How to play River Flows In You by Yiruma 🎹 (Beginner Piano Tutorial)

[Music] hello and welcome in this lesson we are going to be learning river flows in you by your rooma so you heard it at the beginning there it's so graceful it's so beautiful and it feels kind of like a journey as you go through the song so we're gonna walk you through this step by step you're gonna be able to knock the socks off of your friends and family when you sit down and play this piece i can't wait to dive in so this song has three sharps to look out for so before you even dive in it might be a great idea to practice your a major and your f sharp minor scales so you can get really comfortable with the key signature that said let's figure out how to play [Music] that iconic theme so what we'll do is we'll place our five finger way up high here on a and we're gonna rock back and forth between a and g sharp and then we're gonna go back to a and then we have e and then a and then d and then we just get to hang out there and then we're gonna play a and c sharp and then we repeat that again [Music] sounds lovely but it sounds even more lovely when we get our left hand involved so the left hand part here plays an f sharp a c sharp and an f sharp and that's based off the f sharp minor chord and then we're going to move to d a and e and then we're just going to hang out there on that e and so when you put it together [Music] it sounds beautiful can take a little bit to get it coordinated but just go really slow [Music] and then you're going to hang out there and you can be dramatic here you can play with time a little bit so don't worry about being really rigid here you can kind of be dramatic and then once you're ready we're going to move back into that theme and it's going to sound like this [Music] but i'm going to pause there because we're going to work through that little portion together okay so what i just did there was almost identical actually to this beautiful little theme we learned at the beginning which sounds simple and beautiful but then it it's got a slightly different rhythm which is why it sounds so impressive when you get into measure five so i'm gonna walk you through that and the beautiful thing here is once you get this rhythm it shows up all through the song so so much of the work for this piece is showing up right here on the first page so you're going to spend some time and learn it but once you do it's going to carry you through the rest of it so our notes are basically the same we've got our a and our g sharp and our a but instead of playing it one and two and three and four and we're going to use counting that goes one e and a two e and uh etc to help us get through this so it's going to go one e and a two e and a three e and so you can see how i'm kind of holding some of those notes there because they're tied over and that's what gives it this unique rhythm now i counted that out loud for you but if i'm perfectly honest that's not how i learned to play it i learned by listening to the song and then imitating the rhythm which was way easier for me so if counting is helpful do that or if hearing the rhythm is helpful do that now i'm going to show you how that all comes together because when you play the left hand with the right hand here it actually helps you to figure out where everything lines up so our left hand part is always based off a chord and you can get away with if you see f sharp minor just playing f sharp c sharp f sharp that's a root fifth root pattern sometimes that pattern changes a little bit and we get a weird note on top like with this d we've got d a which is the root the fifth and then we don't have a d we have an e which sounds beautiful so you can follow those notes precisely if you want or you can revert to a root fifth root pattern in the left hand they're both gonna sound awesome i'm just wanting to give you a way to simplify this if you need to so when we put this together watch this [Music] suddenly it kind of makes sense because we're holding a note in our right hand our left hand is playing a note so i'll do that one more time one e and a three so spend some time there and get comfortable and when you're ready you can move on to the next little set of measures which is is kind of like a cheerful little diversion from what we've been doing it sounds really really pretty and we've got this uh little little trill they're so fun to play it's like a teeny little note you're gonna play b and you're gonna quickly roll it to the c sharp and it's gonna sound like this so all together it's going to sound like this nice and slow and here's where we have that grace note which i called a trill earlier and we're gonna move up we've got e and then we've got d here and then check this out two notes at the same time sounds so pretty a and e in the right hand and then the c sharp fits beautifully in the middle and then we've got this g sharp and b now here's a great example of where i could have just played the root fifth root pattern but the notation shows the g sharp b and e and so either is going to sound great don't stress about that too much now here's the new section and then we're gonna move down and then we're traveling back up and i like to reset my third finger on c sharp we're moving up and then stepping back down and the left hand pattern's very much the same it's just difficult to coordinate at first so you can go really slow so if we go from measure six with that fun little grace note we're gonna sort of go this part feels pretty steady rhythm wise see i played my left hand different there it's okay moving on together here we're going to go f sharp now we're sharing our space don't worry about that our hands are going to get crowded at some points in the song and that's okay sharing is carrying [Music] d a e traveling up our left hands move down [Music] and technically that was written as a g see how see those this is happening so even to me i'm kind of improvising my left hand a little bit because there's so much going in the right hand there's so many things happening rhythmically so please take an approach that feels good for you okay so there's a lot happening so i'm going to take the first eight bars and play them hand separately and then together for you i'm gonna go really slow so you can see exactly what's happening so our left hand's gonna go here [Music] down to d drama repeat the same thing again back to the d and i am using my petal to help sustain the notes [Music] now let's look at the right hand nice and slow take a breath [Music] again drama take a moment [Music] and then get ready [Music] now let's do it hands together [Music] okay so if we take a look at measure nine the great news is is we've we've done this already there's just some extra little goodies little bling on some of the notes call them grace notes you can call them ornaments you can call them bedazzleds whatever you like sounds like this here's another one so notice i tucked my hand let's just take a quick moment there because this is one of those small changes that can be a little tricky to navigate so let's take a look so two finger we're gonna use that ornament and then i'm gonna tuck my thumb under reaching up to this high c sharp with this a in the left and then here we are now we've got another you can ignore this grace note if you want or these grace notes but it's going to sound like this and then we land here and guess what friends very familiar territory [Music] okay