A Whiter Shade of Pale is a song by British rock band Procol Harum. In this Whiter Shade of Pale Piano Tutorial You'll learn the chords, the amazing accompaniment and even the organ introduction.

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A Whiter Shade of Pale is a song by British rock band Procol Harum. Released in 1967, it became an instant hit in both the US and UK. The song was written by bandmates Gary Brooker, Matthew Fisher and Keith Reid and was inspired by the melodies and harmonies of J.S. Bach.

The song features a descending bass line, which is similar to J.S. Bach’s Air on the G String. It also borrows ideas from When a Man Loves a Woman by Percy Sledge, which was released a year before this song.

In this A Whiter Shade of Pale tutorial we are going to break it down into several steps.

Step #1: Learn the chords

Step #2: Learn the accompaniment strategies

Step #3: Learn the iconic organ introduction/interlude

Step #4: Put it all together

Let's go!

For our first step, you can simply learn the chords in root position. Watch the video and I’ll take you through it.

A Whiter Shade of Pale Lyrics and Chords

Need to learn chords?

A Whiter Shade of Pale Organ Introduction

This is so incredibly iconic and beautiful. And it's not that hard to play!

Chords for A Whiter Shade of Pale

Once the vocals come in for the Verse, we have to switch back to our “accompaniment stance” - the LH playing the root of the chord, while the RH plays chords. These are the chord inversions I use in this tutorial:

A Whiter Shade of Pale verse 1 and 2 chords

Accompaniment Strategies:

Our first accompaniment strategy has us holding each chord, while the LH plays the “Pop Rock Ballad” LH part.

Our second accompaniment strategy for A Whiter Shade of Pale has us pulsing each chord in quarter notes, while the LH plays the “Pop Rock Ballad” LH part.

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A Whiter Shade of Pale Piano Tutorial