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Anyone know the chord sequence to the piano sequence in Eric Clapton's "Layla"?? If not, are there any internet sites that have piano arrangements?

Yes, as a matter of fact there is what appears to be a very meticulous transcription on this website: http://www.freepianosheets.com/sheets.htm

Nice site; thanks for pointing it out jasper

You're very welcome.

Freepianosheets.com is an awesome website. I've been trying to contribute there to get it going more. If you guys got some sheets be sure to submit them!

Hooah:

Layla coda is one of my favorite rock piano pieces -- it is so joyous to play. I had the same search and found the Tragg transcript as well -- it's great fun! Enjoy.

wow! i'm in shock that this kind of stuff exists! it's great because i've always had trouble w/ timing and that site helps out enormously. now if something like this exists, is there something out there that shows proper placement of which fingers to use for what keys/notes?

It's a wonderful site. I downloaded 'Layla' and began to learn it when I thought I'd better go back and check the recording. As I began to hear the recording I realized that the website transcription was his interpretation of the song although it was a very good one. I took out my mp3 player (with the A-B function) and began to transcribe the music a little closer to the recording so this is my current 'project'. I hate having to unlearn things. What made this song a mite difficult to learn was that the tuning for this song was a little 'sharp'. The sound engineer had sped the recording tapes up just a little after the original recording was done hence our current difficulty. I took the recording and using a transcribing program tuned the recording the best I could to standard 'A'440. I'm still working on this song during my spare time. Good song.

this is a nice transcription; definitely no cake walk! is the original piano transcriptino of "layla" just as difficult as this one? or is it easier?

Layla is one of those songs that is complete unto itself - Like "Good Vibrations", it's essentially a modern mini-symphony.

The album's story is as full as an entire book - within a year of its recording, Duane Allman had been killed in a motorcycle accident, and Clapton had fallen into a heroin-fueled depression. Jim Gordon, (the drummer on the album who composed and played the piano coda)developed schizophrenia, and in 1983, was convicted of killing his mother, thinking she was a demon. He's currently serving a life sentence in a California prison, spending most of his time in the mental hospital.

There's a great film out there - You should watch the DVD Tom Dowd and the Language of Music Tom Dowd was a recording engineer for some of the best music of the last half of the 20th century, and his story is very moving. For the movie, he re-mixes the original master tapes of "Layla", and gives a full history of the song and its creation. It's one of the best movies I've seen in years.


For a sneak peek, here's the trailer:

Language of Music Trailer

Interesting stuff, kokomo61! Thanks for pointing out that film; I had never heard of it but will look it up.

You didn't mention that "Layla" itself was written for George Harrison's wife, with whom Clapton was desperately in love...which adds to the dramatic story of the album.

Somebody needs to teach that guy how to write rhythms.

[QUOTE] this is a nice transcription; definitely no cake walk! is the original piano transcriptino of "layla" just as difficult as this one? or is it easier? ]

I don't know of an original transcription although I did see a transcription of the song in a magazine called 'Guitar World' I think. This particular transcription broke down the all the different guitar parts, bass part and I think the piano part to be played on the guitar. I used to have this magazine and I tore the house apart trying to find it again to help me but to no avail. I saw the magazine on Ebay when I looked for 'guitar Layla' and it was about $10.00 for the back issue. I decided to keep the $10.00 and try transcribing it myself with some help from the Tragg version. You know, I think the reason I want to play is because I know so many people will get a kick out of it as its a very recognizable piece of music. Very nice. Anyway, you're right: definitely no cakewalk at least for me.

...and I believe Clapton wrote "Wonderful Tonight" after he'd won her affection.
But I could be wrong.

...and as a kid back in the early eighties I taught myself the Layla piano coda note-for-note (by ear) on my parents' 1930s Krakauer upright...

Thanks to a sub-par cassette recording and the horridly out of tune piano, I learned to play it in the key of C...and soon discovered it was actually written and recorded a half-step higher.

D'oh!!!

Don't worry about it - it's actually written and played in C - it's just the tape speed was different, making it awfully hard to play along with an original recording....

Well then all's well!!!

Thanks for clearing that up for me...after 20+ years, no less!!!

I'll go one step further - I have to make another plug for the movie "Tom Dowd and the Language of Music." One section of the movie has Tom re-mixing the song "Layla" from the original master tapes, and explaining why he did what he did.....

Here's another link to a clip:

Language of Music video clip

Another intersting snippet is that many people believe that the very famous guitar riff at the beginning of Layla was actually written by Duane Allman not Eric Clapton. (Duane also played the slide guitar part of course).

Kind regards

Adrian

WOW! I've gotta see that!!

Thanks for the plug, and the link.