Play "Lean On Me" Your Way! (PIYW #6, March 2026)

rsl12

PIYW #6: Play "Lean On Me" Your Way

Play It Your Way is a quasi-monthly event for beginners, professionals, classical, jazz, or pop pianists and everyone in between! We are starting work on "Lean On Me" by Bill Withers. Use the links below to find the sheet music you like, and when you are ready, post your performance in the submission thread. Perfection is not expected!

Previous PIYWs:

PIYW #3: Play "Autumn Leaves" Your Way
PIYW #4: Play "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" Your Way (as part of the Winter Holiday Recital)
PIYW #5: Play Haydn's "Divertimento in G Major" Your Way

Full List of Previous PIYWs

Thanks to WieWaldi for this month's selection! Please suggest pieces for future "Play It Your Way" events by using the suggestion box. The theme of the upcoming PIYW (to be announced in February) is "TV, Movie, or Showtune", but feel free to submit good ideas across all genres.

Guidelines

This is not a contest! It is meant to be a casual and fun event.
You can use this thread to discuss your preparation of the piece, or anything else related to PIYW. To submit a recording of your performance, go to the submission thread.
All PIYW submissions will remain hidden from public view until March 15. However, there is no deadline for when you need to submit your performance. Although most participants submit their recording before that date, you may submit at any time.
Use the recital schedule to plan your participation in future recitals!

"Lean on Me" by Bill Withers (1972)

From Wikipedia:

["Lean On Me"] was ranked No. 208 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2010. Numerous other versions have been recorded, and it is one of only nine songs to have reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with versions recorded by two different artists with a 1987 cover by Club Nouveau also reaching No. 1. In 2007, the 1972 recording of the song by Bill Withers on Sussex Records was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Bill Withers's childhood in the coal mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia, was the inspiration for "Lean on Me", which he wrote for his album Still Bill after he had moved to Los Angeles, and found himself missing the strong community ethic of his hometown. He had lived in a decrepit house in the poor section of his town.

Links to Sheet Music / Lead Sheet

You are not limited to only the music linked below. Feel free to find or create your own version.
You do not have to complete or perfect the piece to submit it, and don't be afraid to simplify or shorten the piece.
Improvisation, backing tracks, and backing humans are all allowed.

Sheet music (Listed easiest to hardest):
Free PDF
Musescore
Musescore

keff

rsl12 Count me in...I will try to include a little surprise with my version.

rsl12

keff I will try to include a little surprise with my version.

What can this mean!? You have piqued my curiosity!

rsl12

twocats well this is awkward. Tried it with chest voice and head voice and I think it works best for my range with chest voice in Eb. I thought going up or down a semitone shouldn't make much difference but it does!

Aw, at least it's not E! Checking my range, C is doable, but I'm near the top of my chest voice. I'm baritone, and I guess Bill Withers is a tenor? Bb is the most comfortable, but I'm choosing C to make the piano part as simple as possible, and I'll focus mostly on voice.

To start with, I'm going to copy Bill Withers' voice, to get the style right. It needs to be soulful, which I don't really know how to do. I found this isolated track of vocals, which seems helpful:

keff

rsl12 Unlikely that I will try to sing but is improvisation a possibility?

rsl12

keff Unlikely that I will try to sing but is improvisation a possibility?

That will be great! Could be a good tune for beginner improv.

keff

rsl12 Could be a good tune for beginner improv.

I agree and at the moment working on how to put more harmony into the bass line. My intended surprise is somewhat different and mischievousness led me to mention improv.😃

rsl12

I made a baseline recording. It's terrible, so don't listen to it expecting anything pleasurable.

The key makes me hit the top of my chest voice. I can either work on my singing in this range, or make the piano part harder by picking a non-C key. I'm pretty comfortable transposing, but with the singing, I want to keep things as simple as possible. Decisions, decisions...

In any case, it seems like this will be mostly an occasion to practice singing for me. I'm going to keep the piano part simple.

keff

rsl12 It's terrible,

No, it is not . It is far better than I can do.

Nightowl

rsl12 The piano playing is pretty good and your voice in the lower register sounds fine but some of the higher notes sound a bit too high, I think you pushed your voice higher than the piece requires. But I know nothing about singing and maybe I'm just used to the original version which features a much deeper voice.

Sophia

Oooh I love surprises!!! Can't wait keff 🙂

rsl12

Nightowl I'm sorry to say that I'm matching the pitch of the original recording! I think with practice I can get a relaxed tone in that range, but it would be a lot easier if I just went to Bb instead (which, after a few hours of reflection, I am leaning towards).

Nightowl

Ah, so then you can rename the piece "Lean on B"! 😄

I remember your rendition of Modern Major General - it was epic! That really suited your voice and your playful personality.

keff

Now secured my first recording with one error...but I still like it.

rsl12

I'm jealous always of people who finish early. My quarterly recital piece is still at about 50% of where I want it to be. But I'm working on the singing part for "Lean On B" while commuting.

rsl12

Another arrangement I found, if anyone's interested. It's $7 (link on the youtube page).

rsl12

It's almost February! Everyone is probably busy with the Quarterly Recital preparations, but also remember that voting for the April PIYW is coming up! The theme will be "TV, Movie, or Showtune". Put your ideas in the suggestion box. I'll open voting around February 7.

WieWaldi

I think, I won't put something in the suggestion box, this time. If I have good (or bad) luck, my suggestion is picked again. Then I have no excuses, not to learn it. I am still struggling with the recital piece (33% needs to be learned, then polishing, recording, video editing, yada yada yada) and everything I did with Lean on B was downloading the score. Didn't even print it, so far.

Sophia

WieWaldi If I have good (or bad) luck, my suggestion is picked again.

Haha, that's one reason why I haven't made any suggestions so far! That way I don't need to feel any kind of pressure to force myself to participate 😃

rsl12

WieWaldi I'm the same. If my suggestion or vote wins, the joy is tainted by the obligation to actually work on it.

For that reason, one can view PIYW as a Monkey's Paw. But maybe it's better to think of them as a puppy that we adopted rashly, but we never regret taking in..?

But really it's a little of both. A puppy with monkey paws.

WieWaldi

Sophia Good point, Sophia. It is okay to participate even without voting. Ehrm... In which post did you commit to participate in LoM? I can't find it anymore, the thread history is too long, now.