In this easy piano tutorial, you will learn how to play the song, Stand By Me by Ben E. King. Although this song is really in the key of A major, I decided to do it in the key of C major to keep things very easy for the absolute beginner. As you may know, the key of C major makes use of white keys only.
I start by playing the bass and chords for the entire song first of all. I show you three ways in which you can play the chords. After this, we take a look at the chords for Stand By Me, followed by the very easy bass pattern. At the end we put everything together.
This song has a very simple chord sequence. In the key of C major, as seen in the How to Play Stand By Me Easy Piano Tutorial, the chords are C major – A minor – F major – G major – C major. This pattern simply repeats over and over throughout the entire song.
As for the left hand part, the bass notes are as follows:
G B C C G B C C
C B A A G A A
A G F F F A G G
G B C C G B C C
Watch the video:
Ben E King Stand By Me Easy Piano Tutorial
Key of A Major
In the key of A major, the chords for Stand by me are A major – F sharp minor – D major – E major – A major.
In the key of A major, the bass notes are as follows:
E G# A A E G# A
A G# F# F# E F# F#
F# E D D D F# E E
E G# A A E G# A
Stand By Me Piano Tutorial – Original Key of A Major
Here’s Stand By Me in its original key of A major.
Hope you enjoyed this tutorial. All the best and keep practicing.