How to play the theme song from Succession (without sheet music)
Using piano tablature to teach anyone this exhilarating tune
If you haven’t seen HBO’s show Succession, I highly recommend watching it: it’s got nuanced characters, on-point dialogue, and a tumultuous (but oddly believable) storyline. I don’t always like dramas, but I love this one.
Even if you don’t want to watch it, the piano-driven Succession Theme Song, composed by Nicholas Britell is well worth a listen: this intense thrum on the bass notes at the beginning quickly arcs to this high, falling piano line. It “twinkles,” but in a way that’s brooding and unhinged, rather that joyful. It’s intense, and you should learn to play it on the piano. It’s worth it.
But, maybe you can’t read sheet music
Oh, you don’t know how to read traditional sheet music, or perhaps even how to play piano? No problem! I just released a new version of Piano Tablature, a musical notation method that teaches a song visually (like looking at piano keys), rather than according to music theory.
The Succession Theme Song (Piano Tab)
So let’s look at this song* as written as piano tablature:
How it works
The keys are laid out visually, like you’re physically looking down at the keyboard of a piano. Notes (the letters and symbols) are put on lines (the black keys) and the spaces between them (the white keys) to show you where to put your fingers. If you already know what the note names are (like how to play a “C,” and so on) that’s great! The note names are spelled out for all of the white keys, but you don’t need to know them all: you can still simply look at where they’re located to see where to play. The upper-case letters are for your left hand, and the lower case letters are for your right hand to play.
The whole thing is read vertically, from top to bottom; it’s similar to the games Dance Dance Revolution or Guitar Hero, except that it’s read top-to-bottom. In the example above, you can see a piano chord start very low (those two “C’s” on the left), then a very high jumble of notes (right), and then a few sets of single-note runs for your right hand that progress on down the page, interspersed with some left-hand chords. Before you know it, you’re playing those now-familiar lines from the theme song.
For more about this style of sheet music, take a look at my full Piano Tablature article; there are also other examples, like Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” intro, and Taylor Swift’s song “New Years’ Day.” Otherwise, enjoy playing this great song above, and reply here if you have any questions or comments. Thanks!
Footnote ❤️️
️Due credit to my wife, Molly, for just sitting down at a piano and figuring this song out, by ear, in about 2 minutes! As soon as I heard her play it, I brought my notebook over to write this out as a piano tab. I figured a lot of folks may want to play this song when they hear it, including people without a musical or piano background. I hope you understand it, and enjoy it!
