For my latest youTube tutorial, we'll be digging into a Stevie Wonder classic -- You Are the Sunshine of My Life. I play this tune all the times on gigs -- it's great one to play with both vocalists and instrumentalists. The inspiration to teach this one came from a Skype student of mine. So...this one is for you Cara! Cara decided to learn this song and sing it to her father for his birthday...how sweet is that!
I hope you enjoy learning this one. It has some great piano voicings which mostly utilize root notes in the left hand with 7/3/5 or 3/7/9 in the right hand. It has some great examples of how simple voice-leading moves with one finger in the right hand can lead to whole new chords and sounds! It also has a few "hybrid chords" (where we have one chord in the right hand and a different bass note in the left). Check out the G/F in the 2nd measure -- wooo!! And of course, a beautiful mini-modulation to A major from C major. What I can say -- it's Stevie Wonder. It's perfect.
You can click on the button below to purchase the sheet music transcription of the arrangement I play in the Part 1 video as well as the Part 2 video which completes the song.
Happy shedding!
I hope you enjoy learning this one. It has some great piano voicings which mostly utilize root notes in the left hand with 7/3/5 or 3/7/9 in the right hand. It has some great examples of how simple voice-leading moves with one finger in the right hand can lead to whole new chords and sounds! It also has a few "hybrid chords" (where we have one chord in the right hand and a different bass note in the left). Check out the G/F in the 2nd measure -- wooo!! And of course, a beautiful mini-modulation to A major from C major. What I can say -- it's Stevie Wonder. It's perfect.
You can click on the button below to purchase the sheet music transcription of the arrangement I play in the Part 1 video as well as the Part 2 video which completes the song.
Happy shedding!