Elton John Philadelphia Freedom
In one of my practice sessions to further my piano playing, an obvious pitstop was to look at Elton John’s amazing piano work.
I grew up listening to a lot of Creedence Clearwater Revival and Elton John. It’s amazing listening to this material now how I can hear so much of what I love to do mirrored in both of those artists’ back-catalogs.
Elton’s Songwriting
I remember watching a short video dissecting Elton John’s piano playing, and the comment someone made was that Elton always tries to write ‘hymns’. And he didn’t mean religious songs, it was more a reference to the incredibly simple chord progressions that he’d then tweak very subtly to turn them into an anthemic piece. Good hymns tend to do the same thing – they start out functionally very simple, then the odd harmony note starts to turn it on it’s head… Elton is a master of doing this.
Take this song, Philadelphia Freedom.
You may not hear it, but there’s two key changes back and forth every time they move from verse to chorus… and yet it’s so musical! He’s also got a load of smaller modulations/side-stepping to throw in chords that don’t belong in either of the two keys he moves between. I won’t bore you with the details, but he writes very differently to most artists… then or now!
And that’s all at the same time as having a pretty catchy melody. Love it.
Enjoy it! See if you can spot the subtle key changes!