Sometimes I hear covers or acoustic versions of songs that are normally played by:
* Rhythm guitarist
* Guitarist
* Bassist
* Drummer
* Keyboard person (pianist?)
And usually the the singer is the rhythm guitarist (in the bands I’m familiar with).
When one of these songs is played by just one person with one instrument– like a piano cover for example, I am not music-savvy enough to know what parts of the original song would be included, excluded, or changed in some way.
In: 3
First of all, with most instruments you can play multiple notes at once (chords). So if the original song at, say, 1:00 features a guitar playing a G and a piano playing a D, you can achieve the same thing (at least, the same pitch) by having a single instrument play simultaneously D and G.
Now, of course, this is not always 100% practical. Specific chords (multiple notes played together) may be really hard to play with only two human hands, because of how musical instruments are physically built, and some chords may be easy to play in one instrument but almost impossible in another, but it’s a good starting point.
Drums can be “emulated” by playing some notes in a rythmic way and/or by playing shorter or longer notes. It’s kind of hard to explain without doing it, but you can get an idea of what I’m talking about [here from 1:44 to 1:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-uwG2zGvT8&t=99s). It’s piano only, but it does give a feeling of rhythm, right?
Also, modern (digital) pianos, synths,… allow to play notes using the actual sound another instrument makes. [Listen to this awesome “challenge” between a synth/piano and an electric guitar: they really sound almost identical](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSko8vHOf8g). So, if you have a synth, you can play the first part as a piano, the second part as an acoustic or electric guitar, and so on.
On top of that, there are some specific “tricks” to emulate how different instruments sound, but they’re kinda hard to explain.
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