The Secret Behind "Dreams" // EASY Fleetwood Mac Piano Tutorial

Indexed: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]Hey everyone, Pierre Phatetelli here.

[00:00:01]Today I'm going to teach you how to play Dreams by Fleetwood Mac. And I'm also going to talk to you about why this song is frequently dismissed by rhythm section players as being too simple or it's only two chords. We're going to dig into it together. And hopefully by the end of this video, you'll see why there's actually quite a bit more to the piano part than just two chords. The keyboard part is pretty low in the mix.

[00:00:23]It's played on Off Fender Roads, and it sounds something like this.

[00:00:42]So, why is this interesting? Well, notice that my left hand stayed on F the whole time, but the baseline to Dreams is actually F, then G, then F, then G.

[00:00:54]That's what I meant by two chords, right? It's an oscillating pattern between F and G over and over. So, how can that be? If the Fender Roads part that I think Christine McVy was playing, it's just an F the whole time, yet the F and the G don't conflict that much because of how the song is mixed. That I find to be really interesting. For the purpose of this video, I'm going to show you how to play it with the proper baseline because chances are that if you're playing this tune or you're accompanying yourself or playing in a band, you want to play the proper baseline. And all that really requires is changing the left hand to a G every other bar, which is not too big of a deal. So, here's the baseline for the intro and the verse. It goes like this.

[00:01:40]So, it's just F and G over and over.

[00:01:43]Long, short, long, short, long, short, long, short. They're dotted quarter notes and eighth notes.

[00:01:59]And the right hand is going to play these three different triads. E A C is the first one.

[00:02:07]Then down a set of white keys to D GB.

[00:02:11]Down again, a perfect set of white keys to C, F, and A. And then just retrace your steps backwards. D GB and then back to your starting point E, A, and C. Now, how do we put this syncopated baseline together with the right hand? Here's what it looks like slowly.

[00:02:42]again.

[00:02:53]And that will repeat over and over. So, let me talk you through it slowly. Left, right, left, left, right, left, left, right, left. Together.

[00:03:06]left, left, right, left, left, right, left, left, right, left, together.

[00:03:14]It's that same pattern over again. A little bit faster. Left, right, left, left, right, left, left, right, left together. Left, left, right, left, left, right, left, left, right, left together.

[00:03:39]Don't move on until you can do that. If that just proves to be a nightmare and you happen to be playing in a band, you could probably just hold Fs.

[00:03:50]Something like that.

[00:03:56]It'll sound fine. Not as cool, but I want to show you the baseline anyway, just in case you're playing this by yourself and maybe singing along. Now, that's the intro. You're gonna do eight bars of that, which is two full revolutions of what I just played. So, I'll demonstrate that, then I'll show you the verse, which is the same. But the trick with this song is knowing how many times all of these things happen.

[00:04:18]In a tune that seems monotonous or seems repetitive, it's very easy to get lost.

[00:04:24]So, you actually want to really be careful and maybe even study the lyrics a little bit. So, here we go. The intro should be like this.

[00:04:48]So, that's your intro, eight full bars.

[00:04:51]Before I go on, I just wanted to mention my brand new piano fundamentals course designed specifically for all of you learning songs with me here on YouTube.

[00:05:00]This is a really comprehensive course that eliminates all of the guesswork and teaches you all of the musical fundamentals from the ground up so that you can have an easier time learning your favorite songs. This means technique, posture, warm-ups, all of the major and minor chords, seventh chords, scales, how to read basic sheet music, lead sheets, and all of that stuff.

[00:05:20]Think of it as everything that I want all of you to know so that you have an easier time learning your favorite tunes. So, if this interests you or you want to just brush up on some things you learned a long time ago, be sure to check out the link down in the description and the comments below. Now, you're going to play the same thing for a verse and it's going to be twice the length of the intro I just played. So, 16 bars, four times through the whole progression. 4* 4 equals 16. And you know that this is beginning because this is when the lyrics begin. Now, here you go again, you say. Right, that's the beginning. So, here we go. I will demonstrate that with the same exact chord progression.

[00:06:02]That's four bars.

[00:06:10]Halfway done.

[00:06:19]12 bars.

[00:06:28]Okay, so that's the length of a verse.

[00:06:31]Next is the pre chorus. And you know you're at the precourse because she sings like a heartbeat drives you mad, right? So as soon as you hear that lyric, you're in this precourse which is rising in energy. The precourse is 12 bars long. It is the same set of chords F and G back and forth. So you could just do what I showed you for the intro and verse, but if you want to differentiate things a little bit, what I do personally is I play the guitar part, which goes like this.

[00:07:21]And then we're in the chorus, right?

[00:07:23]Thunder only happens when it's raining, right? So that's how you know you're at the chorus when you hear that lyric and everything gets a lot louder dynamically. So what am I doing? The left hand is the same. It's just the Fs and the G's. But the right hand does this position.

[00:07:38]A E A. Just like that. You can reach it with thumb and pinky. Bring it up a set of white keys. B FB again. A set of white keys. C G C. And retrace your steps. B FB. And then the cycle begins again.

