And So It Goes Sheet Music

Getting Your Head Around And So It Goes Sheet Music

You pick up the sheet music for this song and the first thing that hits you is it looks deceptively simple. Three-chord structure in E major. Straight 4/4 time. But playing it from notation alone without understanding the rhythm gaps will make it sound stiff and robotic. The song relies heavily on space between the notes, not the notes themselves. The most reliable versions come from Musicnotes or Sheet Music Plus, both carrying the official Hal Leonard transcription. I prefer the Hal Leonard edition because their transcription of the left-hand pattern is actually accurate. A lot of the free PDFs floating around online skip the syncopated inner chords and just write out basic block chords, which ruins the feel when you try to play along with the record. If you want the exact voicings Elton uses on the track, spend the seven dollars on the proper version. The key signature has four sharps. B major is the relative major, so all the sharps are in play. The song cycles through E, C#m7, A6, and B7 sus4 before resolving back. The chord symbols above the staff usually list it as E, C#m7/A#, Amaj7, and B7, depending on the arranger. I've seen three different chord labelings for the same progression across different editions, which is frustrating if you're trying to match what you hear.

The right hand carries the melody, obviously. But the actual piano part in the recording is more of a comping arrangement with occasional counter-melody hits in the upper register during the verses. The notation for the bridge section drops into a descending chromatic line that some simplified arrangements completely flatten out. If you're learning this for performance rather than just strumming chords at a coffee shop, you need the full transcription that includes those passing tones. One thing the sheet music doesn't tell you directly is the dynamic shape. The song starts sparse, with the right hand playing mostly single-note melody and the left hand doing sparse broken chords. Then it builds through the second verse with fuller voicings and more activity in both hands. The final chorus gets fairly dense. Playing it all at one volume level makes it sound flat regardless of how well you can read the notes.

The Rhythm Problem Nobody Talks About

Here's where most people struggle with this piece. The left hand plays a pattern that sits slightly behind the beat in a way that's not notated. It's laid back, almost lazy, which gives the song its characteristic drag. When I first started learning this, I played the left hand exactly on the beat because that's what the notation showed, and it sounded wrong immediately. The recording has that deliberate slack, that feeling like the piano is sinking into the mattress of the groove. The workaround I ended up using was to listen to the original at half speed, isolate the left hand with headphones, and transcribe it by ear rather than trusting the written rhythm. The notation writes it as straight eighth notes but the feel is more like a laid-back shuffle without actually being a shuffle. It's closer to a triplet subdivision where the middle note is ghosted. Once I got that lock, the whole thing opened up. Another nuance is the pedal usage. The original recording has generous sustain, blending the harmonies together into a warm wash. If you're playing this dry, it sounds clinical. Keep the damper pedal engaged through the chord changes and let the resonance do some of the work. Lift only when the harmony shifts to avoid muddiness, but don't be surgical about it. This song benefits from a bit of blur.

A Specific Edge Case That Tripped Me Up

I was arranging this for a solo piano recital and hit a wall with the B7 sus4 to E resolution in the final chorus. The chord symbol on the sheet music shows B7sus4 going to E, but the way it functions in the recording is that the F natural in the B7sus4 lingers and creates a brief dissonance against the E major triad before resolving down to D natural. Some pianists I know just play the B7sus4 as a plain B7 and miss that hanging quality entirely. It's a small detail but it changes the color of the ending. My solution was to hold the F natural in the right hand while the left hand plays the E major chord underneath it, letting it clash for a beat before resolving. It's not written that way in the standard notation, so you have to add it yourself. I marked it in pencil above the staff and it made the progression sound more like the record.

How Long It Takes to Learn

If you can already read music and handle basic chords, you can get through the first verse and chorus in about twenty minutes. The bridge and the full arrangement with the left-hand comping patterns will take another hour or so, depending on your reading speed. The rhythm feel is the part that takes longest to internalize. I'd say a week of daily practice at twenty minutes a day will get you to a point where it sounds natural rather than mechanical. Less than that and it'll sound like you're reading notes rather than playing a song. Don't rush the tempo. This song sits around 76 beats per minute and it needs that drag. Playing it faster makes it sound anxious instead of resigned, which is the opposite of what the lyrics are doing. Don't overpedal either. The chromatic descent in the bridge can turn into mud fast if you don't lift cleanly between those chord changes. And don't ignore the bass line movement. The left hand isn't just holding down root positions. There's actual voice leading happening, especially on the C#m7 where the Ain the bass gives it that lifted quality before it drops back down. Most of the free sheet music you'll find online simplifies the bridge or omits the final chorus entirely. If you're practicing for a performance, get the complete arrangement. The incomplete versions will leave you unprepared for the actual song structure when you sit down to play it for someone else.