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Happy Birthday Chords

Happy Birthday Chords: Is It Simple To Play Happy Birthday?

"Happy Birthday" is perhaps one of the easiest songs that anyone on the piano can ever learn - both the melody and its underlying bass/chord counterpart.

If you're trying to play the melody, remember that it is normally in 3/4ths time (Three quarter notes per bar). The melody goes like this:

G G A G C B G G A G D C G G G(one octave higher) E C B A, F F E C D C.

And that is just for C major. There are no irregular notes in this melody, and it can be easily transposed to other major chords. For dramatic effect make sure to hit that last A and hold it for a bit before playing the last few notes.

Here is my recommendation if you want to play chords with your left hand:

C Major, B5, B5, C Major, C7 Major, F7, G Major, C Major.

You can replace B5 with G Major one octave down if needed. For the beginner pianist trying to play this, it's easier just to find the first, third, and fifth notes of a chord and hold them down. The more advanced players can tap chords each quarter note per bar to make it sound more lively, and experiment to find different ways of making the chords sound fine.

Of course, playing "Happy Birthday" in C Major with these patterns is easy. Transposing it and figuring out how to play it in eleven other major chords is more difficult for others. Once you've gotten down all this, trying playing in different styles - 4/4 time, in faster or slower tempos, with other instruments, with a jazz feel, using arpeggios, and so on. Eventually you'll get bored of playing "Happy Birthday" over and over with these styles rather fast. That's okay. For some people, mastering "Happy Birthday" like this means that playing other things in the same key is a sinch, or that you have proved your worth in transposing, or that you have committed to memory a bit more about different styles of playing piano. Learn the melodies and chord structures of your favorite songs, then try playing them back in the piano. Keep practicing, and like with "Happy Birthday", eventually you will get it.

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