In this lesson we look at an easy piano cover of Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol. This arrangement is designed for late beginners who want to capture the atmosphere of the original without getting lost in overly complex notation — the goal is to make it sound like the song, feel like the song, and be genuinely playable.
Part 1: Performance & Sheet Music
Watch the performance first to get the music in your ear. If you’d like to play this version yourself, the arrangement is available on Sheet Music Plus.
Learning the Chasing Cars Snow Patrol Easy Piano Arrangement
Part 2: Practice Tips
- Left hand pattern 1: rotation. The beauty of Chasing Cars is its simplicity: for the verses there is a pattern of alternating notes up and down, which you want to achieve by a slight rotation of the wrist and forearm: it would be clunky and uncomfortable, not to mention tricky to control, to try and achieve that by means of finger action alone.
- Left hand pattern 2: gentle staccato. In the choruses the left hand pattern turns from an alternation of notes to a repetition of two note chords which requires a change in technique. Use a gentle staccato: a steady, even pulse in the left hand is everything here.
- Syncopation: the three-note motif in the verse is syncopated. Make sure you count the subdivisions of the beat.
- Dynamic control: This piece lives and dies by its dynamics. Start softly — pianissimo — and let the volume build gradually toward the climax. Don’t jump to loud too early. Listen to the original Snow Patrol recording and notice how long they sit quietly before the song opens up. Do the same.
If you’d like to work on repertoire like this with proper guidance, get in touch — I’m looking forward to hearing your story.
