Tutorial: How to play 'My Life' by Mary J Blige on piano

Описание: This is a tutorial on how to play 'My Life' by Mary J Blige, from the album of the same name.

The tempo is around 75 to 76 bpm.

The tune is in F minor - so four flats - A flat, B flat, D flat and E flat.

STRUCTURE
Intro (instrumental version of B verse) 8 bars
link section 3 bars
Chorus 8 bars (if you looked at my life and see what I see...)
A verse 8 bars (life can be only what you make it...)
B verse 8 bars (...cease, and you'll be at peace with yourself)
link section 3 bars
Chorus 8 bars (if you looked at my life and see what I see...)
A verse 8 bars (take your time baby don't you rush a thing...)
B verse 8 bars (...he, yeah, 'cause he'll give you peace of mind)
link section 3 bars
Chorus 8 bars (if you looked at my life and see what I see...)
Chorus repeat and fade

Musically, the same backing is used for the chorus and for the A verse - so it kind of blurs what's a verse and what's a chorus, but it makes it easier to play - you just need to remember three things:
phrase 1 (two bars long) - used for the A verse and the chorus
phrase 2 (two bars long) - used for the B verse
the 3 bar link section

That way you can get through the whole tune like this:
phrase 2 played 4 times
link
phrase 1 played 8 times
phrase 2 played 4 times
link
phrase 1 played 8 times
phrase 2 played 4 times
link
phrase 1 played 8 times

PHRASE 1
This is the phrase that comes in at bar 12 (if you look at my life and see what I see).

The chords for this part are:
F minor add 9: F in the LH, A flat, C and G in the RH
C minor 7 add 9: C in the LH, G, B flat, D and E flat in the RH
A flat add 9 & 13: A flat in the LH, G flat, B flat and F in the RH
B flat minor 7 add 9: B flat in the LH, A flat, C, D flat and F in the RH

PHRASE 2
This is the phrase that is used in the intro, as well as the B verses

The chords for this are:
F minor add 9: F in the LH, A flat, C and G in the RH (same as in phrase 1)
D minor 11: D in the LH, G, A, C and E in the RH
E flat minor 11: E flat in the LH, A flat, D flat and F in the RH

LINK
Lastly there is a three bar link - a build to the chorus, played between the B verse (also the intro) and the chorus.

The chords for this link are
D flat 6 over E flat: E flat in the LH, A flat, B flat, D flat and F in the RH
F minor over A flat: A flat in the LH, A flat, C and F in the RH
D flat Major 7 add 9: D flat in the LH, F, A flat, C and E flat in the RH
C7: C in the LH, B flat, E and C in the RH (you can add a flat 9 if you like)

TECHNICAL STUFF
I'm playing a Yamaha upright piano that has been retro-fitted with a Technics midi interface. The piano sound you are hearing is the Galaxy II Vienna Grand, a software piano that plugs into Kontakt. The midi keyboard at the bottom of the screen is Midikeyz. The music notation is from Logic.

I record a video of me playing on a camcorder and I record the midi performance and audio into Logic. After doing that, I bounce the midi to an audio file and I record the Midikeyz keyboard and the music notation (generated from Logic) into Screenflow. I then use Screenflow to stitch everything together and try and keep it in sync!

My thanks to 7notemode for letting me know how to do some of this.