How to extract the piano part from a song

You have a song, you want the piano as MIDI - the chords, the melody, the timing. Here is how to do it free, and why the obvious tools usually disappoint.

Why most MP3 to MIDI converters fail on real songs

A typical converter reads the whole mix at once. Every cymbal hit, bass note and vocal line lands in the same analysis, and the result is a MIDI file where drums became piano notes. That is why the free converters you tried probably gave you a note salad.

The fix: separate first, transcribe second

klavery splits the song into six instruments - vocals, drums, bass, guitar, keys, other - and transcribes only the keys. The transcription model then works on nearly clean piano audio instead of a full band, which is the difference between noise and something you can actually play.

Go to klavery.com and drop the song in. mp3, wav, flac, m4a - up to 15 minutes.
Wait about half a minute while it separates and transcribes.
Listen to the piano preview, then download the .mid.

What you get

A standard MIDI file with note pitches, timing, velocities and the sustain pedal - most converters skip pedal entirely, and it is half of what makes piano sound like piano. Drop the file into any DAW, Synthesia, MuseScore or a keyboard with USB.

What about synth keys, electric pianos, organ?

They count as keys and get extracted too. That includes rhodes, clav-style keys, synth leads and music boxes - the timbres where most piano transcribers give up because they were trained only on grand pianos.

Honest limits

A solo piano recording comes back close to note-perfect. A dense mix where the piano is buried under the band depends on how loud the keys sit - the separation is good, not magic. You always get the audio preview first, so your ears can judge before you build anything on the file.

Extract the piano from your song →