Easiest Muse Songs to Play on Piano for Beginners

[DonnaRaines]

I wouldn't say In Your World, after the second hand is introduced, a beginner would probably find that difficult.

 

ah maybe...

[kueller]

Butterflies and Hurricanes. True story.

 

It really isn't nearly as difficult as it looks.

[Tofu]

It really isn't nearly as difficult as it looks.

 

The solo is definitely much easier than it seems. The rest of the song, though…I usually get tired before I finish it.

 

My friend who doesn't really play piano can play most of Space Dementia okay actually, so I wouldn't rule it out though I don't think it's a beginner song per se.

 

New Born, Feeling Good, and Sunburn are really easy anyway. I think.

[HannahG123]

New born, in your world, sing for abso, exo 3 and sunburn I learnt by ear so they are all pretty easy

[Spectrum IV]

Old thread but anyway, thought I would be a little more comprehensive here as someone who's been playing for about three years, and started out with Muse songs.

 

There are a bunch of piano riffs which are simple enough to learn but aren't particularly rewarding to play by themselves. Take Con-Science for e.g., it's just four notes repeated over and over so you can memorise it in about 10 seconds. To make an actual song out of that is something entirely different, and to achieve the necessary build-up with just a piano is actually incredibly fucking hard.

 

Then you have songs like SFA, which start with a very simple piano melody which might take a few minutes to learn. In the chorus it has some guitar arpeggios which can sound pretty lame without a decent, preferably acoustic piano. But towards the end there are some beefy guitar notes before a long tremolo picking section, and to really pull that off with ivories requires musical knowledge, technique and a kick-ass piano.

 

Basically there's a difference between songs that are easy to learn vs. songs that are easy to play (and nail). So in that category, songs like New Born and Sunburn are mentioned.

 

I'll start with New Born. The beginning is just two-handed arpeggios on piano, they're pretty fast but there's only 4 chords so easy to remember. Then a second piano is introduced, so right away your playing is missing that extra layer, along with the bassline that comes in. Those are fine though, you can do without them.

 

After a minute or so the riff kicks in. You'll need to be playing octaves in your left hand to get this right, and they are bloody fast and jumpy so already the song is into pretty bullshit territory. For the verses you will need to tackle the bassline, which is a lot harder to play than the piano intro and requires some quick movements. And this is without even mentioning the solo... I just arpeggiate like crazy and hope for the best.

 

Sunburn by comparison is a lot simpler and more suitable to play, though the piano parts are faster than New Born and some skill/coordination is definitely required here. Once you get to the chorus you have a few options, one of which is to play the proper bassline with your left hand (insane). I usually just play octaves and triads with the RH, which is a lot simpler.

 

For the solo I copy what Matt does live, two-hand chromatic octaves starting on E. This isn't too hard, but when it reaches the top of the piano you'll need to play fast trills in the right hand while keeping the bassline going (and timed correctly) with your left. None of this is what I'd consider "beginner-friendly," in fact attempting either of these songs in full when you have no piano experience will most likely make you want to jump into oncoming traffic.

 

NOW, songs that are actually beginner friendly:

 

Redemption. The only tricky tricky part is a bit of RH trilling just before the outro kicks in, apart from that it's simple. Abuse the pedal and practice hitting bass notes with the left hand before jumping back to the melody, you will get it down pretty quick.

 

Soldier's Poem. RH arpeggios with simple bass in the left. This song lacks a little something without the harmonies IMO, but it is still a nice instrumental piece in its own right. Make sure to build the volume.

 

Feeling Good. You will need a decent piano to get this right, but it really is easy to perfect and sounds pretty awesome. Again practice those left-hand jumps, there is one LH jump you might struggle with, but otherwise you'll be sweet.

 

And a few that are easy once you have the basics down:

 

Isolated System. Think of it as Redemption but with some improvisation required. It lacks a little something without the strings, but you can still pull it off.

 

Explorers. Requires good control of dynamics and timing but not hard at all. Like IS it works a lot better with strings, but it is still doable in general.

 

Endlessly. Very easy for 90% of the song. The chord progression might evade your memory, and that organ solo is really fast. You can play those 16th triplets as straight 8th notes, it still sounds fine but is a lot easier.

 

There you go OP (and anyone else who might be interested in this in future). Contrary to popular belief most Muse songs are far from easy on the piano, especially if you've never played before. Some of them have simple parts but to really nail the entire song, make it sound awesome and get that "Fuck yeah" moment/sense of accomplishment, I suggest these ones above.

[DifferentPerson]

I was actually dicking around on my keyboard the other day trying to come up with some cool melodies, and I started playing a melody that I found extremely familiar but I couldn't put my finger on what it was... It took me a while to realise that it was Ruled By Secrecy

 

Oh dear, it's been over a year and I haven't made much progress. I can now play a bit of Sunburn and Endlessly but that's still about it

[matthijs]

Practice chords and scales and then muse songs should become very easy.

[Spectrum IV]

But they're really not that easy. Maybe if you have prior knowledge of music theory or experience with other instruments the learning curve won't be so large, but as a complete beginner pianist, you'll always require a fair bit of practice and persistence to play most Muse songs smoothly (especially for full songs). To set up the expectation that after a few scales you should be able to play Sunburn is just silly, and will make newbies want to quit.

 

Edit: Also don't forget that it's a lot harder to start playing piano as an adult.

[matthijs]

That's why I recommend scales and chords. They are the bread and butter of any muse song.

[PinkFloydMuserQ17]

I can play a little of Neutron Star Collision, SMBH, Endlessly

[up]

I like the rock song with the piano