When I first heard “Sign of the Times” I had no idea it was written and performed by a former member of One Direction. It sounded more like Elton John, David Bowie, and Pink Floyd got together and inspired a brand new artist… I loved it! And when I found out it was Harry Styles, I knew I had to teach it to you guys on YouTube.
Here are a few other reasons I wanted to teach it that are related to the song itself, and the specific Playground Sessions arrangement:
Power rock ballads on piano are rare (& fun!)
Usually a song that features the piano isn’t categorized as a rock song. A sad truth.. We all love to rock, but often we pianists get left behind while guitar and bass get all the glory. So another thing that caught my ear and sparked my interest when I heard this song was that we can really rock out to it on the piano.
Epic but accessible
When you play this song (especially along with the Playground Sessions backing tracks in the app), it feels so full and big! But you don’t need to be a master to play it. I chose to teach our intermediate level arrangement which has just 3 chords in the chorus section: F, Dm, and C. And in the right hand melody, the hand never moves out of a C major position. In other words, all of the melody notes for the chorus are covered in the C major 5-note range (C, D, E, F, and G).
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 “Sign of the Times” by Harry Styles on piano
If you love using your favorite songs to learn the piano, check out ‘SIGN OF THE TIMES’ 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.
Subscribe to Playground’s YouTube channel for more song lesson videos.
Download the Playground Sessions piano learning app for full interactive learning.
Thinking about learning piano? Read our complete guide on how to play piano.