that while the chord names in the 2nd column are accurate, the 1st column is much easier to read and understand.

From the descending pattern, we move to circle-of-4ths pattern. Here's the verse, using the chord numbers from the home key of Bb.

vi (Gm) - ii (Cm) - V (F) - I (Bb)

NOW THIS IS A GREAT LESSON FOR BEGINNING SONGWRITERS! Going from the intro to the verse, Elton uses the 2 principal ways of building a harmonic pattern. The first is the diatonic method, moving in scale tones. You can move diatonically either up or down and you'll create a pleasant harmonic pattern. The second method is the circle-of-4ths, where the chords are a 4th apart from each other. (There is a technical reason why the circle sounds good, but we won't go into that here. Just accept it.)

The chorus uses another diatonic descending pattern, again as shown by the series of slash chords.



Once again, this pattern avoids hitting the root of any chord. By using the 3rd or 5th in the bass, the harmony has a more uneasy feel to it. If your ears aren't experienced, the difference is very subtle. I encourage you to check out the difference for yourself. Play Eb with an Eb in the bass - it's got a solid, resolved sound to it. Play it with the G in the bass, and you get a different feel, like it wants to move somewhere else. Elton has used this device extensively in his work. He's certainly not alone in using it, but its a very important concept for the advanced fan of Elton to appreciate.

Sorry is a short little song. For the most part, it can be played from a chord chart as Elton mostly just hits chords on the quarter note pulse. There are a few little riffs in it, riffs such as the C-riff in the middle bar above. Most of these should be familiar to the listener as coming from the Elton library of riffs. He's got about a million of them.

But aside from all this academic analysis, Sorry is a beautiful song, a classic Elton number. It combines lyric and melody in an amazing way that reaches out and touches your emotions. I hope you enjoy this latest addition to the Music Café.

 
 

 Take Me To The Pilot
ALBUM
11-17-70
DATE
1971
Midi
59 KB
Karaoke
62 KB
Score
270 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Live Album Version
DATE
17-Nov-1970
Key: C	Structure: A-B-C-A-B-C-A-B-C-outro
 
Take Me To The Pilot has been a signature song in Elton’s concerts for most of his career and its easy to understand why. It’s a raucous, high-energy and joyous romp on the piano. The live version of the song has always contrasted markedly from the more polite studio version released on the Elton John album.

Elton first toured the U.S. as a trio, something that is almost unheard of in the context of pop/rock; with guitar bands yes, but not with the piano as the lead instrument. After recording the Elton John album, he formed a touring band with veterans Nigel Olsson and Dee Murray. The interplay between the 3 musicians on this version is the kind of incredible audio experience rarely captured in a recording.

This song still to this day represents the finest example of what is usually called Elton's funky style of playing. Elton's funky style incorporates elements from New Orleans funk, classic blues and the early rock and roll style of Jerry Lee and Little Richard. The piano playing features punchy 6ths and 7ths in the left hand with syncopated stabs in the right. Characteristic of the funk sound, the emphasis is as much or more on the 1 and 3 of the beat, rather than the traditional 2 and 4 of rock. The playing is full-handed with 8 or 9 notes being played in some of the more dense passages.

The basic harmonic pattern is a simple 2-bar C-F-G-C featured in the chorus and extended solo. Elton though liberally employs 9ths and slash chords over the G. He incorporates a phenomenal number of different inversions, voicings and rhythmic variations of the standard C-F-C7-F riff throughout the song. The right hand is packed with pull-offs and accidentals. This is Rock & Roll piano playing of the highest caliber and should be required learning for advanced students of the genre.

Right from the start, we see the basic elements of this style. The 2-bar intro features Elton's 9-b3 to 3 crush or resolution riff (in the 2nd beat over the E bass). This riff is a hallmark of Elton's. Also of note is the fantastic left right interplay between Elton's hands which he maintains throughout the song.