so let's take a moment there just want to talk you through this little section really really quick we'll get right to playing it so you can see what happens it's very very similar to that little bit that we did over there in measure seven and eight earlier there's just extra notes so you wanna pay close attention to the music keep in mind if you're a piano member we've got a practice feature for you that will let you slow these sections down loop them plus you'll be able to download sheet music there you can make little notes on your page if you want so this section is going to sound like this this part is so fun so we're going to be doing this rocking pattern same idea just some extra notes so be prepared to go from a to low a so stay relaxed here [Music] forefinger on the a lets me carry this down tuck skip to c sharp third finger comes over and then i move to the b four fingers already ready here on the a [Music] repeats now great news this just goes on and on and on but we get one more fun little extra bonus in the mix here with the addition of a 30-second note so if you look at the music it's like all these lines and it can seem overwhelming don't worry we don't have to count this we just have to think super fast so i'll play you how it sounds you're gonna love playing this i really do um it sounds like this [Music] so it sounds so happy and cheerful and once you get this under your fingers it really does feel like your hands are flying so what we're doing we're just moving quickly from a we're playing a again and then we're moving to that b quickly it's just super fast notes get that five ready on that a after you come off of it and then you rotate here so just practice that over and over until it feels easy don't let this hand tense up because you'll get sore stay relaxed and then you've got that section it's business as usual i'm going to go from measure end of measure 16 and i'm going to carry you through to the end of this section here we go [Music] now here we're gonna play our third finger on g sharp we're gonna move down to b and then we've got another sort of cross over to g sharp and then e we made it that's the bulk of the song from here it's a lot of repeats with little bits of extra bling added in again so at this point you can take a moment and breathe this song is all about dynamics if you listen to the original recording there's so much drama there's these pauses there's this roboto which means sort of like playing with time a little bit you're sort of there's these like pushes and pulls that feel natural just like a river so keep that in mind as you go add some dramatic flair to this this next little bit it's business as usual you've played something very very similar to this already so i'm not going to repeat it for you but i am going to jump in at measure 24 because we've got another sort of little change up so this theme has sort of feels like it has extra notes well because it does and then we've got that grace note that makes another appearance so pay attention for those here we've got the c sharp that moves quickly to the a and another one here [Music] a slightly busier left hand now here's a fun little moment we're going to be moving to a c sharp and an e but we've got this grace note here so you can add that in or you cannot and again business as usual you've done all of this already so i'm going to play this for you this next little section nice and slow and please keep in mind that my left hand has a mind of its own and it might improvise some of the notes but this will give you a pretty darn close idea to exactly what you need to be doing through these sections [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] and there's our ending and a bad note but please forgive me okay so isn't that beautiful it feels so freeing to play to and i just i need to tell you that i've had to practice this song a lot um to even be able to play it for you here in this lesson and i'm still not playing it perfectly so please keep in mind this is a journey it's okay to make mistakes and it's okay not to have it perfect it's super important to enjoy the process and allow this song and the learning of it to enrich your musical life as opposed to getting stressed out about hitting all the notes perfectly so that's my little speech now we're going to go to the ending of the song which starts with some grace notes so beginning on measure 38 here we're rolling up to this high a with these beautiful little grace notes we can slow down we've got a steady beat and a slightly different left hand all the way up to a don't stress about these squiggly lines they just mean roll through the cord and then we're just traveling back up here's another rolled cord so we're gonna play here [Music] all the way up and then we're gonna be hitting an e and a b and then we've got a g-sharp familiar territory [Music] again we're going to hit these guys together that's a formatta that funny looking symbol it just means hang out there for longer than you're supposed to overstay your welcome slightly and then the final notes we've got a and f sharp and then we've got c sharp and a and we've got c sharp and f sharp and then we've got f sharp and a and then we're going to go here to an octave [Music] and you can be very dramatic with your posture if you like make a face and tada you've gotten through the song yay it feels so good so i will say that this is a challenging piece and i've had to spend a lot of time practicing it's even be ready to sit here and play and teach it to you and keep that in mind as you're going through it i'm still making mistakes i'm still working through all of the notes to get them just right and so enjoy the process this isn't about getting everything perfect this is about allowing the song to improve your relationship with music and improve your skills on the piano so it's not going to happen overnight you got to take your time with it but make sure you're remembering to smile and that you're enjoying playing the piece okay so finishing touches icing on the cake on this piece are going to be those dynamics so don't be afraid to have these like swells of volume and play a little bit with that roboto so you know you have a little bit faster here and a little bit slower here be the river so i would love to ask you how does the song make you feel sometimes i hear it i'm like oh this is very somber and other times i hear i'm like oh it's so happy and lovely so talk to me a little bit tell me in the comments below what emotions the song brings up for you if you had to pick a setting or an event to perform this piece at what would it be would you be in the forest would you be at the river would you be at like an event or a train station playing a public piano i would love to hear from you happy practicing comment below and i'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Pianote

Views: 1,097,770

Keywords: lisa witt, how to play piano, easy piano, piano tutorial, river flows in you, river flows in you piano tutorial, river flows in you piano, yiruma river flows in you piano tutorial, river flows in you piano easy, how to play river flows in you on piano, yiruma river flows in you, river flows in you piano lesson, river flows in you yiruma piano tutorial, river flows in you yiruma, river flows in you piano tutorial beginner, piano lesson, yiruma piano, yiruma

Id: jWifCal6LxI

Length: 20min 4sec (1204 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 12 2021