Songs Where the Piano Is More Than Accompaniment

Paul McCartney’s piano supplies the rolling bass figure and the chords that bounce above it. Listen for the low pattern in the gap between lines and under the saxophone. The riff is established so firmly at the start that the band can let the horns roam around it.

The piano begins with room for every note, and Simone starts singing over a familiar gospel swing. As the band gathers behind her, listen to how the piano keeps pushing through the gaps at the ends of vocal phrases. That steady lift lets the delivery grow from a personal wish into something she can sing out to a room.

The first piano chord hangs alone for a bar before the band gets started. Listen for the way Elton John keeps leaving holes between chords once the bass and drums arrive. The sound of an audience in those gaps was added during mixing, and the spacing makes the piano sound as though it’s playing to that crowd.

The opening chords leave uneven-feeling spaces that make it hard to place your foot on a beat. Then the drums come in and put a pulse under what the piano has been doing all along. Listen to the same chord pattern before and after that entrance. It can feel like two different parts without changing its timing.

The piano traces a shape and Emahoy’s voice follows it, almost as if she’s joining a melody already in progress. Listen for the spaces when she takes a breath and the piano keeps moving on its own. On this home recording you can hear how closely the vocal takes its timing from her playing.

Once Little Richard’s opening shout ends, his piano keeps hammering evenly while Earl Palmer’s drums still have a shuffle to them. Follow the piano beneath the saxophones. That straight-ahead push is one reason the record feels as if it’s about to outrun itself.

Lewis punctuates the opening vocal lines with high piano jabs. When he gets to the solo, those short answers turn into runs and pounding chords. The same instrument can hit the breaks with him and then keep the whole record moving when he stops singing.

At the start, hear how Monk makes the blues theme climb a little at a time, with notes close enough together to rub. The rhythm section keeps the pulse while he leaves holes in the line and puts weight on individual notes. The hesitations help make the tune recognizable when the improvising starts.

In this Argentine zamba, listen for the descending notes that set up Sosa’s first phrase. Ariel Ramírez’s piano approaches the melody in small, rippling figures. The guitar and light percussion help keep that motion going while Sosa stretches the ends of her lines.

The gospel-style piano gets a short introduction of its own. Listen to the little turns it plays against Art Garfunkel’s long notes in the first verse, before the record opens out into strings and percussion. The swell feels earned because the piano has already worked out how to build underneath the voice.

Wonder holds notes or lets a line trail away while the piano keeps changing the harmony underneath. Listen to the turn back into the next verse, when the chords seem to settle and then quickly find another place to go. The tension carries through even when the vocal is barely above a murmur.

The opening piano figure tells you immediately where the song is. Listen again when Hornsby gets to the instrumental breaks. Those quick runs and turns across the beat give the piano a chance to depart from the familiar riff and make returning to it feel like landing.

The piano has a clipped, percussive bounce under the verses. Keep listening after the vocal line ends, when Amos stretches that part into a much freer series of runs. The same instrument sets the song’s stride and gives it a place to break from that pattern.

Folds gives the trio both a riff and a set of sharp chord attacks. The bass and drums charge in around them, and the piano can suddenly take a run across the keyboard without losing any of that momentum. The band’s loudest moments depend on the piano hitting as hard as the rhythm section.

Fiona Apple’s piano has a little spring to it even when the words get bleak. Listen for the clipped chord that seems to pick up the next phrase before she has finished the last one. As the horns and drums join in, they keep that light-footed timing in a song about wanting something you can’t have.

The high, repeating piano figure arrives before the voice and stays recognizable once the drums and strings fill in. Listen to how the vocal takes longer strides across that fast pattern. At the changes between sections, the piano can bring you back to the song’s opening feeling in a few notes.

The piano starts with a repeating pattern of falling notes whose accents seem to pull against the beat. When the bass and drums enter, the two pulses are easy to hear together. Keep your attention on the piano as the vocal rises over it. That figure is why the song can sound both steady and restless.

Keys plays the opening chords one note at a time, keeping her voice out until the shape of those arpeggios is clear. When the rhythm section enters, listen to the piano’s chord changes underneath her held notes. The introduction already tells you how the song will move between a private thought and a chorus sung at full stretch.

Between Legend’s vocal lines, the piano has just enough room for a short answer. At the chorus, the chords widen but the voice still sounds close. Without a full band to supply the lift, those small changes in how he plays open up the arrangement at the moments the singer needs more room.

Co-writer Dan Wilson’s piano rolls through a steady pattern as Adele takes more time over particular words. Listen to the bridge, when the harmony changes and the notes keep flowing underneath. With only voice and piano on the recording, the pianist sets the pace while leaving her free to push and pull against it.