Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Help with "Your Song" by Elton John

I watched this live version of "Your Song" and I can't really play by ear that well, and I was wondering if anyone had sheet music for this or knew of some sort of Sythesia Style tutorial... I want to play it EXACTLY as it sounds in the video.

None of the tutorials I have found match the EXACT same tune as this one is the video.

Here's the link to the video: https://youtu.be/mTa8U0Wa0q8

Thanks.

This guy stays pretty loyal to the songs in his Elton John and Billy Joel tutorials. It probably won't be exactly like Elton John plays it, noone can play exactly like Elton John, except Elton John. You can learn to play in his style, which takes a lot of study, and practice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB-HQ3tP4CE

My advice is to study the chords, and the style of the song. I think it's in the key of Eb (E-flat) so it has some tricky chords, B, E and A notes flattened.

I've got a midi file with a pretty solid arrangement. Don't think it's EXACTLY that arrangement, but beggars can't be choosers. It's not a snap to play, but I just recently got it down. (WOO !!)
Unfortunately, my personal website is blocked here at work and this dang forum won't let you upload attachments (I don't think?)

Stay tuned...

you're welcome http://pianocheetah.com/etc/EltonJohn_YourSong.mid

Thank you Stephen, at least I'm sure I will benefit from this version. Don't know about the OP, (s)he has lost interest in the topic or is busy. I'm in school right now, so I don't have any software installed to show notation, but I'll take a good look at your MIDI when I get home.

Happy to help

Just reviewed the MIDI, and it's all the instruments, three or four guitar tracks, drums, melody and acoustic piano. I have never had much luck with multitrack MIDIs, just too much work to do, to dig out the melody and playable accompanying chords.

Maybe the best (and the most legal way) is to get a sheet music book with the song, and notate it into a notation program. One can always buy a MIDI, for about $5, or simply learn to play it from the book.

Edit This version is not too bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N54GX7kBHy4

oh yeah, 2nd track is RH, 3rd is LH. So just play those. The rest are (questionable) background tracks. I just play tracks 2,3.

questionable as in I can't stand all those strings. The drums sound pretty decent, though.

Finding a good pop arrangement is murder. There are looots of arrangements of your song. A lot of them (purchased, found, WHATever) will be simplified to the point of useless (terrible sounding). A few will be so complex they'll drive you insane - Elton John rearranges songs in a heartbeat seems to me.

All I know is that this is a good arrangement to my ears.
Not sure about how it'd look in standard notation. The velocities in it sound REALLY good, so it's a recorded performance that's probably been heavily edited to come close to the bar line.

Well if someone is looking for good arrangements of pop songs, look no further:

http://www.pianocrumbs.com/piano/

I may sound like an advertisement, but this is simply the best site of it's kind, that I have found. Their arrangements are very playable and so clearly structured, that I know of nothing to match it. Yet they usually sound very much like the original songs. Unfortunately they don't have Your Song yet, but they probably will, if they get a lot of requests.

A midi file can be filtered to exclude all but the piano part then displayed in standard notation...perhaps you already know that...

Yes, done that already twice in Notation Composer, threw out all tracks except the ones Stephen mentioned. Then merged the staffs, and split them again, the usual steps I take for multitrack MIDIs.

That did something in the right direction, but it still looked pretty messy, and hard to read. This is why I prefer to make the MIDIs myself, figure out the necessary rhythms and chord progressions, and make the arrangement readable and playable for human beings.

It doesn't have to sound exactly like Elton John is playing (or Billy Joel, or Paul McCartney if it's one of their songs) if it sounds good, that's enough for me.

Importing into Cubase, removing all but the piano prior to displaying then exporting to Finale it displays as a pristine arrangement, no loose ends at all. In fact it's so tidy it looks to me to have been sequenced rather than played, or perhaps played then very heavily edited in the MIDI domain (a common practice these days for those seeking 'perfection'!).

I can upload it if it's of any use or, if there's undue sensitivity to displaying copyright material, PM me and I'll send a link.

Thank you dire tonic, appreciate it, and again thank you Stephen, for uploading this originally. I can see I have a lot to learn in tidying up MIDI files, probably don't have the right tools for it.

You can post your tidied-up version of Your Song here for my sake, though I probably won't be practising it in the foreseeable future. I think it's above my level, even if I got a good arrangement of it. If you don't, I might PM you for it later.

I'm working on another Elton John song, Daniel, which is in C and a bit more managaeble. Also having a run at And I Love Her, and Imagine.

Your Song

Seems to be a decent arrangement. Beware the lack of courtesy accidental in bar 8 which should show B natural. There are probably other minor omissions.

edit: key sig and accidental sorted (hopefully!)

Personally, I don't use standard notation, so it looks great to me...

I don't need notes to line up EXACTLY to the bar line when I use piano roll notation. Well, my modified piano roll notation.
I've sort of taken piano roll notation and added back in all the stuff that makes standard notation better. (Minus the stuff that makes standard notation worse).

Dire tonic, it looks great, you've worked wonders with the original file.

There was nothing to do. I simply pushed Stephen's midi file through the sausage machine and....hey presto! My experience with these things is much the same as yours - the scores are usually a mess. Enjoy....

Cubase and Finale together seem to be quite a sausage machine for multitrack MIDIs!

I have a purchased score/arrangement (from book) of this for voice, piano accompaniment + guitar chords. I would photocopy and upload here but, copier is broken . Perhaps I can another time if you are still interested. Meanwhile, if chords will help, here is first verse;

Eb .................. Abmaj7 | Bb/D .................Gm ...|
... It's a little bit funny .......... This feeling in-side |

Cm .....................Cm/Bb ......... | Cm/A ........ Ab .. |
... I'm not one of those who can ......... easily hide |

Eb/Bb ........................... Bb .............| G/B ........ Cm |
........ I don't have much money, but, | .... boy, if I did, |

Eb .................... Fm7 ........... | Ab ..................... Bb |
... I'd buy a big house where ........ we both could live

Bbsus (two beats) ... Bb (two beats) REPEAT

If I was a sculptor ...

Thanks for all replies, sorry it took me so long to reply. I forgot my password.