About my process
I'm always/often updating my site with cool stuff so this section and the others are probably going to change a lot. But for now, I hope this'll be helpful or interesting, if you want to find out about how I learn songs or learn something yourself!
This is a video I put together earlier outlining how I learnt one of my covers with some running commentary. There's some more notes in the description (abridged version below), and I'll include some more thoughts here:
Melodies - I don't have perfect pitch but by practice I have decent relative pitch, so if I know what the melody sounds like, by listening to the song a lot, I can reproduce it on piano. I can't teach this, but I would definitely suggest practising with as many songs or melodies as you can, preferably starting simple. There's sometimes guess and check especially with key changes, but for simpler parts like the verse and chorus it's usually more straightforward. It's also easier when knowing the melody/the whole song well, and helps with memory. Of course, you don't have to play from memory, but if it suits you like it suits me, then that's a tip. Another approach is to notate sheets before playing, which often works better with more complicated passages.
Chords - this song was simpler because the beat is steady with the guitar in the bass. On other songs, I tend to improvise a rhythm that fits with the melody using the chord notes, which is usually just chords, arpeggios, or jumping between octaves. Again, by knowing the song well you can get a good idea of what the chord progression is; for some more well-known songs you can usually find them by Googling, or figure out some fitting ones yourself. You can sometimes be creative, either with splitting up the notes of the chord or by changing the notes (to something that clashes minimally).
[Also, if you play/listen to many songs in the same style, many use similar chord progressions, so that'll gradually become easier as you go. Some knowledge of music theory can help if you've studied that, but if not then you'll get the hang of it with practice.]
Timing/rhythm - most songs are simple, with 4/4 time, but when there's weird rhythms or time signatures, a helpful trick I use is actually just counting on fingers - a simple 1, 2, 3, 4 (or more) can help you know the exact beat of the song. In terms of tempo, I stay close to my impression of an appropriate speed which usually ends up faster than the original, but this is also somewhat personal preference.
[This next part is only relevant since I (used to) play the rhythm game osu!, but if your song has a good beatmap for this game, the osu! editor can let you scroll through and follow a metronome beat, and also how I find BPMs and BPM changes for some songs.]
Dynamics - more self-explanatory, and open to interpretation. I would suggest following the original song, but this is probably one of the areas I would recommend you explore yourself the most.
Pedal - usually down to taste. I tend to hold pedal a lot, changing around every chord change or every bar. Not much to say here. I seem to lift off my pedal really quickly (there's sometimes a noticeable thump) so I try, and would suggest you do likewise, to avoid that.
Post-production - I record video with my phone (OnePlus One) and a mic (Zoom H5), and edit/combine them in Audacity and Adobe Premiere Pro - probably overkill, because I'm just syncing audio and video, but it's nice to have. My phone's audio is surprisingly good, though obviously not on my mic's level, and while the video usually looks fine it's prone to skipping frames or not focusing at times.
Melodies - I don't have perfect pitch but by practice I have decent relative pitch, so if I know what the melody sounds like, by listening to the song a lot, I can reproduce it on piano. I can't teach this, but I would definitely suggest practising with as many songs or melodies as you can, preferably starting simple. There's sometimes guess and check especially with key changes, but for simpler parts like the verse and chorus it's usually more straightforward. It's also easier when knowing the melody/the whole song well, and helps with memory. Of course, you don't have to play from memory, but if it suits you like it suits me, then that's a tip. Another approach is to notate sheets before playing, which often works better with more complicated passages.
Chords - this song was simpler because the beat is steady with the guitar in the bass. On other songs, I tend to improvise a rhythm that fits with the melody using the chord notes, which is usually just chords, arpeggios, or jumping between octaves. Again, by knowing the song well you can get a good idea of what the chord progression is; for some more well-known songs you can usually find them by Googling, or figure out some fitting ones yourself. You can sometimes be creative, either with splitting up the notes of the chord or by changing the notes (to something that clashes minimally).
[Also, if you play/listen to many songs in the same style, many use similar chord progressions, so that'll gradually become easier as you go. Some knowledge of music theory can help if you've studied that, but if not then you'll get the hang of it with practice.]
Timing/rhythm - most songs are simple, with 4/4 time, but when there's weird rhythms or time signatures, a helpful trick I use is actually just counting on fingers - a simple 1, 2, 3, 4 (or more) can help you know the exact beat of the song. In terms of tempo, I stay close to my impression of an appropriate speed which usually ends up faster than the original, but this is also somewhat personal preference.
