The Luckiest Ben Folds Piano

Getting The Luckiest Ben Folds Piano Down

This is one of those Ben Folds pieces that looks deceptively simple on the page. The left hand plays these rolling arpeggios that never seem to let up, and the right hand has to carry the melody while simultaneously dealing with inner voice movement. I've taught this to probably two dozen students over the years, and it's the first thing people want to learn after they figure out "Fight Song." It's not actually that hard if you break it right. The basic structure is straightforward. The song sits in E-flat major, which means four flats in the key signature. Ben Folds loves using add9 chords and major 7ths, so don't be surprised when you see Emaj7 add9 or something similar. The tempo marking is usually around 72 beats per minute, marked with a gentle expression that tells you this isn't going to drive much. It's more about letting the chords breathe than any kind of virtuoso technique.

The Luckiest Ben Folds Piano

When you're looking at this, the first thing to realize is that the left hand pattern is almost always grouped in sets of sixteenth notes that resolve to quarter-note pulses. What trips people up is the thumb motion between the bass note and the fifth. You have to stay relaxed there. I had a student who developed a cramp in his left thumb because he was pressing too hard into the keys, trying to make every single note ring out. That's not necessary. Let the sustain pedal do the work. Once I told him to just barely rest his thumb on the keys rather than actively press through them, the cramp went away immediately and the phrasing sounded better because he stopped attacking every note the same way. The right hand has a few spots where you need to be careful about fingering. The verse jumps around a bit, especially on the line "it's the luckiest thing that could ever happen to me." That "could ever happen" part has a small upward leap that catches people off guard. I use 1-2-3-5 fingerings for most of the right hand passages, but on the pre-chorus when the melody climbs, switching to 1-2-4-5 gives you better control over the dynamics. You want the melody sitting on top, not buried under the harmonies. Here's what most people miss: the bridge section. This is where the song opens up harmonically and suddenly you're dealing with some borrowed chords from the parallel minor. Ben Folds writes "I'll be your home" and you're momentarily in E-flat minor territory before pulling back. If you treat the bridge the same way you treat the verse, it falls flat. Slow down just a hair, use a lighter touch, and let the harmony do the emotional work instead of pushing volume. The dynamic shift from verse to bridge should feel like walking into a different room, not like hitting a wall.

For the MIDI or sheet music, most people end up downloading the fake book version or something pulled from MuseScore. The MuseScore arrangements are hit or miss. Some are transcribed by ear and the left hand patterns end up being something Ben Folds never actually played. I found one popular arrangement that changed the chord progression entirely in the second chorus. The actual recording has a specific voicing where the right hand plays an E-flat major with the ninth in the melody, but a couple of the top MIDI downloads replaced it with a plain triad that completely changes the color of the passage. Always cross-reference with the original track if you can. If you're practicing this alone, start with the left hand in isolation. Play the arpeggiated pattern for five minutes without touching the right hand. Get your wrist loose. The motion should come from the wrist, not from individual finger lifting. Then layer in the right hand, but only for the first two bars at a time. Speed comes last. Most people try to play it at tempo on day one and end up reinforcing bad habits that take weeks to unlearn. The song runs about four minutes and forty seconds in its original form. Your version might be shorter or longer depending on how many times you repeat the chorus. Ben Folds does one extra repeat in the live versions sometimes, so if you're performing this and want to go longer, the structure supports it without feeling forced. Just make sure you have the endings figured out ahead of time because the final cadence isn't as clean as you might think.

I'd estimate that a dedicated beginner could learn the basics of this in about two to three weeks with regular practice. Someone with solid reading skills and intermediate technique might pick it up in a week. It's not easy, but it's not difficult either. It's just long. The stamina required to maintain that left hand pattern for four and a half minutes without getting tense is the real challenge here, and that comes from slow, consistent repetition rather than rushing through it at performance tempo immediately.