A Long December Piano tutorial

Check out this A Long December Piano tutorial! In this video, I will show you a simple way to play this iconic (and depressing!) 1990s classic by Counting Crows.

A Long December by Counting Crows

A Long December is a song by the 1990s alt rock back Counting Crows. It was the second single from their Recovering the Satellites album. Apparently the lead singer Adam Duritz wrote the track after his friend was hit by a car. If you want to really take a trip down memory lane, you should watch the music video, which features Friends star Courtney Cox.

Standard song learning strategy

In this piano tutorial, I use my standard protocol for creating great pop piano arrangements. If you want to learn more about this protocol, check out this post.

I find a copy of the lyrics or I just type them up from the recording. I then figure out the chords on a chord website or I just learn them by ear. If you want to learn to play by ear click here for a video I made where I outline how to learn to play by ear

Learn the Chords on Piano

Step #1 Learn the chords on piano. This can be as simple as playing them in root position, or if you are a more experienced pianist, you can find the inversions that sound the best to you and voice lead your way through. A Long December only has four chords total, so it’s super easy to play! The only tricky part is that the chords keep changing order.

Play the Groove

Step #2 is to figure out how to play the groove. You can use a simple pattern or more complicated, depending on your level. Remember that you’ll have to sing over this, so don’t make it too hard!

Identify the hook

Step #3 is to identify the hook, bass line or any other aspects that help to bring it to life. Again, you can make this as simple or complicated as your piano chops will allow you. The hook of A Long December is the repeated piano pattern and the “La-da-da-da” singing part.

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