Chords for How to Play "Stand by Me" by Ben E. King on Piano

Hey guys, it's Josh with Mahalo, and today I'll be teaching you how to play Stand By
Me from the feature film Stand By Me.
Alright, let's get started with the chords.
We have a couple simple chords to learn.
The first one will be F.
_ [F] _
I'm going to play that in a little inversion.
Usually it's just F, A, C.
I'm going to play it C, F, A.
_ _ Next chord will be D minor.
We're just going to move that one up to the [Dm] D and our bass hand to the D and we keep the
F in the A, so that's D, F, A for that D minor.
[C] C chord, C, E, G.
So if you [Dm] notice from that D minor to [C] the C, we're just moving every
note down a whole step.
And then from there we're going to go to B [Bb] flat, which is B flat, D, F.
And then we're
going to go, I think that's the _ most part.
Yeah, that's about it.
Alright, let's get started with the intro.
So the very famous [A] intro, it's dum, dum, da [D] da dum, [F] dum, dum, dum, dum.
We're all doing that in the bass with our left hand.
Alright, so we're going to start with that F _ down in the lower bass.
So it's F, [C] F, [F] C, E, F, [E] F, [D] E, D, [C] D, [D] C, D, [C] D, C, [Bb] B flat, B flat, [C] then to C, [D] then [F] to F, F,
[C] [F] repeat again.
So one more time slowly, that's F, F, [C] [F] C, E, F, [E] F, [D] E, D, D, [C] [D] C, D, _ [C] D, C, [Bb] B flat, B flat,
to [C] the C, C, [E]
[F] E, F, [C] F, C, E, [F] F, F, and then we start, way in the sky, all that good stuff, right?
Alright, let's get started with chords on the right hand.
_ That's an F chord in the beginning.
So we're going to go like this.
This is how it sounds together.
So going F, D minor, quick C, back to D minor, B flat, and then back to C, F, B flat.
Okay, here we go.
So F is up first, so F, _
[C] [F] C, F, F, F, [E] down to [Dm] the D minor, hit _ [C] [Dm] C, D minor, [C] then [Bb] to the
B flat, hit right, [C] to the C, hit right, [F] to the F, [C] F, [F] C, E, F, F, and the sky _ has come,
move [E] to D minor, [Dm] _
and [C] the [Dm] land is free, dark, I always say free, is that, nope, that's not
even a word, I just keep making that up.
Dark, [Bb] and the moon, that's B flat, is [C] the only C chord, line, wheel, C, back to the
[F] F, _
_ [C] _ [F] _ _ _ [C] oh I [F] would, and we send that F to that whole part, and that's just repeating the
very first part.
[E] So let's go over that one more time, [F] just to make sure you have it.
By the way, if this whole bum, bum, [C] [F] C, E, F, bum, [E] bum, [D] bum, bum, bum, is that, if that's
too tricky for you, don't worry, don't sweat it, just hit those chords as you normally
[F] hit them, so _ you can go F chord, F chord, F chord, F chord, [Dm] D minor, [C] C, [Dm] D minor, [Bb] to
the B flat, [C] to the C, [F] to the F chord, bum, bum, just hear it in your head, you don't
have to play it, but now you know both ways, in case you want to do either one.
So what we do is we repeat that first verse with the _ _ _ same chords, different words, we
know that, the whole thing, how we do that, just as long as you stand, stand by me, and
then we go into the chorus.
All right, here is the chorus.
[C] _ _ _ [D] So [F] darling, darling, stand, that's still on the F, stand by me, oh, [Dm] _ that's D minor, stand
[C] _ [Dm] by me, is C again back to the [D] D minor, oh, [Bb] stand, is back to the B flat, stand, _ [C] C, stand
by me, [F] F, stand by me, _ _ and then you repeat again what we learned at the very beginning,
another time with the third verse with the different words, however, before you do that,
I'm going to stop you and play that one part with the chorus one more time.
So darling, darling, stand, that's F by me, [Dm] oh, _ _ stand by [D] me, quick C, right, oh, [Bb] stand,
_ _ [C] C, stand by me, [F] F, stand by me, _ and then if the, that's the next words, if the sky [E] that
we look upon should crumble and fall, those are the next set of words, right?
And you repeat that, the next time you do the verse, you finish out the chorus, and
here's what you do at the end of the chorus, which is just going into the ending, _ okay?
So you just finish, [C] C, stand by me, [F] F, stand by me, and then it's, darling, stand by me,
[E] _ [Dm] _ _ _ [C] [Dm] stand by me, [Bb] oh, stand, _ [C] _ stand by [F] me, stand by me, whenever I'm in trouble, baby, and
then you can just repeat and fade, or if you want to end it, you can end it right [C] there
_ _ on, stand by [F] me, stand by me, and add that F in there one more time to hit it for the
ending, _ yeah, because it's kind of hard to repeat and fade with a piano, so I would just
do that with the ending.
So just to recap, you have [B] the intro, you have the first three verses, and you come
out of the ending of the third verse, play the little kind of bridge fun, you can do
what you want with the singing-wise, but the chorus is the same, [F] then you end on that F
chord, or if you wanted to try the repeat and fade, you're more than welcome to do that.
Go ahead, comment, let me know how you guys feel about the song, also about my new hairdo,
try out some new things with that, would love your feedback.
That's it, guys, make sure you keep practicing, check out the practice video for this one
as well, which is posted already.
Also, take a look at our Facebook, like us there, also if you have any other songs you
want to hear, send those to requests at mahalo.com, and if you're curious about what I'm up to,
you can check my Twitter out at Josh Brodess.
I'm starting my first day of Glee for the third season tomorrow, worked on a little
bit last season, so we're going to start again tomorrow, so I'm excited for that.
Thanks guys for watching, keep playing! _ _