Playing Ed Sheeran's Perfect on Piano
The song sits in D major, 4/4 time, tempo around 64 BPM. It is straightforward enough that you can pick it up relatively quickly if you know what you are doing. Most tutorial videos on YouTube go through the chord progression and melody separately, which works fine for beginners. The main chords you need are D, A, Bm, and G. That's basically it for the verse and chorus. The strumming pattern translates to a slow waltz feel on piano, so your left hand should be thinking in a 3/4 pulse even though the right hand is keeping 4/4.Ed Sheeran Perfect Piano Tutorial YouTube
If you search for Ed Sheeran Perfect Piano Tutorial YouTube, you will get a lot of results. Some of them are decent, most of them are overproduced with flashing notes and annoying visual effects. I'd recommend looking for videos from channels like Pianote, Hank Schwartz, or New Piano Lessons. They break down the progression at a pace that actually makes sense. There is one particular video by Pianote that shows the left hand pattern clearly without making you watch a thirty-second intro where some guy talks about how much he loves this song. That one is worth your time. Here is the thing most tutorials miss. The bridge section uses F#m7 and G with a passing C#7. If you just play basic D, A, Bm, G throughout the whole song, it will sound flat. The movement in the bridge is what gives the song its lift. I used to skip that part when I was learning it because I thought it was too advanced for my level. Then I realized it only adds three chords and takes two bars. I added it back in and the whole thing sounded different. The melody line in the right hand is mostly quarter notes and half notes. It tracks pretty closely to the vocal melody if you hum along while you play. Some tutorial videos slow it down too much and it loses the natural phrasing. The melody has these little grace note turns and tied notes that sound wrong if you play them too staccato. Try listening to the original track while you practice the right hand part. It helps more than any on-screen note guide ever will.
I ran into a specific issue when I first tried to arrange this for solo piano. The chord voicings in the standard tutorials put the root in the left hand and the third in the right hand, which sounds thin. I found that adding the seventh on top of the D major chord and using inversions on the Bm and G gives it more body. Your left hand should be playing thirds and sixths rather than just single root notes during the chorus. It makes the arrangement sound fuller without requiring any extra complexity. One practical tip. Record yourself playing it. Not for posting anywhere, just to hear what you actually sound like versus what you think you sound like. The timing on the bridge always drags a bit when you are still learning it. Once you can play it straight through without stopping, slow it down to 50 BPM and then gradually bring it back up. Doing that cut my practice time from about forty minutes per session down to twenty. Another thing nobody mentions. The song has a pickup measure before each verse starts. If you count just the main beats you will be slightly off every time. The vocal comes in on beat four before the one. Your right hand should anticipate that. It is a small detail but it separates people who sound like they are following a tutorial from people who sound like they actually know the song.
For the outro, most tutorials just repeat the chorus progression and fade out. The real arrangement has a descending bass line from D to Cto C to B. It only appears at the end, but it gives you something to do with your left hand instead of just holding the same D major chord for four bars. It also resolves more satisfyingly than just ending on the tonic. There is no official sheet music released by Sheeran's publisher that is accurate enough to rely on. The transcriptions you find online usually have the chord names right but the rhythm notation is often wrong or overly simplified. Learning by ear from the tutorial videos is more reliable than reading any tab you find. If you want notation, the Hal Leonard book has it but it speeds up the tempo and changes the key to E flat major, which is fine if that key works better for your voice but different from the original recording. The whole song is about three minutes forty seconds. A typical practice run with breaks takes me roughly twenty five minutes if I am working on getting the bridge clean. Without the bridge it takes about ten minutes. If you are targeting a performance or recording, factor in another fifteen minutes just for polishing dynamics and pedal work.
Get the Full Details
You can find most of the tutorial content for free on YouTube. There are a few paid courses that promise faster learning but they mostly just package the same progression breakdowns with extra production value. I would stick with the free videos unless you need structured lessons for other songs as well. The learning curve here is shallow enough that you do not need a paid program.