[00:07:58]B F B C G C B F B. That's another cycle.

[00:08:12]All right. That's something that Lindsey Buckingham, I think, came up with on guitar just to differentiate things because again, same chord progression, but why not change the arrangement a bit so we know that we're in a different section and keep things moving. So, here's how we coordinate the two hands.

[00:08:25]It's the same thing in every bar. Left, right, left together, right, left.

[00:08:32]Again, very slowly. Left, right, left together.

[00:08:37]Right, left, left, right, left together.

[00:08:41]Right, left, left, right, left together.

[00:08:46]Right, left, left, right, left, together, right, left, right. And that's a whole cycle. So again, once you get that coordination, you're cool. If that's too difficult, hold some whole notes in the left hand.

[00:09:05]Nothing wrong with that.

[00:09:08]Now, like I said before, thunder only happens when it's raining is the chorus.

[00:09:11]So, that's how you know that you are there. The chorus is 16 bars again of this F and G, but it's modified a bit.

[00:09:18]What you're going to hear overall is F major 7 like this and then F major 7 over G. More of like a suspension.

[00:09:28]So, it's not really exactly the same chords. So, as usual, I'm going to show you how to coordinate the baseline with the actual Fender Roads chords. It's something like this.

[00:10:14]So there you go. Same length as the verse, 16 full bars. So how did I do this? Well, I was just playing FAC the whole time in the right hand. So just get your hand cozy there in that position. And the left hand, same baseline. F FG G. So as usual, it's not really difficult in terms of what the left is or what the right is. It's how we coordinate them together. So here's how it works. Together, right, left, left, together, left, right, left, together, left. together. Right, left, left, together, left, right, left. Together, left. Together, right, left, left, together, left, right, left, together, left. Okay, so you can go back and rewatch that as many times as you need.

[00:11:06]That is the coordination again.

[00:11:22]And you know what I'm going to say? If that's too hard, hold some whole notes in the left hand.

[00:11:34]That works fine, too. It's just important that you get this F major 7 over G. This is a different chord. It's no longer just F and G. F and G. This has a lot more character. to this F major 7 over G. Now, the instrumental bridge is really easy. Let me play it for you. Eight bars.

[00:12:07]So, what the bridge is, is just an A minor triad. And the hands are perfectly in sync here. So, AC right hand, A left hand.

[00:12:16]And you hold that for three beats. 1 2 3. And then hit it again.

[00:12:21]And everything goes down a white key to G major. GBD. Just adjacent white keys.

[00:12:26]Then you hit G major again.

[00:12:29]And then quickly go G F.

[00:12:33]So that looks like this. F A C. So you're just moving over, sliding over white keys, which is a big theme in this tune. And now we're going to trace our steps up. F G. and do it again. A minor, A G, G, G, F.

[00:12:54]So, if you can slide your hand between A minor, G major, F major, like this, you're going to be just fine.

[00:13:02]And the left hand copies with those roots. I'll play it again. A minor, A G, G, G, F, F, G, A minor, A, G, G, G, F, 2, 3, 4. And then, guess what?

[00:13:26]We're going to do the verse again. We're going to do the pre chorus again. We're going to do the chorus again. And then we're going to end the tune. So, you pretty much have everything that you need. I'm going to play through all of it again anyway, just so you hear the continuity of all of this.

[00:14:11]precourse.

[00:14:38]Now, I'm stopping here because this is the last chorus going into the ending, but it's twice as long as the chorus I taught you. It's actually 32 bars. So, this is what I mean when I say that you have to be able to count this stuff and not just play Fs and G chords randomly.

[00:14:52]So, I'm going to demonstrate what it should sound like and then how we end the tune. The lyric is the same. Thunder only happens when it's raining. So, as soon as you hear that, you're in the chorus.

[00:16:06]Now we're coming up to the ending. The ending is the same. It's four bars of the chorus progression, just tagging along and slowing down a little bit with an ending chord. So you did those 32 bars. So now let me show you the four additional bars that comprise the ending.

[00:16:27]Same thing.

[00:16:33]And here's the last chord. There is this mystery note here, this B and the F major 7. That's called a sharp 11. And you hear the guitar doing that, which is very cool. And it's a bit of a It slows down. So the last few bars could be something like this.

[00:16:58]like that. So, it's a very, very long chorus at the end, twice as long as the first chorus, plus those four bars at the end with the held out chord. And that, my friends, is how you play Dreams the right way with the baseline, not just dumbing it down to Fs and G's chords and not dismissing it as an overly simple song. So the next time a rhythm section player, and I'm a rhythm section player, says like, "Oh, I don't want to play that song. It's just Fs and G's." There's a little more to it if you learn the chords properly and dig into it. So, I hope you enjoyed this lesson.

[00:17:33]Don't forget to subscribe. Don't forget to like this video. Check out my piano fundamentals course if you want to learn more about the building blocks behind songs like this one. Really appreciate you all watching. See you soon in the next video.