Billie Eilish – ‘Everything I Wanted’ piano chords and sheet music

“Songs explained” is a series where we dive a little deeper into tracks that are popular on Chordify. This is the place where we’ll look at a song from beginning to end. This time we focus on “Everything I Wanted” by Grammy winner Billie Eilish. Did you know that this song contains only four chords?

Ready to learn “Everything I wanted” by Billie Eilish? In this blog post we provide sheet music, chord diagrams, video tutorials, and some background information. So, grab a chair, get comfortable behind the piano, and get ready for some jamming! We have different explanations for all skill levels: beginner, intermediate, and pro (advanced). 

In this blog post

Song structure and chords of “Everything I Wanted”
How to approach the song song structure
Beginner
Simplified chords
     Video tutorial
     Lyrics and chords
Intermediate
Chord diagrams
     Video tutorial
     Lyrics and chords
Pro
 Sheet music Intro, Interlude & Verse
     Video tutorial
     Sheet music Chorus
Music theory
Background story “Everything I Wanted”

Song structure and chords of “Everything I Wanted”

In general, “Everything I Wanted” is based on a cycle of these three chords: Dmaj7, E and C#m. To get a better understanding of the track, we’re going to look at the song structure, which consists of these parts: intro, interlude, verse, chorus. Doing this helps us to not get lost and to understand why at certain moments a C#m chord becomes a C#7 chord. 

We’ll start to zoom in on this soon, but first it’s good to put the parts into place. This helps you navigate the song when you start to play and add lyrics. The song “Everything I Wanted” is arranged as follows: 

How to approach the song structure

We can imagine that you might feel a bit overwhelmed by this structure. It seems like there is a lot of stuff going on, right? But, don’t worry! Remember, we said that this song is based on a cycle of three chords: Dmaj7, E, C#m. Actually, many of the parts of the song are based on repetitions of that cycle.

You’re probably wondering, “If everything revolves around the three chords we just mentioned, why do we even try to divide the song into different parts?” Simply put, they sound a bit different due to variations in singing and playing styles. For instance, at the end of each interlude, Eilish sings very intimately accompanied only by piano.

Furthermore, at the end of the second interlude, she whispers. The chorus can be recognized by the intense and full sound. In the first and second chorus the C#m is replaced by a C#7 chord. And with that, it’s time to dive into this song and help you master the skills to play it!

Beginner

In this part

Simple chords
Intro, interlude, and verse of ‘Everything I wanted’ – video tutorial
Chorus and outro of ‘Everything I Wanted’ – video tutorial
Lyrics & chords
Back

If you’re just starting out on piano, and you’re willing to play “Everything I Wanted” by Billie Eilish, then the beginner level is for you! If you’re a bit more advanced, feel free to skip ahead to “Intermediate level” [anchor link] or “Pro level.” [anchor link] But, if you’re not, let’s take a closer look at the chords that make this track so powerful. It’s good to know that two of the three chords in this song are triads. 

Simple chords

We assume that you already know how to play basic major and minor triads on piano. To make this song easier, we can replace all original chords by the common triads; without losing the soul of the track. By doing so, these are the chords we end up with: D, E, C#m, and C# for the chorus. Need to brush up on these chords? Check out these simple chord diagrams below.

Billie eolith chords piano

Intro, interlude, and verse of ‘Everything I wanted’

Video tutorial beginner basic triads: intro, verses, interludes.

In order to play along you need some guidelines. So, we were talking about the different cycles that make this song a whole, remember? Well here they come. This chord progression below is the cycle that repeats over and over again when you play the intro, the verses and the interludes.

Chorus and outro of ‘Everything I Wanted’

Video tutorial beginner basic triads: chorus. 

When you’ve got the chord progression of the intro, verses and interludes covered, it’s time to check out the chorus. This is the chord progression of the first and second cycle of the chorus, starting with this line: “And you say, as long as I’m here…”

Just like that C, we have to be sharp. Remember that we mentioned the C#m changing into a C#? This happens in the third line of the chorus (as you can see above). Now just sit behind your piano and play these simple triads. If you want to get closer to the sound of the original, you need to play all the notes of the triad at the same time.

