My early covers were usually learned with a combination of sheet music and by ear, but with time that balance has shifted more and more towards learning by ear, often kick-started with Guitar Tabs to learn the chords.
I was classically trained, so sheet music was the basis of my weekly lessons from ages 4 through 14. Around the age of 12, I discovered Costantino Carrara’s piano covers on YouTube, which inspired me to start messing around with pop covers too. Over the next few years I found that adding my own flourishes and creative touches to the arrangements came more naturally when learning by ear, and the songs also required no additional effort to memorize.
My covers are recorded in two parts. The audio is recorded in advance, using a Casio CDP-S350 keyboard wired through Logic Pro X. I use a digital piano sound from Garritan called CFX Lite, which uses the sound of the Yamaha CFX Grand piano. The video is recorded later using multiple shots.