Recommended Sheet Music, Josh Cohen: Radiohead for Solo Piano

Josh Cohen: Radiohead for Solo Piano is a beautifully produced collection presenting some of Radiohead's best-loved songs, arranged for intermediate to advanced piano solo with lyrics, by YouTube pianist Josh Cohen. These exclusive transcriptions were made popular by Cohen's YouTube channel. The book includes a playing guide and introduction from the arranger. Published by Faber Music, this band-approved book features a specially designed “Twisted Wood Series” cover and mono prints throughout from Radiohead artist Stanley Donwood.

The following song arrangements are included: Codex, Everything In Its Right Place, Exit Music (For A Film), Daydreaming, Karma Police, No Surprises, Paranoid Android, Pyramid Song, True Love Waits, Sail To The Moon and Videotape.

Josh Cohen: Radiohead

Radiohead

Radiohead are an English rock band formed in 1985 in Abingdon-on-Thames. Band members Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano and keyboard), Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards), Colin Greenwood (bass), Ed O' Brien (guitar and backing vocals) and Philip Selway (drums and percussion) made a name for themselves in 1991 after signing to EMI. Since then the band have sold in excess of 30 million albums, have won three Grammy awards, seven NME Awards and one Ivor Novello Award.

Josh Cohen

Josh Cohen is a pianist residing in Melbourne, Australia. Classically trained for more than a decade, Josh's musical interests later diverged into jazz and improvisation which underscores his playing and arranging. Josh found musical solace from the competitive constraints of his training through a meditative and highly improvised approach to playing some of his favourite songs in endlessly evolving and creative ways. This exploration was the motivation for his YouTube channel, where he presents distinctive covers of not only Radiohead but also other artists such as Pink Floyd, Sigur Rós and David Bowie. Despite the familiarity of the songs, Josh embarks into unknown territory in his performances, and it is this combination of comfort and surprise that has resonated most with listeners, gathering millions of views and instigating deeply personal commentary from listeners worldwide.

Speaking about the conceptual stages for the book, Josh explains:

“Countless times during lessons my students would show me pianists on YouTube playing covers, often with millions of views and recorded fairly poorly. Every now and then when I could find a spare moment on a Sunday afternoon, I thought that I could perhaps record a few small improvisations over tunes that I was digging to showcase my school. I honestly thought nothing of it at the time, but as I continued to post videos, along came views and subscribers in the boatloads. I received some heartfelt messages from people all around the world who were listening in to the channel and there were persistent requests for sheet music of the performances. I continually had to explain to everyone that the sheet music simply didn’t exist on paper, as they were just arrangements of me playing whatever I was feeling in the moment. Eventually I was left with no choice but to start notating a selection of Radiohead arrangements from the YouTube channel.”

Watch the video below to find out more from Josh about this new publication.