Lyrics & chords

So now it’s time to play the whole thing. Are you ready? Just follow the our lead bar after bar. Here we go!

Intermediate level

In this part

Chord diagrams
Intro, interlude, and verse of ‘Everything I wanted’ – video tutorial
Chorus and outro of ‘Everything I Wanted’ – video tutorial
Lyrics & chords
Back

Chord diagrams

Want to try and play the chords exactly as they sound in the song? Great, let’s do that! We just need to turn the D triad into a Dmaj7, and the C# triad into a C#7. The other chords, E and C#m, remain the same.

Here are the chord diagrams for piano, followed by a video of how to play them in the intro, verses and interludes:

piano chords Billie Eilish

Intro, interlude and verse of ‘Everything I wanted’

Video tutorial intermediate chords: intro, verse, interlude.

This is the cycle that is repeated over and over in the intro, verses and interludes. And they all start with these lyrics: “I had a dream, I got everything I wanted…”

Chorus and outro of ‘Everything I Wanted’

Video tutorial intermediate chords: chorus.

In the chorus, the cycle looks like the chord progression below. And it starts with this line: “And you say, as long as I’m here…” The video below shows you how to play the chorus on piano.

Lyrics & chords

The whole song looks like this. Play and sing along as hard as you can.

Pro level

In this part

Sheet music: Background melody
Sheet music: Chords and background melody – video tutorial
Sheet music: Chorus chords and background melody – video tutorial
Back

Background melody

Hungry for more? Good! Now it’s time to try to play this song as if you were Billie Eilish. So, let’s play the chords together with the melody, just like on the track. First, let us show you this background melody, which is also repeated over and over again during the song. On the keys, it looks like this:

Chords and background melody

Video tutorial pro chords and background melody: intro, verse, interlude.

This is what “Everything I Wanted” by Billie Eilish looks like on piano for the intro, verse and interlude:

Chorus chords and background melody 

Video tutorial pro chords and background melody: chorus.

This is the chorus on piano, with the chords for your left hand and the melody for your right:

We covered most of the song now. The only thing left: the outro. This part starts at the end of the track with the words “If I knew it all then…” This final part of the song is harmonically based on the chorus. In other words, you can play the same chords as you did for the chorus.

The music theory behind this track

And here comes your favorite part. Yup, it’s time to dive into some music theory! As you can see, every cycle of the song starts and ends with a D major chord. To be more precise, with a D major seven chord: Dmaj7. It makes sense to think that this is the main chord of the song, and, therefore, that it’s written in the key of D.

But, what if we tell you that you can play the A major scale over this song? “Say what?!” Yeah, minds blown, right? Let’s take a look at what’s happening here by examining the A major scale: A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#, A. It’s hard to miss where the D-E-C# chord progression comes from.

If you zoom in on the D triad (D, F#, A), the Dmaj7 (D, F#, A, C#), the E triad (E, G#, B) and the C# minor triad (C#, E, G#), you’ll notice that the notes of these chords can all be found in the A major scale. This means that even if every cycle in “Everything I Wanted” by Billie Eilish starts and ends with Dmaj7, the scale you can use to improvise and jam on the track is the A major scale. Try it out and thank us later!

Everything I Wanted – Billie Eilish 

Let’s start off by addressing the song’s subject. “Everything I Wanted” is, as Eilish has often explained in interviews, based on a dream she had. Or, to be more precise, a nightmare in which she jumps off the Golden Gate Bridge and dies. As if this is not scary enough, the nightmare continues with Eilish roaming around as a ghost only to notice that nobody actually cares about her death. 

In the dream, her fans think she’s weak, her friends don’t bother remembering her, and the press doesn’t mention her anymore; only her brother Finneas is there for her. Those are some pretty dark lyrics for a pop song, if you ask us. This darkness also appears in the song structure and is reflected in the four chords that make this track feel so dense and disquieting. 

We hope you enjoyed learning how to play “Everything I Wanted” by Grammy winner Billie Eilish.

Happy jamming! 

By Kirill Dumchenko and Teo Lazarov.

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