Piano chords · Blues & boogie
Smile: easy piano accompaniment in letter notes
By Charles Chaplin
- F major
- 4/4
- 80 BPM
- I–ii–I–ii loop
- 1954
- Medium
The accompaniment with every note named, bar by bar: the bar sheet shows each note as a bar on the staff with its letter inside, so you can accompany Smile without reading music. The left hand plays boogie walker (boogie-woogie line) and the right hand soft chords.
Smile accompaniment in letter notes
The F – Gm – F – Gm loop with boogie walker in the left hand and soft chords in the right. Notes struck together are joined with a plus; C4 is middle C.
How to read the bar sheet
The player above shows the treble staff (right hand) over the bass staff (left hand). Every note is a bar as long as it sounds, at its place on the staff, with its name inside, and the music scrolls past a line that marks now. The chord names run along the top.
Start with the left hand alone at a slow speed, then the right, then both. When the letters feel easy, try the sheet music.
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Questions about Smile
What are the letter notes for the Smile piano accompaniment?
Bar by bar, both hands: the bar sheet on this page names every note of the accompaniment (C4 is middle C) and plays along. The loop is F – Gm – F – Gm, so the letters repeat with the chords.
What chords are in Smile?
The loop is F – Gm – F – Gm (I – ii – I – ii) in F major, and the song ends on Bb – C – F.
What key is Smile in?
F major, at about 80 beats a minute in 4/4.
What does the left hand play in Smile?
Boogie walker: boogie-woogie line, a medium pattern. It follows the chords, so the same shape works for every bar.
Is Smile easy to play on piano?
It is a medium one: learn the 4 chords as blocks first, then add the left hand, then the right, slowly.
Made from 2 arrangements of this song: the left and right hands are the patterns these scores repeat most.