With this simple intro, he launches into the first verse and it is just rippling with advanced chord structures. For instance, bars 5 and 8 he plays an Am to F in 2 completely different ways. The Am chord features 2 different approaches to quartal voicing (1a and 1b), i.e. a chord sructures built on 4ths in the traditional method of jazz piano voicing. The F is also handled differently both times. The first time uses Elton's 9-b3 to 3 riff (2) and the less familiar 3-4 to 5 riff (3).



Harmonically what makes this song really standout is the modal climb Ebm7-F-Ab-Gm7, specfically this is the aeolian mode, that leads to the chorus. Elton punches bouncy Gm7 chords up and down the piano and then does an aeolian-based chord descent that ends with a C7 to F chord riff. The overall effect is powerful.



The chorus is a beefy two-handed affair as shown in the following example. THIS IS NOT FOR THE TAME OF HEART! While the bassline suggests a C-F-G-C pattern, the 9ths, the 6ths, the slash chords, the riffs all create a far more complex sound. And then check out the little C-F-C7 riff at the end. Most people play this riff using a straight root C chord. But Elton's voicing gives it a thoroughly unique character.



Take Me has always been one of the few songs in which Elton tears through a solo, and it is just an absolute classic. His left hand backs down to using some simple open voicings while his right hand moves through blues scale runs and chord riffs. Elton, Dee, and Nigel also do some great “talking” back and forth with their instruments. This interplay is just magical.

One of my favorite parts of this solo is the following little run. Again, Elton is playing fairly lightly at this point. In the 3rd bar, he ends it with one of the all time classic blues licks, an octave up down blues roll that signals that things are going to start heating up.



This song is a real treasure. Hope you enjoy it. It's definitely one for you advanced pianists.

 
 

 Tiny Dancer
ALBUM
Madman Across The Water
DATE
1971
Midi
75 KB
Karaoke
78 KB
Score
311 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Studio Version
DATE
1971
Key: C	Structure: A-A-B-C-A-B-C
 
Simply put, this song is a masterpiece of pop craftsmanship, one of Elton’s greatest accomplishments. The piano music itself is stunning and a great piano piece in its own regard. The lyrics are among Bernie’s best and most quotable. While Tiny Dancer did not chart all that well as a single, in fact Levon did much better, Tiny Dancer has endured like a precious gem.

In my humble opinion, Elton and producer Gus Dudgeon achieved a stylistic zenith with this one. The piano playing is dense and intricate; one of the finest, if not the finest, examples of Elton’s broken arpeggio and riffing piano style. The overall structure of the song is epic by pop standards: there are three separate sections to this song with chord structures and harmonic movement that are uniquely Elton. Through these sections, one of Elton's greatest melodies is woven, reaching a climax that is almost spiritual. With this arrangement, Gus Dudgeon and Paul Buckmaster achieve both a balance and brilliance that have rarely been equaled. It all comes together in Tiny Dancer.

In order to give this masterpiece its proper treatment, this analysis is divided into 3 sections: one for each of the 3 main sections in the song.

SECTION 1 - THE VERSE
The 8-bar intro and the first part of the verse feature just the solo piano, allowing the listener to fully appreciate Elton’s genius. The chords are just a simple C major and F major played over a C pedal tone. Elton’s use of arpeggiation as a basis for accompaniment was firmly established in his early work, however Tiny Dancer takes this approach to incredible new levels. Never before had the left hand played such a prominent role, providing harmonic counterpoint in addition to being an integral part of his signature riffs. Elton's internal voicings and phrasing make this intro a stunning bit of piano music.


The most obvious thing that you hear is a dizzying array of riffs and anticipations within Elton's right hand work. Throughout the song, no riff is ever repeated (a fact that is almost an anomaly in pop rock). These riffs are made up of accented up beats (a), suspensions, and 9-3 resolutions (b) that make one forget the simple harmonies they are based on. One of the most unique aspects of Elton's playing is that his riffs primarily use internal voicings. The riffs are played with his thumb and index finger while the little fingers hold anchor notes.

