Remove the Piano from a Song and Play the Keys Part Yourself

How to remove the piano from a song

Open the song and choose six stems. The piano only gets its own track in the six-stem split. Run the six-second preview first to hear how well this recording separates, then split the full song, or just the section you're learning. Piano starts muted, and you have the band without the keys. If the device falls back to four stems, there is no piano track. Vocals, drums, bass and guitar stay where they were, and Other usually holds the strings, pads and synths. Before you play over it, solo Piano and learn the part: loop two bars, slow them down without changing the pitch, and listen to where the left hand sits against the bass. Turn on Chords to see the changes go by. Expect some piano to leak into Other and Guitar. Electric piano and organ can end up split between stems. Muting Other as well leaves a thinner track, but a cleaner one. Export the piano-free mix as WAV or MP3. Your song isn't uploaded.

Why the piano needs six stems

Four stems are vocals, drums, bass, and other. Guitar and piano are folded into Other, so there is no Piano fader if you only want the piano gone. Six stems gives Piano its own fader, and this page starts with that fader down. Guitar stays up. Vocals, drums, and bass stay up. Other stays up too, until you decide the pads are in the way.

If the device runs short of memory, the split falls back to four stems. You will not see a Piano track, and muting Other is the only way to thin the piano, which also thins the guitar. Close other tabs, or move to a computer, and run six stems again. The six-second preview is worth doing on a bar where the piano is exposed, an intro or a breakdown, before you commit to the whole song.

Learn the part, then play over the band

Solo Piano on the bars you are learning. Loop two of them. Slow the loop and leave the pitch alone, and listen for where the left hand sits against the bass. A lot of pop piano is roots and fifths down low and colour on top. If you only copy the right hand, you double the singer and miss the part that locks to the kick.

Turn on Chords and let the names go by while you play. Treat them as a sketch of the changes, then trust the soloed piano where a name feels plain. The six-stem switch carries a note that guitar and piano are less clean, and a busy mix is where you hear it. Some of the piano lands in Guitar and in Other. Electric piano and organ are the usual split cases: the body in one stem, the bite or the wash in another. Mute Other as well when you need the track cleaner, and accept that the strings go with it.

Save a mix you can play to

Export the mix as WAV or MP3 with Piano muted. Speed and pitch are applied if you changed them. If you want the piano alone, to transcribe it away from the computer, solo Piano and export that stem as a WAV. One stem at a time. Need more than one part out? The backing track maker mutes any mix of the six. The guitar remover is the sibling page when the guitar is the part you play and the piano should stay.