Piano chords for ‘Someone you loved’COPYRIGHT © 2003-2024 PLAY BY EAR
All of me (Piano chords)
In this lesson, we will explore the piano chords for ‘All of me’ by John Legend. The song is in the key of A, which also means the diatonic triads are
Gb, Bbm, Cm, Db, Eb, Fm, Gdim
In a nutshell, diatonic triads are basically the chords (seven of them) that will be most commonly used in the key of the song. But let’s not worry too much about theory for now. The song ‘All of Me’ has 3 sections, the verse, pre chorus and the chorus. We will explore all the chords for each section at a time.
The verse: (Piano introduction)
Fm | Db| Ab | Eb
For voice leading purposes, we will change the chord inversions for some of the chords.
Next, you will add the signature rhythm of this song, which basically goes like this >
(1 1/2 beats) + (1 1/12 beats) + (1 beat) for Right hand
Your left hand can either play simply the root note or the (root note + 5th note) and hold for (4 beats) within a bar.
Here are the lyrics for the verse:
What would I do without your smart mouth
Drawing me in, and you kicking me out
You got my head spinning, no kidding, I can’t pin you down
What’s going on in that beautiful mind
I’m on your magical mystery ride
And I’m so dizzy, don’t know what hit me, but I’ll be alright
Then comes the pre chorus piano section, where you will use the following chord progression:
Bbm | Bbm | Gb | Eb |
Here are the lyrics for the preChorus:
My head’s under water, but I’m breathing fine
You’re crazy and I’m out of my mind
For Bbm, you can play in broken chord style instead of block chords, using this pattern > (1-2-3-5) of Bbm, then followed by block chords for Gb and Eb in the same previous style.
Then comes the chorus piano section, where the chords will be played in mostly broken chord styles.
Ab | Fm | Bbm | Bbm Eb | X 2
Here are the lyrics for the preChorus:
‘Cause all of me
Loves all of you
Love your curves and all your edges
All your perfect imperfections
Give your all to me
I’ll give my all to you
You’re my end and my beginning
Even when I lose I’m winning
Here are the lines for the chorus. The numbers shown below refer to the respective chords and not the notes in the scale. For example, the 1st note of Ab would be the root note of Ab, which is Ab. The 5th note of Ab would means the 5th note of Ab chord, which is a Eb.
Ab > (5 – 3- 1 – 5 – 3 – 1 – 5 – 3 – 1 – 5 – 3 – 1 – 5 – 3 – 1 – )
Fm > (5… 2 …3 5 … 2 … 3) the accents are on the 2nd note, in which you can harmonise with the 5th
Bbm > (1…. 3….2…. 7….. ) the accents are on the 3… 2… 7… , which is a very common motif (4-3-1 of any major scale)
Eb (a simple block chord followed by a single root note on the higher octave)
Then followed by the 2nd part of the Chorus,
‘Cause I give you all, all of me
And you give me all, all of you, ohoh
The chords are Fm | Db | Ab | Eb X 2
these are the lines for the last part of the chorus… You basically play the melody of the song itself, which goes unison with the vocal.
Gb…. G …F… Eb …. C C …. followed by > Bb… Gb … Bb … G (which is a line that is not part of the vocal melody)
This lesson only BRIEFLY covers the comping style to playing ‘All of Me’ by John Legend. We could have provided a pre-arranged score sheet and have you followed note-for-note for each hand. That way, it will defeat the purpose of learning a song. Do try to relate to the chords while you are playing. In the long run, you will see the ‘bigger picture’ and be able to improvise other similar songs at ease in future without much of guidance.