Also crucial to the opening section is the right hand phrasing which is delicate and smooth throughout. Its 16th note architecture achieves a cushiony bed for the melody to rest on, yet pulses with rhythmic energy due to the syncopated punctuations within it. As with all of Elton’s arpeggiated work, Elton anchors his arpeggios with either his 5th finger or his thumb (c), sustaining notes for quarter or half measure durations. This provides the legato phrasing without relying on the pedal, a key ingredient to Elton's playing.

In my mind, it is the left hand work that elevates T.D. to piano mastery. In repeated listenings to this piece, the contribution of the left hand really stands out. The notes are articulated and phrased so that they ring out and stand on their own. Elton strokes his left hand in contrast to piano players that hammer the left hand percussively. The chord fragments (d) are played with such great precision and discipline – both in timing and volume - while the pedal tone (e) rings through. As part of his riffs, the left hand fills in spaces between the right hand notes. The interplay between the 2 hands is seamless. With Elton’s phrasing, the listener cannot differentiate which hand is playing what note; they are woven together into one.

Not much mention is made of Elton’s pedaling. Generally I believe Elton pedals lightly, letting his technique provide sustain and fullness to his sound rather than the pedal. Nevertheless he does pedal through much of the song, generally releasing the pedal on chord changes. I believe you can hear just a trace of overlap between the chords as he releases and re-presses the pedal.

With the start of the verse, Elton shifts his right hand down to a lower inversion of the C chord while maintaining the same basic arpeggiating style as the intro. The melody of the verse is interwoven in Elton's piano parts, creating its own counterpoint to Elton’s playing. This weaving of melody and piano is sheer delight.



While only 16 bars, the verse is fairly lengthy nonetheless. It's structured in an A-A-B-A format. The B section features a lot of harmonic movement, both diatonic and circle-of-4ths, providing a significant contrast from the C-F harmony in the A parts. In a way, the B-part is like a mini-bridge within the verse. You will also more clearly see Elton's typical approach to chording with anticipations on the upbeat before the 2 (a) and 4 (b) in each bar. Here's the B-part of the verse.



At the end of the B-part of the 1st verse, Dudgeon makes a brilliant and daring move by introducing the pedal steel guitar. This instrument is generally associated with country music and had really not been heard in the pop-rock medium. But here it makes a beautiful statement lending a lot of character to the song without countrifying it.

At the end of the 1st verse, we're a full 1 minute into the song and the entire band finally comes in. The band includes an acoustic guitar (Davey) laying down a soft rhythmic support and an electric guitar that inserts small licks in between Elton's vocal phrases. At the end of the 2nd verse, a small choir of voices comes in, laying down another cushion of sound.

In the 2 minutes it takes to get through these 2 verses, the song has built from solo piano to a full band and choir. Gus Dudgeon has built a lush support for the song that in no way takes away from the delicate piano work at its core. It just builds beautifully. But we're not done yet.

 

SECTION 2 - THE PRE-CHORUS
At this point, the song shifts into a small 7-bar section that is frequently called a pre-chorus. A pre-chorus is a small section that contrasts significantly from the verse and serves as a setup for the chorus.

In this case, Elton modulates from C to an Ab chord. What makes this modulation work is the common note in both the C and Ab chords - i.e. the C. In fact this type of modulation is called common tone modulation. There are several ways to look at this key shift. For one, you view it as a shift to C-minor , the relative minor of Eb through the Ab or IV chord of Eb. You might also view it as a shift to the C aeolian mode. The chord progression moves diatonically, i.e. through scale tones.



What really distinguishes this section is the shift to a march or marcato feel. Elton plays full chords on an 8th note beat, providing that get up and march quality.

 

SECTION 3 - THE CHORUS
(Writeup unfinished - maybe someday I'll get back to this one!)

