Introduction to Pop/Rock Styles

Pop/rock emerged in the late 1970s, hit its peak during the ’80s, and continued in various forms into the ’90s and beyond. The more “rock” style combines the commercial, melodic “hooks” of pop music, with the hard driving energy of rock music. Many pop/rock artists also wrote pop ballads, songs at slow tempos and softer dynamics. A large number of artists fall into the pop/rock category, from solo superstars like Billy Joel and Elton John, to bands such as Toto (David Paich on keys), Journey (Jonathan Cain on keys), Doobie Brothers (Michael McDonald on keys), and Bon Jovi (David Bryan on keys), to name just a few.

Piano and keyboards are an essential ingredient of pop/rock styles. Typical pop/rock piano parts will either have very “driving” left-hand patterns with right-hand triads, or they will be based more on chordal arpeggios with syncopations. Eighth-note rhythms are the most common, although some later pop/rock styles use sixteenth notes. It’s very important to “stay in the groove” (i.e., not deviate from the rhythm) in these styles!

We’ll first ease into this style with a classical pop rock ballad, the song “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Elton John. While the left hand plays a single-note bass line, the right hand plays the melody, filled in with lots of repeated chords. Though this is a ballad, feel free to bring out the rock style by playing strong accents as indicated on some of these powerful chords.

Next up is a classic pop/rock song from Marc Cohn, “Walking in Memphis.” This piano pattern also uses arpeggios, but with a highly syncopated feel (emphasizing the “and” of 2 and the “and” of 4 in each measure). The arpeggios in measures 1–20 use only the roots and 5ths of the chords, and are spread out between both hands (note that the first 12 measures of the left-hand part are notated in treble clef). The groove becomes heavier starting in measure 20, with the right hand playing dyads and triads in the mid-range, and the left-hand roots in the lower register:

Now we’ll switch gears and look at an excerpt from “A Thousand Miles” by the 21st century pop/rock artist Vanessa Carlton. This uses sixteenth-note subdivisions and syncopations, which is typical of later pop/rock styles. The instrumental sections (measures 1–4, 7–8, and 11–12) use some high arpeggios and large interval skips in the right hand, supported with syncopated single notes or octaves in the left hand. In measures 5–6 and 9–10, the right hand is playing the melody, accompanied by root–5th and root–3rd intervals in the left hand.

Listen to track 63 to hear “Before I Get Old.” The left-hand part is on the left channel, and the right hand part is on the right channel; to practice “hands separately,” just turn down one channel or the other!

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