Piano Restart Syllabus (Pop, Rock, and Jazz)

Where this sits now

Day-to-day practice starts on the Piano desk — current Anchor / Quick win / Sandbox, session types, and mood shortcuts. The piece board holds the forty-piece return curriculum with paired drills. How practice works explains the operating model.

This page remains a guided trail: concrete session recipes (especially early song nights) that feed into that desk. It is not a second competing syllabus.

The Goal: Enjoy Playing Again

Build a small repertoire you can enjoy with recordings, play as simple piano arrangements, and use for improvisation. Chord fluency and coordination serve those songs; they are not separate entrance exams.

The calendar-based jazz/gospel year plan stays reference-only. The earlier weekly lessons remain available from the desk shelf.

Starting Point

Your February–March logs show full seventh-chord changes in Fly Me to the Moon in C, and A-section harmony with Charleston rhythm at 100 beats per minute. Combining melody, changing inversions, and rhythmic accompaniment was harder than harmony alone. These are historical observations, not current tempo targets.

You remember basic triads well. Start with right-hand melody over quiet left-hand support, not a beginner block devoted to learning chord shapes. Use the linked score where supplied; listening checks phrasing rather than replacing written notes with guesswork. A quick chord check is enough; reading phrases and coordinating the hands are the useful challenges.

The plan assumes:

Variable practice nights, with up to an hour when available.
A digital piano, headphones, and phone/tablet/computer playback.
Free resources only.
Pop and rock alongside some jazz.
Three interests: accompanying recordings, melody with accompaniment, and improvising over grooves.

How Progress Works

There are 21 core sessions: three for Let It Be, then six each for the other three song projects. Session numbers describe the next task, not a date or a promise to finish in one sitting. Nights can be short or up to an hour; interruptions do not create a backlog. These are available agendas, not mandatory repetitions: once a project’s minimum achievement is met, skip its remaining polish and move to the next song.

Keep one learning song and, after the first project, one familiar song for enjoyment.
For a melody arrangement, start with a small right-hand phrase over manageable left-hand support. Brief separate-hand passes prepare the join. Reduce length, tempo, or inner notes when coordination needs it, preserving the source’s defining chord colours, bass inversions, and change positions. Busier accompaniment and fills come later.
A new session introduces one main challenge. Do not simultaneously increase tempo, change voicings, and add rhythm.
Use one working key per project. No all-key drills during this restart.
Repeating a session is normal. After two frustrating attempts, reduce its length, tempo, or hand workload rather than spending every night on the same failure.
Each project has a minimum playable result and optional upgrades. Neither upgrades nor unused session numbers block the next song.
The repertoire below is a proposed starting set, not an obligation to like these songs. If a song does not appeal after listening, replace it with a favourite offering similar chord/rhythm demands.

Your One-Hour Session

Minutes	Task	What to do
0–5	Musical warm-up	Play this song’s chords slowly, with relaxed hands; listen for clean changes.
5–15	One bottleneck	Loop two chords or one difficult bar. Change only one variable.
15–35	Song building	Learn a short section, then connect it to a section you already know.
35–50	Play with a track	Use a manageable loop or matched recording. During a performance pass, keep the pulse rather than restarting for every slip.
50–55	Enjoyment	Revisit something familiar or improvise freely. No new requirement.
55–60	Capture and decide	Record about 30 seconds, hear it back, and write one win and one next action.

There is no standing scale quota. If a fingering or melodic passage needs a scale fragment, use a few minutes of the bottleneck block and put it straight back into the song. Stop if playing hurts.

Interrupted night: 15 minutes. Two minutes on the song’s chords, five on one troublesome change, seven playing a familiar section with a loop, one noting where to resume. This maintains contact; it does not have to complete a core session.

Exhausted night: five minutes or rest. Play one enjoyable loop and stop. No make-up session.

Free Tracks Without Spending the Evening Searching

Start with the chord map on this page. Press its play button for a repeating harmony reference; its tempo/key options let you slow the loop without searching for a track. Listen once, stop it to work on a join, then play your part over it. The map supplies chords, not the song’s melody, and its piano voicing is not a prescription for which hand you use.

