What a Wonderful World is the iconic song sung so lovingly by Louis Armstrong. In this What a Wonderful World piano tutorial you will learn the iconic piano accompaniment and some great embellishments too!
Lyrics and Chords printable for What a Wonderful World
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What a Wonderful World was written by the songwriting team of Bob Thiele and George David Weiss. It was recorded by Armstrong in 1967 and was a hit in the UK, but it failed to chart in the US because the president of ABC records hated the song. In 1988 the song hit number 32 on the Billboard chart in the US thanks to the song’s placement in the Robin Williams movie Good Morning Vietnam.
In this What a Wonderful World piano tutorial we will break down the learning into these steps:
Step #1: Learn the chords
Step #2: LH accompaniment strategy
Step #3: RH chords
Step #4: Hands together accompaniment strategy
Step #5: Learn the intro
A note on the What a Wonderful World Time Signature
The groove of this song can be written in one of two ways (see below). Each notation sounds exactly the same - it is a matter of personal preference for publishing.
Lyrics and Chords to What a Wonderful World
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Step #2: Left Hand Piano Accompaniment
Our left hand is going to focus on playing the 1-5-1 of the chord. If the chord has a 7th, then you will play 1-5-7. Once you can play these shapes, add the vocals on the top.
Step #3: Learn the right hand chord strategy
The RH is going to play the first inversion of every chord in the song. Later on you are welcome to experiment with other inversions, but stick with this one for now.
Step #4: Hands together accompaniment strategy
Notice how the hands work together to fill the space with the material we learned in steps 2 and 3!
Step #5: Learn the intro
Notice that the RH plays the melodic line and the LH covers the entire arpeggio in the LH. **You could use this LH accompaniment strategy if you wanted to play this song instrumentally!**
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