 
 

 Your Song
ALBUM
Here and There - Reissued
DATE
1976/1995
Midi
25 KB
Karaoke
27 KB
Score
233 KB
ARRANGEMENT
Live Solo Piano Version
DATE
1974
Key: Eb	Structure: A-A-B-A-A-B
 
In my book, Your Song is the granddaddy of them all - the song that launched the Elton John phenomena. A major hit, yes. It is and will forever be one of Elton’s signature songs. Your Song firmly established several trademarks of the Elton style, trademarks that continue to this day. To understand them, is to gain insight. In this lengthy analysis, I’ll share what I've learned.

Over the years, Elton tinkers with and modifies how he plays his songs. And thus, over the course of his career, you will find many different arrangements of Your Song. I've chosen this particular version from the Here and There album as the most representative of how most people think of it. But perhaps someday I'll put together some of his other arrangements for the sake of comparison.

Because of its length, you can jump ahead to the following sections:

Basic Elements of Elton’s Style
The Key of Eb
The Intro
The Verse
The Lyrics
The Chorus
Performance Tips

 

BASIC ELEMENTS OF ELTON’S STYLE
There are several important keys to understanding Your Song and most of Elton’s other important works. They are

o Harmonic lines, 
o Great Riffs or Hooks 
o Melody and 
o Rhythm

The harmonic lines in Elton’s songs, that is the pattern of shifting chords, generally have a good amount of movement and can be complex by pop and rock standards. We’re not comparing Elton’s harmonies to those found in jazz, contemporary classical, or abstract idioms, but to pop. As a pianist, a lot of times I find his harmonies to be naturally idiosyncratic to the piano. By its very architecture (the pattern of black notes and white notes), the piano has a natural harmonic palette that is different than, for instance, guitar-oriented music.

Riffs and hooks are crucial to the pop and rock idiom. They are the defining flourish of a song. A mediocre hook can diminish a great song. A great hook can elevate a mediocre song. There maybe no other 20th century songwriter who has created as many great opening riffs as Elton John has. But besides these great intros, Elton’s playing style is dominated by lots of little riffs. These little riffs incorporate passing tones and suspensions, creating harmonic interest.

I by no means have a good understanding of what goes into great melodies, but I do know that Elton John creates great melodies. He is able to craft melodies with all types of lyrics that range from dense to ever so brief. He’s not beholden to a 4 or 8-bar structure. He is only monotone when it’s by design. His songs build to melodic climaxes. He is capable of evoking all different sorts of emotions. His songs are memorable, distinctive and singable.

And finally there is the rhythmic element. Elton’s trademark playing style centers on 4 or 5 standard rhythmic patterns that he employs in his playing. Your Song introduced what I tend to call the "default" Elton John style. Figure 1 illustrates this pattern which involves the extensive use of rhythmic anticipation, i.e. hitting the chord on the upbeat before the downbeat and then holding it through the downbeat. You will find it in many dozens of his songs.

Other artists, Billy Joel for instance, work hard at not locking into a set approach to their piano accompaniment. But for Elton, he has consciously chosen to define himself and his music by repeating this stylistic approach. Mind you, he didn't invent this style, he just made it his signature style.

 

THE KEY OF Eb
By putting the song in the key of Eb, Your Song stood out from much of what was heard on the radio in 1970. Remember, this was the era of the sensitive guitarist / songwriter (James Taylor, Cat Stevens, etc.). There are no guitar songs in Eb. The key of Eb belongs to Elton.

But there is another reason for Eb. It’s also a very comfortable key for a pianist. Any key that includes 2 or 3 black notes matches up very well anatomically with the human hand. The pianist can keep their littlest digits, the thumb and 5th finger, on white keys and keep their longer fingers on black keys. It’s a much more natural feeling than the key of C, which uses all white notes, and which forces you to contort the hand a little more.