For a fuller bass-and-drums backing, use Musicca’s free chord player. Its instructions document chord entry, tempo/style, section repeats, instrument selection, count-in, and transposition. Saving/sharing/downloading requires login; basic playback can be used without saving.

Enter the project’s short loop. Set 4/4 and the map’s starting tempo.
Match the map’s durations. Explicit :duration values are authoritative and count quarter-note beats in these 4/4 maps; 0.5 is half a beat. Untimed bars retain equal divisions: one chord gets four beats, two chords get two each. If another player cannot preserve the durations or slash-chord basses, use the on-page map or a metronome.
Choose a simple straight accompaniment for pop/rock, or a slow swing style for jazz.
Use bass and drums, optionally guitar; turn backing piano down/off so you can hear your part.
Add a count-in. Do not run Musicca and the map’s audio simultaneously.

These are practice loops, not reproductions of the recordings. A four-chord exercise is not automatically the full song.

For the musical reward, also play along with the named artist’s recording through a legitimate free stream where available. Original piano may remain audible: that is fine for enjoyment, but assess your playing separately on the sparse loop.

Match the exact version’s key, chord timing, and form before playing along. The project keys below are working keys; another cover may differ.
Use a player with slower playback that preserves pitch if the recording is too fast. Otherwise stay with the adjustable loop.
A “karaoke” track usually removes vocals, not piano. It is not necessarily a piano-minus backing track.
Route device audio through the piano’s audio input/Bluetooth audio if supported, or use device playback at a comfortable volume alongside the piano. Bluetooth MIDI alone does not carry backing audio. Do not buy equipment for this plan.
Spend at most five minutes choosing a version. If access, key, or arrangement is unclear, use the supplied loop that night.

Project 1 — Let It Be: Score-Based Melody and Support

Artist: The Beatles. Working key: C. Sessions: 1–3. Focus: a short vocal melody with quiet left-hand support that retains the arrangement’s Fmaj7, F6, Dm7, inversions, and nonuniform changes. Familiar triads are a warm-up, not the lesson’s finish line.

Use the free piano/vocal score (PDF), not a simplified guitar chart. The top vocal staff supplies the right-hand melody; transfer the upper of the two braced piano staves’ chord-attack rhythm to compact left-hand voicings. This is a two-hand reduction, not all three staves, the full moving bass, or a claimed note-for-note original-recording transcription. The official Beatles music video is a phrasing/listening check; the score is primary for notes, ties, rests, and rhythm.

Start with V1–V2, then extend to this four-bar verse phrase, at 60 beats per minute or slower. On PDF page 1, V1–V3 are the middle system’s three bars beginning with “find”; V4 is the bottom system’s first bar, with F–C/E–Dm7–C. These are local rehearsal labels. Include the opening “When I” pickup from the end of the introduction: its two sixteenths enter on 4& and 4a before V1. Count a bar first; the helper’s count-in occurs only at playback start, not at every loop.

I:2 V:2 | vi:2 IVmaj7:1 IV6:1 | I:2 V:2 | IV:1 I/3:0.5 ii7:0.5 I:2

The numbers after : are quarter-note beats. V2 changes Am on 1 → Fmaj7 on 3 → F6 on 4: hear E → D over F. V4 changes F on 1 → C/E on 2 → Dm7 on 2& → C on 3, with C reattacked on 4. Keep the bass F–E–D–C; C/E is not a root-position C substitute.

Left-hand support rhythm, V1–V4: count 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &, one eighth-note cell at a time. Play quarter-note attacks, adding 2& in V2 and V4. This map describes support attacks from the upper piano staff, not the vocal rhythm or the lower staff’s full bass line.