[This next part is only relevant since I (used to) play the rhythm game osu!, but if your song has a good beatmap for this game, the osu! editor can let you scroll through and follow a metronome beat, and also how I find BPMs and BPM changes for some songs.]
Dynamics - more self-explanatory, and open to interpretation. I would suggest following the original song, but this is probably one of the areas I would recommend you explore yourself the most.
Pedal - usually down to taste. I tend to hold pedal a lot, changing around every chord change or every bar. Not much to say here. I seem to lift off my pedal really quickly (there's sometimes a noticeable thump) so I try, and would suggest you do likewise, to avoid that.
Post-production - I record video with my phone (OnePlus One) and a mic (Zoom H5), and edit/combine them in Audacity and Adobe Premiere Pro - probably overkill, because I'm just syncing audio and video, but it's nice to have. My phone's audio is surprisingly good, though obviously not on my mic's level, and while the video usually looks fine it's prone to skipping frames or not focusing at times.
Here's a glimpse of how I make sheets - this is a shorter cover, but it's similar to how I usually go. A bit is cut off at the end - all that was missed was listening and final minor edits.
Sheets - I make sheet music from scratch in Musescore, which has been my notation program of choice from the beginning. Regarding the process, keyboard shortcuts make things really handy because common options e.g. notes, note durations etc. can be typed out fairly quickly. Knowing how I've played the song from memory helps of course, but I do refer to my own recording regularly to try to make it accurate. That being said, I leave out a lot of details, such as dynamics and more specific tempo marks, but otherwise I try to get all the notes right and make it an easy to read, nicely formatted score.
Interpretation - Leading on from my sheets, which are not very detailed, I'll suggest an approach like I did when playing marasy's covers, which is to follow the music, but with freedom to make changes wherever you feel it would work. While you can refer to my video to see how I've played it, it'll probably be cool to work out your own style!
MIDI/mp3 - soundfonts used in creating mp3s from MIDI include TimGM6Mb (Musescore's previous default) and Arachno SoundFont (by Maxime Abbey).
[Previously, Z-Doc Soundfont III Fantasy Mode (by Z-Doc) was linked, but I am now aware that firstly, Z-Doc's soundfont is no longer available (and nor is he, with his site and YouTube channel taken down), and also that none of the mp3s I have are actually created using this soundfont. I will leave the links here for reference purposes but I'm aware that they don't work. Thank you to the user who emailed me to let me know!]
Again, if you have any questions feel free to give me a shout out! I'll be happy to help if I can :) But do bear in mind I'm nowhere near being a piano teacher, so for proper lessons on technique maybe do find a teacher, I can only advise on how I play in my style.
Sheets - I make sheet music from scratch in Musescore, which has been my notation program of choice from the beginning. Regarding the process, keyboard shortcuts make things really handy because common options e.g. notes, note durations etc. can be typed out fairly quickly. Knowing how I've played the song from memory helps of course, but I do refer to my own recording regularly to try to make it accurate. That being said, I leave out a lot of details, such as dynamics and more specific tempo marks, but otherwise I try to get all the notes right and make it an easy to read, nicely formatted score.
Interpretation - Leading on from my sheets, which are not very detailed, I'll suggest an approach like I did when playing marasy's covers, which is to follow the music, but with freedom to make changes wherever you feel it would work. While you can refer to my video to see how I've played it, it'll probably be cool to work out your own style!
MIDI/mp3 - soundfonts used in creating mp3s from MIDI include TimGM6Mb (Musescore's previous default) and Arachno SoundFont (by Maxime Abbey).
[Previously, Z-Doc Soundfont III Fantasy Mode (by Z-Doc) was linked, but I am now aware that firstly, Z-Doc's soundfont is no longer available (and nor is he, with his site and YouTube channel taken down), and also that none of the mp3s I have are actually created using this soundfont. I will leave the links here for reference purposes but I'm aware that they don't work. Thank you to the user who emailed me to let me know!]
Again, if you have any questions feel free to give me a shout out! I'll be happy to help if I can :) But do bear in mind I'm nowhere near being a piano teacher, so for proper lessons on technique maybe do find a teacher, I can only advise on how I play in my style.