After watching just one episode of "Westworld" about a month ago, I knew I wanted to learn the show's theme on piano once I got home for the break. Now that I'm on break, though, the theme song has proved a little more difficult than anticipated, so I sat at my keyboard trying to think of another song I've been meaning to learn. This, to the surprise of no one, led me to the many piano melodies in "Hamilton." There were plenty to choose from, and each was fairly easy. My sister and I have never actually taken lessons or learned to play the piano, but we were able to figure out each of the main melodies not too long after looking them up. A good portion of the songs are also connected, so once you know one song, there's a good chance you can figure out another. So, whether you've been playing since you were little or you've never played piano in your life, you'll probably be able to figure out a least one of these melodies not long after sitting down at the keyboard.
1. Burn
This was the first song I decided I wanted to learn, and is quite possibly one of the easiest there is. The first fifteen seconds or so are the melody you're probably most interested in learning, and it's simple enough that it can be played on one hand. The next fifteen seconds are even simpler and can be played with the left hand, and the majority of the song following that is those two pieces on different parts of the keyboard combined with a few chords, so once you know the first thirty seconds, you know the whole song. It gets a little complicated at the bridge, but it's easy to simplify to your own skill level if you need to.
You can find a tutorial for "Burn" on Youtube here.
2. Alexander Hamilton
Like I said, the majority of the musical themes turn up somewhere again in "Hamilton," and the musical's opening number is a perfect example of this. The piano beneath "Alexander Hamilton" is almost exactly the same as the one beneath Eliza's first lines in "Burn." The rest, like "Burn," is just learning the chords that accompany those notes. As the song starts to pick up after Hamilton makes his first appearance, it becomes a bit harder, but the central melody can be picked up pretty quickly, especially after learning "Burn."
You can learn "Alexander Hamilton" here.
3. Dear Theodosia
This was the second song my sister and I went for, mainly because we both love the piano in this song. We were lucky to find that this song is pretty simple, too. Though the tune isn't really repeated elsewhere, the song itself is very repetitive and becomes long chords about halfway through, so it's easy to pick up once you've gotten the hang of those first moments.
4. Wait For It/Burr's Theme
Every song Burr is featured in, from "Aaron Burr, Sir" to "Non-Stop" to "The World Was Wide Enough," has some variation of his theme in it, so once you've learned one song with it in it, you can play the backing to plenty of other songs on the soundtrack. His theme is especially easy to learn as a part of "Wait For It," since it is all the left hand plays until the chorus. The song as a whole is a little more complicated than the rest, since both hands are engaged in more than just simple chords or single notes, but it's still simple enough that my sister and I were able to learn it quickly.
Learn "Wait For It" and Burr's theme here.
5. One Last Time/Washington's Theme
Washington's theme is another that appears every time the character is featured, and one of the clearest uses of that tune is in "One Last Time." Hamilton and Washington's entire conversation at the beginning of the song is backed by Washington's theme. The rest of the song gets more complicated as the song builds, but knowing Washington's theme will allow you to figure out Washington's appearances in songs like "Right Hand Man" and "Stay Alive."
You can find a tutorial for "One Last Time" here.
6. It's Quiet Uptown
This song is also one of the simplest to learn, since the song's somber tone means it moves a little slower than the others. It picks up and becomes a little bit harder as Hamilton walks with Eliza, but not so much that it is too hard to learn, even for someone without much experience in piano.
You can learn "It's Quiet Uptown" here.
7. Best Of Wives And Best Of Women
"It's Quiet Uptown" returns in an even simpler form in "Best of Wives and Best of Women." All forty-eight seconds of this song are essentially the opening of "It's Quiet Uptown" drawn out into longer notes. When paired with its counterpart, it's probably the easiest to learn out of all of these songs.
Learn "Best Of Wives And Best Of Women" here.
8. Satisfied/Angelica's Theme
Angelica's theme follows her all the way through "The Reynolds Pamphlet," so it's another that can be learned and reused while learning the music of "Hamilton." Her theme is most prominently featured in "Satisfied," where it's repeated over and over throughout the song, broken up mainly by moments of silence and simple chords while Angelica raps.
You can learn "Satisfied" here.
9. Cabinet Battle #1
One of the first piano melodies that I noticed while listening to "Hamilton" for the first time was in the first cabinet meeting, when a rewritten version of "Ten Duel Commandments" is played throughout Jefferson and Hamilton's rap battle. The tune repeats throughout their section until Hamilton is pulled aside by Washington, where Washington's theme takes over. Once the two bars of piano at the start of the song are learned, the rest follows quickly.
Here is the sheet music for "Cabinet Battle #1," arranged by Ali Taylor.
10. Take A Break/Philip's Theme/Ten Duel Commandments
The last song I learned when I got home was "Take A Break," not just because I wanted to learn the piano melody that appears again with Philip in "Blow Us All Away," but because I had already learned a good portion of the music. The beginning of the song is essentially Philip's version of "Ten Duel Commandments," which was easy enough to learn after learning "Cabinet Battle #1," followed by Angelica's theme.
Here is Philip and Eliza's rendition of "Ten Duel Commandments," transcribed by Louisa Tambunan.
The rest of the sheet music for "Take A Break" can be found here.
Selections from "Hamilton" have been released, so if you're better at reading sheet music than you are at trying to keep up with videos, you can find the official sheet music for sale, something I've been meaning to do myself. I'm still going through the music, trying to learn songs like "My Shot" and "Hurricane," so I'm sure there are plenty of other melodies that can be learned just as quickly that I haven't gotten to yet, so if there's a song you want to learn, there's bound to be a tutorial on the internet somewhere. If you happen to find a simple version of the "Westworld" theme for piano while you're searching, please, feel free to let me know.