X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ | X ~ X X X ~ X ~ | X ~ X ~ X ~ X ~ | X ~ X X X ~ X ~

For Session 2, locate the four-bar chorus phrase on PDF page 2: its first bar is the last bar of the first system; its next three bars begin the second system. The opening harmony is Am → C/G, not Am → G: C/G means C harmony over G bass. The same half-beat cadence returns in its fourth bar.

vi:2 I/5:2 | IV:2 I:2 | I:2 V:2 | IV:1 I/3:0.5 ii7:0.5 I:2

For the chorus, use quarter-note support attacks in its first three bars and the verse’s V4 attack pattern in its last bar. Each map is a 16-beat rehearsal excerpt / 16 seconds at 60 beats per minute, excluding a count-in, not the whole song’s form. The first verse spans eight bars: the harmonic skeleton returns, but its vocal melody and text are not simply identical repeats.

Use the maps as timed analytical chord references, not full printed-bass backing or melody playback. Optional Musicca backing is suitable only if its controls preserve the chord colours, C/E and C/G basses, and the half-beat changes. Otherwise use the on-page map or a metronome; equal-duration triads do not match this score.

Session 1 — Read and join the verse phrase. Read, hum, and tap V1–V2 from the score, including the pickup, syncopation, and ties. Join the right-hand vocal melody to quiet left-hand support with Fmaj7 → F6 and the extra 2& attack. Isolate V2 beat 2& → 2a → 3, keeping the vocal tie across 3 independent of the left-hand Fmaj7 attack, rather than restarting the whole phrase. Extend through V3–V4 and its F–C/E–Dm7–C cadence when ready. Record about 30 seconds.
Session 2 — Extend verse and learn the chorus. Read the remaining verse melody in small fragments; do not assume its second four bars repeat the first melody. Learn the score’s chorus above, keeping C/G, quarter-note support, and the half-beat cadence. Count and hum the vocal rhythm separately before joining. Connect only the sections you can play musically; preserve quiet support below a clear melody.
Session 3 — Finish and choose what to keep. Record a short verse-to-chorus arrangement if ready, or finish the four-bar verse excerpt without restarting for slips. Keep the score’s harmonic colours and change positions in your reduction. If secure, choose one optional variation: quieter support, smoother compact voicings, or a simple C ending—not the entire printed moving bass.

Minimum achievement: a recognisable four-bar verse melody with quiet left-hand support, audible Fmaj7 → F6 colour, F–C/E–Dm7–C bass descent, and the displayed quarter/eighth attacks and change positions. A slow version counts. Shorter fragments are valid intermediate progress; verse-plus-chorus is the larger finish, not a reason to stall.

Move on as soon as that achievement is met, even during Session 1 or 2. Go straight to Session 4; you do not owe Let It Be three nights or any optional variation.

Project 2 — Wish You Were Here: Acoustic Rock on Piano

Artist: Pink Floyd. Working key: G. Sessions: 4–9. Focus: relaxed accompaniment, connected chord changes, and a recognisable vocal melody. You chose this to replace U2; enjoying the song matters more than preserving the original exercise.

Start with this eight-bar simplified vocal-section study, one four-beat bar per chord at 60 beats per minute, or slower. Its first four bars also work as a short practice loop. At 60, the whole map is 32 beats / 32 seconds; set Musicca durations to four beats per chord if using it.

IV | V | ii | I V | IV | ii | I

This follows the chord order in the free song chart, reducing D/F♯ to D. Match the chosen recording’s timing before playing along; the fixed-bar study is not the full song.

For a chord-only accompaniment pass, try gentle attacks on beats 1 and 3:

X ~ X ~

The recorded guitar introduction and solo are not prerequisites. Start with the vocal sections. Em7 and A7sus4 from the introduction can wait until you want that extra project.

