The Long and Winding Road - Beatles | My Adult Piano Journey (Raw Practice)
Learning The Beatles: The Long and Winding Road (Piano Practice Journal)
The Challenge Today’s practice session was dedicated to one of the most beautiful, yet intimidating, songs in my repertoire: The Long and Winding Road.
As an adult beginner, I’ve realized that some songs look simple on paper but require a lot of coordination and theory knowledge to get right. This song is the perfect example of that. It’s a "long and winding road" just to get the chord transitions smooth!
What I Focused on Today In this raw practice session, I broke the work down into two main phases:
Melody & Bass Isolation: I started by making sure I had the right-hand melody and the simple bass movement down. I spent a lot of time on Section C ("Many times I've been alone") because the phrasing there is so iconic.
Chord Harmony & Inversions: Moving from just the melody to full chords changed everything. I had to really focus on the Section B bridge and the Coda to make sure the harmonies didn't sound "clunky."
Key Takeaways from the Session
Slow it down: I found that when the chord changes got complex, my timing would slip. Slowing the metronome down was the only way to fix it.
Theory matters: Understanding the structure (like the D.S. al Coda) helped me stay organized so I didn't get lost in the repeating sections.
It doesn't have to be perfect: This is a raw session. There are mistakes, pauses, and "re-dos." But that is how progress happens!
Practice Timestamps
00:00 - Intro: Starting the session
07:14 - Section C: "Many times I've been alone" Melody Focus
15:07 - Transitioning from melody to full chord practice
21:03 - Section B Breakdown: Chord Practice
31:46 - Navigating the Song Structure (D.S. al Coda)
45:08 - Final Coda Practice & Wrap-up
Final Thoughts Learning as an adult means balancing a busy life with the discipline of practice. Some days feel like a leap forward, and others feel like small steps. Today was about the small steps, and I’m okay with that.
Are you learning a Beatles song on the piano? What’s the hardest part for you? Let’s discuss in the comments!
https://youtu.be/oh8vbzcynlo?si=oq3sNUC8Ku30XyKD
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