How to play “Believer” by Imagine Dragons on piano

I recommend that all of my students learn how to play “Believer” by Imagine Dragons on piano. Why? Easy. This tune is awesome! It’s dark and has a big energy. Mostly everything Imagine Dragons puts out is a hit, and for good reason. When Believer came out, I knew I had to teach it for a few specific musical reasons…

“Believer” by Imagine Dragons has a unique meter

The meter, or time signature, is pretty unique, so it presented a great opportunity for me to teach something new. First off, depending on how you look at it, this song really can be written/felt in two different ways. Here, for my arrangement for Playground Sessions, I decided to write it in 6/8, but it could also be felt in 4/4. Here is the main difference:

In 4/4, this song would have a TON of triplets. Pretty much in every single measure of the entire song. And arguably, that would have been a more accurate way to write this. But since we’re talking about an intermediate level arrangement, I didn’t want to overwhelm a student before they even played a note by presenting notation that looked near impossible, stocked full of quick triplets.

So in 4/4, the left hand part in the verse would’ve looked very complicated. But in 6/8, the same exact part can look much more simple. In other words, a group of three 8th-note-triplets in 4/4 time signature is exactly the same as a group of 3 regular 8th notes in 6/8 (so long as the tempo changes between the two are accounted for).

SO. To summarize, I felt this was a great lesson on rhythm, specifically duple vs. triple feel. But whichever way you decide to feel it, whether it’s 4/4 or 6/8, the part is awesome and super fun to play 🙂

Wide-ranging right hand melody

All rhythmic talk aside, I just love the range of this melody and it offers a fairly challenging lesson in hand position movement. Half way through the verse melody, we jump up an octave, then we jump right back down. Definitely practice that jump out of context and without the left hand for a while before putting the hands together on this one!

So dive in! Make sure to watch the video while you’re at your piano or keyboard so you can play along with me as I guide you through the lesson. And don’t forget to hit subscribe so you don’t miss any other YouTube videos lessons… I’m now doing 2 new videos a week, EVERY WEEK!

Now it’s your turn to play “Believer” by Imagine Dragons

If you love using your favorite songs to learn the piano, check out ‘Believer’ by Imagine Dragons at the Playground Sessions YouTube channel. If you like what you see you can download our app to learn the rest of this song with our interactive sheet music.

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