Session 4 — Put familiar shapes into a phrase. Check C, D, Am, and G as a brief warm-up, then play the eight-bar study with the map’s backing. For a chord-only pass, use left-hand roots and held right-hand triads. Shape the phrase quietly, then a little fuller; spend the session on continuity and sound, not naming four shapes.
Session 5 — Keep the phrase moving. Play the vocal-section study for about 90 seconds with the custom backing. Count the bars and notice the different chord order in its second half. If you miss a chord, leave it out and rejoin rather than stopping. If already secure, begin the melody task early.
Session 6 — Add a gentle pulse. Try the rhythm map with right-hand chords over simple left-hand roots. If secure, alternate root and fifth in the left hand. Do not add both changes at once or imitate every guitar strum.
Session 7 — Find the vocal hook. Sing and find a short recognisable melody phrase, one or two bars at a time. Play it with the right hand, then add quiet held left-hand triads as in Session 1. Use single roots temporarily if the join is difficult; drop the busier accompaniment while finding the tune.
Session 8 — Answer the melody. Over the first four bars of the backing, use G, A, B, D, and E for a short original response, then leave space. Aim to finish on a note from the current chord. Practise separately before adding one fill in a vocal gap.
Session 9 — Finish a song section. Record the eight-bar vocal-section study twice as accompaniment, making the second pass a little fuller without speeding up. Then record the short melody-with-chords phrase separately. Try a vocal section alongside the recording if its timing is comfortable.

Minimum achievement: a steady two-pass accompaniment with intentional dynamics, plus a short recognisable melody phrase with simple left-hand support. Separate takes count; advance when this works rather than repeating completed tasks.

Optional upgrade: learn a short opening guitar motif as a piano melody, or follow the complete recording after mapping its instrumental sections. Neither is required before the next project.

Project 3 — Fly Me to the Moon: Recover Familiar Jazz

Working key: C. Sessions: 10–15. Focus: recover useful seventh chords and combine a small amount of melody with simple support. This project is intentionally a section, not a demand to master a whole standard.

Use this short warm-up/improvisation loop at 65 beats per minute, one four-beat bar per chord. For Musicca enter Am7, Dm7, G7, Cmaj7, four beats each: 16 beats, about 15 seconds at 65 beats per minute.

vi7 | ii7 | V7 | Imaj7

Use the first 16 bars of your existing Week 1 chord map for the section work. That page uses its own 37-bar arrangement. Do not assume a standard 32-bar backing or a Sinatra recording follows that map; use its on-page playback or build matching sections in Musicca, preserving its two-chord bars.

For Session 12, this is the Charleston attack pattern: beat 1 and the “and” of 2. Try it separately from melody work.

X - - X - - - -

Session 10 — Recover through a musical phrase. Briefly check the seventh-chord loop, then play the first four bars of the section with a steady pulse and a deliberate phrase ending. Use full seventh chords if comfortable; otherwise use roots in the left hand and two-note shells in the right. Chord recall is a warm-up, not the whole session.
Session 11 — Restore the section. Work through the first 16 bars in four-bar chunks, with chord names visible. Freeze your voicing choices for now and isolate one awkward transition.
Session 12 — Groove without melody. Try the Charleston map on the short harmony loop, then the section. If it disrupts time, return to held chords. The old 100-beat-per-minute result is not today’s obligation.
Session 13 — Melody with easy support. Recover the first four melody bars right hand alone. Add quiet left-hand shells or held chords; use single roots temporarily if needed, then extend toward eight bars only if stable. Do not add Charleston at the same time.
Session 14 — Improvise an answer. On the four-chord loop, play a short chord-tone phrase and leave space. Repeat its rhythm with different notes. Keep chord reference shapes visible; no scale memorisation prerequisite.
Session 15 — Capture the recovery. Record 16 bars of harmony with the matching backing, then a separate four-to-eight-bar melody-with-support take.

Minimum achievement: the 16-bar harmony section stays in time, and a short melody phrase works with simple left-hand support. These may be separate recordings. Skip remaining polish when this works.

Optional upgrade: add either Charleston or smoother left-hand voicings to the melody version—not both.

Project 4 — Zombie: Minor-Key Rock and Your Own Fills

Artist: The Cranberries. Working key: E minor. Sessions: 16–21. Focus: a contrasting mood, stronger pulse, and transferring your chord skills to a new song.

