Chords for How to play Wild Horses on piano - Rob Smallwood

_ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ _ _ Hi, [N] a few people have asked me to put a tutorial on YouTube about how to play wild horses,
so here goes.
I'm going to play this in the original Rolling Stones key of G, which should make it easier
for most piano players.
Susan Boyle sings it in the key of Ab.
If you want to hear my full version in Ab you should find a link on this page.
If you want to play in Ab yourself then just take everything I'm about to show you up by a semitone.
Let's start with the tune.
It's very simple.
Susan plays around with it a bit so feel free to do the same when you play it on the piano.
But it's basically this for [G] the verse. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ [Em] _ [G] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ [G] OK, so you've got this.
_ _ Which is D D E B B, followed by this. _ _ _
Which is D F sharp D E B.
[Am] And it goes on to this bit.
[Em] _ _ [G] _ Which is A A B E G, followed by this. _ _ _
Which is D B A G A.
And the chorus is simply this.
_ _ _ Which is B E G.
_ [D] _ _ _ Which goes D B A G A.
[N] So there aren't too many notes.
You need to familiarise yourself with that melody before you can continue.
So the next step is to put the chords in.
There are only five chords within the whole song.
And they're very simple.
[G] You've got the I chord, which is G.
The minor [Am] II chord, which is A minor.
The minor [Bm] III chord, _ which is B minor.
_ [G]
The IV [C] chord, which is C.
And the [D] V chord, which is D.
And they [G] go in this order.
So you're not actually starting on your I chord, which is G.
You're starting [C] on the minor III chord, [Bm] which is B minor.
So I'll just put those simple chords at the moment together with the tune and you'll see how it works out.
And _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ [Bm] _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ then the [G] whole thing repeats before you come to the chords for the chorus.
Which starts on the minor II, which if you remember [Am] is A minor. _
[A] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ The I and V.
So [N] those are your chords.
But obviously it's very, very bland at the moment.
Because what Susan Boyle does to make this song sound very different
is that she adds a ninth to pretty much every chord that we've got here, apart from the V chord.
The ninth is very, very simply [G] from the root of a chord, nine notes [A] from here.
So one, two, [G] three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.
So in other words, [F] you're adding to that G chord, the simple G [G] chord, which is G, B and D, this [A] note, which is the A.
Or you could transpose it down an octave and say it's that chord with the second.
[G] So you've got G, A, B and D.
So instead of just playing a straight I chord, and any of the other chords apart from the V chord, which I'll mention in a moment,
you're adding that ninth.
And notice what a difference this makes if I add that and maybe spread the notes out over the octave a little bit to the song.
_ [Bm] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [B] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ _ [N] And you'll see that really changes the mood of the song.
And when you get to the V chord, don't play the ninth, it's better if you play what we call a suspended eleventh and then resolve it.
What I mean by that is instead [D] of just playing your straight D chord, [D] D, F sharp and A,
start off with the eleventh, which is the G, _ _ _ and resolve it onto the F sharp.
So it goes like this.
[G] _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ [N] And now all you've got to do is add some arpeggios and other rhythms,
and you're nearly getting towards what Susan has created in her version of Wild Horses.
If you want to hear the song in more depth, as I said earlier, listen to my full version, which is in A flat,
but basically it's the same principles I've recorded on this video here today.
I hope this has been of