This approach to hand placement also governs the chord inversions that Elton uses. He almost invariably grabs the chord inversion that places his 5th finger or his thumb on a white key. This serves as an anchor while the other fingers arpeggiate notes from the chord. This creates that characteristic sound.

The time signature of the song can be a little confusing to figure out. The song definitely has an 8th note pulse to it, which leads one to believe that a 4/8 or 8/8 time signature is called for. That really doesn’t work though with the relaxed ballad feel of the song, so you end up going back to the standard 4/4 timing.

 

THE INTRODUCTION 
O.K. let’s start with the intro. Elton’s hit songs generally start with a RIFF FROM GOD. I am not a religious person mind you, but Elton is tapped into a higher power. No one and I mean no one has written so many instantly memorable opening lines. You can tell you’re listening to an Elton song within a bar, I mean within about 2 seconds. It’s uncanny. Here’s the classic intro to Your Song as performed on the 1976 album Here and There and in particular, the Riff from God.



The harmony of the intro relies on the use of what's called a pedal point. The Eb is held in the bass while the chords shift from I to IV to V to IV. This establishes harmonic motion while still keeping the listener locked into the tonic. The Bb / Eb chord (called a slash chord) in particular resonates somewhat like an EbM9, but the motion of the chords says that it’s not, it’s a Bb.

An interesting aspect of this intro: You can play almost any notes from the chord and it still sounds like Your Song. It’s the rhythm, that Elton John default rhythm style, and that pedal point harmony. They completely define the intro. Go ahead try it!

 

THE VERSE
The verse begins with a restatement of the intro, but this time without the pedal point. Elton moves through Eb, then Ab (with the added major 7th) and then Bb, just as he does in the intro. But the Bb chord has a D-bass, signaling that he intends to diverge from the intro at this point. D is the dominant of G, and he uses that to take us to the Gm7 chord, the relative minor of Bb. Of course the three upper notes of the Gm7 chord are the Bb major chord.


This sets us up for a long diatonic linear progression starting from Cm. Elton holds the Cm chord while the bass descends through Bb and A. This is a well-known tension building progression that resolves nicely into AbM7. The top three notes of the AbM7 are the Cm chord.

He continues with scale tone movement in the bass, letting the chord harmony follow the bass. The most notable chord in this series is the G7/B, which is a chromatic step up from Bb. G7 is the natural dominant chord for Cm, the relative minor of Eb. From this point, Elton jumps right back into Eb, where he walks up to the suspended Bb turnaround riff that takes us to another verse.

The structure of the verse (based on 4/4 time) is 8 bars with a 2-beat added tag. I was not certain where to place those two extra beats, they flow so seamlessly. I finally decided to put them in the 7th bar of the verse, isolating the 8th bar since it operates as a turnaround.

Elton’s playing has always fascinated me. Part of it has to do with how rich his sound is. The piano players from the 50s (Jerry Lee, Fats Domino, Little Richard) and the 60s (Brian Wilson, Paul Revere) pretty much just played their chords straight. If the song called for a C chord, they played a C chord - period. By contrast, Elton incorporates passing tones and suspensions into little riffs, continuously adding color and harmonic interest.

Mostly he uses the added 9th (or 2nd if you prefer) or the 4th of the chord, resolving them most of the time to the 3rd. These are called respectively a 9-to-3 or 4-to-3 resolution riff. He’ll place them on an accented beat to highlight them before resolving. Elton’s got a million variations of these little riffs and he’s able to interchange them on the fly.





THE LYRICS
As you all know, I don’t spend much time considering the lyrics of Bernie Taupin. But Elton’s best songs always have lyrics that really touch a lot of people on a personal level. At their best, they create an emotion, a feeling, or an attitude that pulls people into another place from where they are. It’s like being taken on a ride, a spiritual ride, in which you and others connect in this new place that the lyrics describe. Elton is the medium who transports you there.