One four-beat bar per chord at 70 beats per minute, or slower. The map uses G major’s relative-minor harmony to display Em, C, G, D. For Musicca set four beats per chord: 16 beats, about 14 seconds at 70 beats per minute. Musicca lists the progression in its four-chord song reference.

vi | IV | I | V

Start chord-only accompaniment with held chords, then try beats 1 and 3. The optional stronger texture is a chord attack on every beat:

X ~ X ~ | X X X X

Session 16 — Transfer the skill into a section. Check the four triads and easy inversions briefly. With left-hand roots and held right-hand chords, play several complete loops, then contrast a quiet verse-like pass and a stronger chorus-like pass. Notice which skills transfer without relearning shapes.
Session 17 — Build the groove. Add right-hand chords on beats 1 and 3, keeping the left hand simple. If too easy, try steady right-hand quarter-note chords; avoid tension and pounding.
Session 18 — Find the form. Listen to the selected recording, label its sections, and follow its changes with plain chords. Create contrast through volume and register rather than new harmony.
Session 19 — Instrumental phrase. Sing and pick out a short vocal-melody phrase with the right hand, then add quiet held left-hand triads. Use single roots temporarily if needed. A recognisable phrase is enough; do not try to imitate the entire vocal performance.
Session 20 — Add your own response. Use E, G, A, B, and D for short fills over the custom loop, ending on a note from the current chord. Leave space. Practise fills separately before putting one in a gap in the song.
Session 21 — Small performance. Record two minutes with contrasting quiet/strong sections. Then revisit one earlier project and record the part you most enjoy as a second take.

Minimum achievement: steady rock accompaniment with a deliberate change of texture, plus one short original fill played separately or in a suitable gap. Advance when achieved, even if some agendas remain unused.

Optional upgrade: follow the complete recording, or combine a melody excerpt with held left-hand chords.

When to Advance, Repeat, or Simplify

For a newly learned short section, aim for three consecutive steady passes at your chosen tempo. This is a practical readiness check, not a demand for a flawless recording.

Advance: the project’s minimum achievement works without searching for every chord or losing the phrase. A small slip followed by recovery is acceptable. Skip to the next project’s first session; do not fill unused session numbers with mandatory repeats.
Repeat a small part: the same join repeatedly interrupts the pulse. Practise that bar or pair of chords, not another hour of the entire song.
Simplify: remove fills, shorten the section, reduce inner chord notes, or lower the backing tempo. Single roots can help in suitable generic exercises, but do not erase defining colours or slash-chord basses in the score-based Let It Be phrase. Restore temporarily omitted support attacks after the troublesome join works.
Increase tempo: only when the current version is comfortable; try a small increase of roughly 3–5 beats per minute and keep it only if the pulse survives.
After a gap: spend the next warm-up on your last comfortable phrase. Resume the next useful task; never restart the syllabus automatically.

The first finish line is a short melody-plus-chords arrangement, not a concert-ready performance. By Session 21, aim to have several enjoyable accompaniments, a recovered jazz section, short melody-and-accompaniment excerpts, and experience making your own phrases. Full solo arrangements are a later choice, not an implied requirement of this block.

A Tiny Progress Record

After playing, note: date / project and session / key and tempo / one win / exact next action. For example, make the next action as small as “loop G to Am with held chords,” rather than “improve coordination.”

Keep a 30-second clip at the start and finish of each project. Listen for steadier time, easier changes, better balance, and a more intentional phrase—not just speed.

The existing structured practice-log form is tied to the earlier numbered weeks. Do not label restart sessions as historical weeks just to fit it; a plain practice note is sufficient for this plan.

After the four projects, choose your two favourites to keep and one new song you genuinely want to play. If chord shapes now come easily but melody-plus-accompaniment remains difficult, make that the next block’s main focus rather than adding harder harmony.

Earlier Weekly Lessons (Reference Only)

These belong to the previous jazz/gospel curriculum. Use an individual lesson when it solves a current song problem; the week numbers are not your current schedule.