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Piano Man
by Billy Joel • Lesson #614 • Feb 4, 2026
About This Lesson
In today’s lesson I’ll teach you a guitar arrangement of Piano Man, the 1973 classic from Billy Joel. This song uses a singular chord progression for most of the song (intro, verse, chorus) — which I’ll walk you through step by step. I’ll also include a handful of practical ways to simplify some of the trickier chords, as translating piano chords to a guitar isn’t always straightforward. To the many of you who requested this song in the past few years, I hope you enjoy!
- 0:00 Welcome
- 1:20 Chords: Main Section
- 7:31 Chords: Interlude
- 10:24 Strumming
- 16:33 Ending Riffs
- 23:49 Performance Tips
- 26:36 Playthrough with Lyrics
Quick Links
- Lyric & chords
- Song Wikipedia page
- Official music video on YouTube
- Piano Tutorial via Piano with Nate
Practice Notes 6 pages
Lesson Discussion
Extended Video Lessons
Here’s a few extra videos, made in thanks to those supporting me with Premium membership here on my Song Notes website. To those showing your support, you have my true thanks and appreciation — and I hope you find these additional videos helpful!
Slow Playthrough: Main Progression & Interlude
This video shows me playing the main progression (used in the intro, verse, and chorus) and the interlude (“la, la la, la-dee-da”). After playing these once each, I repeat it all one more time through. No singing, so you can hear the guitar. I count in for four full measures before starting.
Slow Playthrough: Ending Variations
This video shows me slowly playing the 3 different versions of the “big” ending riff I teach in my lesson. This is the thunderous piano sequence Billy Joel plays at the end of the intro, after most harmonica solos, and a few other places. I count in for four measures, then play each ending twice in a row — before continuing to the next one. This video also has no singing, so you can hear the guitar.
Related and Recommended
Here’s some tutorials I’ve made tackling the various techniques this song requires, which includes some practical chord tips for the F and G (where finger position is quite important). While this song doesn’t use alternating bass notes, I’ve included a link to that lesson as well — as it’s adjacent to the bass-note strumming used throughout this song.
On the topic of Piano Man, be sure to check out this melodic fingerstyle lesson I made. I teach a fun way to fingerpick the chords in the main progression, in a manner where the vocal melody notes are included on the thinnest couple strings. Quite fun!
From my library of song tutorials, this Jerry Jeff Walker classic is probably the most musically similar to Piano Man. Waltz feel, descending bass notes,
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