Transcribing music is a process that requires a lot of time and patience. The frustrations encountered are offset by the benefits of learning music directly from the source. Your enthusiasm for the music will help you get through the rough spots.
I began working with the initial stages of transcribing at the age of
ten, when I realized the guitar books of Beatles and Monkees albums my
parents bought me were inaccurate. Often rearranged for EZ piano and
transposed to other keys,these books were not too helpful. I decided to
try and work with the recordings and match up the handful of chords I
knew. My guitar teacher (Dave Williams,Lake Hiawatha NJ) was great, he
taught me a lot of chord voicings,including some from an alien music
called 'jazz'. Enlarging my chord vocabulary was a big step in being
able to hear chords on the recordings.
As a guitarist,working with guitar-based music, I grew to recognize the
distinctive sounds of the open position, garden variety chords. I
learned to hear the difference between the mood
created by different chord types-major (bright),minor(dark),dominant
7th(wry). These subjective emotional responses to the sounds can be a
big help in developing the intuition needed for efficient transcribing.
I didn't learn how to notate
music until I had been playing for eight years or so-my experience in
learning music "just like the record" was strictly
hands-on-the-instrument, working out (as much as I could ) all the
current early-mid '70's rock stuff like The Who, Beatles/Stones, Led Zeppelin,
etc. There is a lot of information to digest in order to accurately
notate music, and in retrospect I'm glad I left it until I could play a
bit. Being able to 'hear it and feel it' is a prerequisite to being able to write it down.
By the time I went to Berklee, I could play most of
the "Yessongs" album, and could feel all the time changes quite
naturally, but I had no idea of what "odd meter" was, and only the most rudimentary reading skills.
Once I decided to become a full time musician, I figured the more I
could learn about all kinds of music, the better off I'd be. As I
started listening to jazz, classical, bluegrass, and other kinds of music,my ears (and mind) opened wider. I was able to better understand how the music I could already play worked, and I was able to assimilate new music more easily.
Learning to hear the differences in chord types, melodic intervals, bass motion and rhythm is
the first step in developing transcription skills. It is good basic
musicianship that will help you as a player. If you are involved with
improvised music on any level, the ability to hear and react to the
musicians around you is essential.
If you are a tablature reader without a background in standard or
rhythmic notation, you'll probably concentrate on the hands-on
approach, bypassing the written page. This approach is fine; the written page is a communications tool but not a prerequisite of good musicianship--witness the many fine players in all idioms and instruments who don't read. Being able to
read will help you in many ways, and if you are so inclined to learn,
you may find it easier than you suspected. You may want to check some
of the resources listed below.
Listen to the piece a lot before attempting to decipher it.Let it sink in.
Try to sing along with it. Don't worry if you 'aren't a singer'.
Start with the first note/chord. Stop the recording right after that
first attack. Try to hear the pitch in your head, then find it on your
instrument. Listen for the mood as a clue to the chord type (if
applicable). When you think you have it, rewind and play along. Listen
and see if you matched it.
In a fast passage, listen for the peaks and valleys (high and low
points). If a passage runs up a sequential series of notes, then
changes direction, stop your machine on the first note. Then, skip to
the point in the run where the direction changes- often, the last note
of the sequence will easier to find as it is followed by a note heading
in another direction. You can then try for the notes in between.
Try to recognize the sound of the scale. If it sounds 'weird' compared to a major scale (you are
very familiar with the sound of a major scale, right?
Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti-Do) listen for the deviations. There is a lot of
trial and error involved. Be patient, live long, and prosper. May the
Force Be With You, etc.
There are several tools that can make the job easier, by allowing you to slow the speed of the recording. There
are great digital recording programs which allow you to record music
and play it back at the original pitch, but slowed down by any degree
from 99% of the original speed to 30% and slower.
Half-speed can be a great help for checking accuracy or dealing with demonically fast passages. Just beware that your rhythmic perception really changes at half-speed.
If you rely on half speed transcribing all the time, you won't develop a sense of real-time ear training
which, in the real-world, is very handy. In a pinch it is faster, but
for your overall musicianship, it is best to allow yourself to tough it
out in real time. Many of us old timers (b. 1959) spent years taking
the arm off the turntable and going over a passage until a groove was
worn in the record in the prehistoric days before cassette machines.
The best and fastest way to learn the technical workings of music is to find a good, experienced teacher who is familiar with the styles of music you are interested in. See if you can find one locally, who also teaches the instrument you play. The more you know about chords, scales and their relationships, the more you'll recognize them when you hear them.
Matt Glaser's Ear Training For Musicians (Homespun Tapes, Box 325,Woodstock NY 12498,tel. 800-33-TAPES) is a good book/tape set to work with.
I 've written a short .pdf book, which helps
guitarists, mandolinists and other tab readers convert their skills to
reading standard notation, including rhythms. The Tab Reader's Guide to
Standard Notation. It's FREE! right click or option click this link and have fun!
There are more sources today than ever for musicians to expand their knowledge. Here are some books I enjoy (note: No Tablature included):
The Advancing Guitarist-Mick Goodrick (Hal Leonard Books)
An excellent resource for ideas on non-cliched chord voicings, creating lines, breaking ruts; thoughts and attitudes delivered with a great sense of humor.Useful information for all instruments.
J.S. Bach: Sonatas and Partitas for
solo violin- also makes wonderful music for guitar and mandolin- all
the scales and arpeggios you could ask for in a beautifully musical
package. You needn't be a 'classical musician' to play and enjoy these
amazing pieces. Practice music and you'll play music. Many editions available.
Standing In The Shadows of Motown-The Life and Music of James Jamerson (by Dr. Licks,Hal Leonard Publishing) Includes two CDs of classic Motown tunes,
with and without the bass. The bass parts are performed by a bunch of
top bassists. You can play the bass lines with the rhythm section,
great fun for feeling the groove, and reading inventive, melodic 16th note patterns.
Andrew White is a crazed sax maniac who has transcribed about 450 John Coltrane solos, as well as many by Eric Dolphy.
He is also a one-man publishing house with treatises on improvisation,
transcription,negotiating the music business,and the life of a crazed
sax maniac, among other topics. His Coltrane transcriptions are things
of beauty; I have about 15 of them and highly recommend them to anyone interested in this jazz giant. He's not web-ified, so send $4 for his huge catalog to:
Andrew's Music, 4830 South Dakota Ave.N.E. Washington DC 20017 USA