where to find the keyboard parts to these songs

[Rockitman]

I've been approached by a budding cover band as they need a keyboardist/vocalist. I'm pretty good at the singing part but my keyboard playing has been limited to classical music. I own a Petrof III grand as well as a Roland RD700SX.

 

These guys want me to learn both keyboard and vocals on the songs listed below. My question, where can I find the keyboard parts for these songs? I'm not much of an improviser so just pointing me to chord changes for these songs will not cut it.

 

Runaway Bon Jovi

Burnin For You Blue Oyster Cult

Head First The Babys

You May Be Right Billy Joel

In The Dark Billy Squier

Dangerous Type The Cars

Dream Police Cheap Trick

I Put A Spell On You CCR (keyboards play the choppy high guitar sound)

Someone Saved My Life Elton John (rocked up with more guitar)

 

 

Thanks.

[kanker.]

I'm not trying to be a jerk here. I was once in the same boat you are. The best place to find the keyboard parts to these songs is from the recordings. Learn them by ear. It may take a while, but training your ear will benefit you much more in the long run than trying to hunt down the sheet music to these songs, because chances are good that the sheet music a) won't be correct, and b) won't have the real keyboard parts, but will be an arrangement with the vocal melody included.

[Sven Golly]

These guys want me to learn both keyboard and vocals on the songs listed below. My question, where can I find the keyboard parts for these songs? I'm not much of an improviser so just pointing me to chord changes for these songs will not cut it.

 

Well, sorry to spoil your day, but you're not going to find what you're looking for. Contrary to the classical world, where everything is clearly notated on sheet music, in popular music and rock'n'roll, there's almost never an accurate transcription of the keyboard parts.

 

Your only choice here is to learn how to interpret what you see on the 'dumbed down' pop sheet music, and then combine it with what you hear on the recording to recreate the part. This requires a good ear, which isn't something you develop overnight.

 

The exception to this rule is the Billy Joel and Elton John tunes. Those you will more than likely be able to find reasonably accurate transcriptions of. Not for free, in case that's what you're looking for... but your local sheet music retailer will be able to help you out, or you can purchase electronic versions from Musicnotes.com or a similar site (do a Google search for digital sheet music to find these).

 

[Mad_Maestro]

Rockitman.

 

While I agree with the previous posters about listening to the recordings to figure out the part if/when you can, there is a site called musicnotes.com where you can print many songs from the web for four or five dollars a song. The cool thing about this site is that you are able to view the first page of sheet music for the song before you buy if available in electric download form. That way you can have some idea of the quality of the transcription before you buy. For songs available in electronic download you can purchase just an individual song and print them in about 5-10 minutes. If your printer messes up it will let you print it again.

 

It also will let you know if the song you are looking for are available in paper sheet music form/book if not available in electronic form. Those titles you would have to order off the site or at least know it is still in print and can get it at your local music store. Of course accuracy and price on these are just like any other sheet music, because their is no preview. So let the buyer beware.

 

Scott

[Ed Coury]

I'm not trying to be a jerk here. I was once in the same boat you are. The best place to find the keyboard parts to these songs is from the recordings. Learn them by ear. It may take a while, but training your ear will benefit you much more in the long run than trying to hunt down the sheet music to these songs, because chances are good that the sheet music a) won't be correct, and b) won't have the real keyboard parts, but will be an arrangement with the vocal melody included.

[Rockitman]

Thanks for the info guys. Just checked out Musicnotes and it looks like they have some of the stuff I'm looking for.

 

True, mostly it's the Piano/Vocal/Guitar version where it's layed out to be played on piano but you're playing the melody and not necessarily the keyboard parts, although the Elton John piece is layed out with a true keyboard part as well as a vocal line. (Wish they'd do that with all of em)

 

And yes, I am beginning to realize that there are going to be few shortcuts here and that I'm just going to have to pore over the recordings and pick most of it up from there.

 

Now maybe as I'm doing this and I'm tackling a particular song, I can post here and ask for opinions on how best to achieve the certain keyboard tone involved. I'm sure I could get a lot of help from you guys in this matter? Although my Roland is more of a stage piano than synthesizer, I am allowed to tweak the voices somewhat if the preprogrammed voice is not quite what I need.

 

Thanks again for all the advice guys.