Your Song has that magic. Its words spin a gentle, heartfelt, and honest tale of a working class guy who ponders the various ways that he might express his love. Ultimately he knows that his gift is for creating songs. He offers up his song in a humble, sort of shy and nervous way. "I hope you don’t mind." "You can tell everybody this is your song."

 

THE CHORUS
The chorus starts off with a Bb/D, a nice strong move away from the Eb center of the verse. Throughout the song, Elton uses these slash chords. I think this just shows what a developed sense of harmony Elton had, even at fairly early stage. The slash chords accomplish two things. First of all, they’re not as stable as a root chord. They beg for movement to somewhere else. Second of all, they create a horizontal line that’s much smoother than one that jumps around. It’s part of the richness that Elton injects into his piano work.



In this version of Your Song, Elton uses an Eb bass under the Cm chord. I’m not sure how often he does this versus going down to the C bass. I've heard it both ways.

In the middle of the chorus he does a nice little run that I’ve called an Fm6/Ab. The notes are C-D-F-Ab. It has a diminished sound to it and I could have called this chord a D half-diminished 7th or Dø7. The half-diminished refers to the fact that the 7th interval (C) is a minor 7th up from D rather than a diminished 7th interval. I don’t which one is more correct. How about an Ab13b5? Do you like that better? Anyway, it’s really kind of a jazz move don’t you think?

Elton ends the chorus with a I-IV-ii-V progression.

 

PERFORMANCE TIPS
Elton is exacting and VERY disciplined in his playing. For the beginning pianist, it is important to strive for a real precision both rhythmically and dynamically. For the more advanced pianist, there is a subtle looseness within the context of his precision that adds some real snap and pop to his playing.

For the Beginning Pianist:

When playing a chord, all notes must sound at precisely the same time. It’s easy to strike a black note a little earlier than a white note, or if your hand is not in position, to come in a little late with the thumb or 5th finger. DON’T DO THAT! It’s a 2-step process. Set your hand and fingers in position, hand centered over the chord, then strike downward on the notes all at the same time. With a little concentration and practice, you’ll do this automatically in a continuous smooth motion. 
Elton’s sixteenth-note rhythm is precise like clockwork. Set your metronome to the eighth note’s speed and work at it. 
Elton’s dynamics are also very uniform. Just like with a scale, each sixteenth note should be as loud as the one before or the one after it. Especially if you’re playing a chord, you don’t want it to overwhelm the single notes in between. Because it has two or more notes, a chord automatically has more presence than a single note. I have to consciously play the chords a little softer to get the right balance. Work on this aspect first. Accents can be added later. 
The left hand has kind of a bouncy rhythm that must be seamlessly integrated with the right hand. Don’t pound the low note, stroke it. The upper note must blend in with the right hand notes. 
DO NOT over pedal Elton. Yes he uses it. But he also plays with a very legato style. He holds anchor notes of the chord. Look at the voicings in my transcripts. He overlaps the individual notes. Play legato more and play the pedal less.
For the Advanced Pianist:

There’s a slight roll to Elton’s chords. This is a very subtle roll, not like an arpeggio movement. If the chord uses his thumb, he rolls down towards his thumb. The thumb comes in just a tick later and usually louder than the other notes in the chord. If there’s no thumb, he’ll roll upwards towards the fifth finger. 
Contrary to the advice I give the beginning pianist, Elton doesn’t play like a robot. There are plenty of slight hesitations and anticipations in his playing at the individual 8th and 16th note level. It gives his playing feel. Generally speaking though, his tempo is rock solid.
When Elton accents a note or chord, it’s often pretty exaggerated, at least by classical standards. You'll hear these notes popping out at you and interplaying with the melody line.
Elton almost always works around a 4-note chord. Always position your hand over 4 notes. Even if he only plays 3, he will work in the 4th note with his broken arpeggio accompaniment style.
 

There it is - the granddaddy of all Elton's hit songs. I hope this analysis has given you further insight into how Elton makes it happen.