How do musicians play, with one instrument, songs written for a band with 5 members?

Question

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

Answer 1

The harmony and the melody of the song are kept the same, but they will be transposed into 4 parts of harmony, soprano, alto, tenor, bass, then applied to the keyboard/piano. Once this is done, it can be transposed into a different key to suite the singer. Although different notes will be played, the intervals between the notes will be the same. The bass and tenor lines usually played with left hand, soprano alto usually played with the right.