Transcribing Suggestions....

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Music Junkie
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Thu Aug 06, 2009 3:05 pm

O.K. everyone. I certainly do dot speak for anyone but myself, but with all of the requests for songs and lessons, it seems that any input on transcribing would be worth sharing. I for one have a difficult time with it. I have a few tools that I use to slow down songs and try to figure part out, but that is a far cry from truly understanding how to do this type of thing. So, that being said, I would love to hear from those of you who kind of have this down.

1. Where do you begin in the transcribing process? What is the first thing you do to get started?

2. What is the second step? Where do you go from there?

3. So on and so on...............

I really want to get better at this and eagerly await any guidance from you pros out there!!!!!!!!!

Thanks,

MJ


rcsnydley
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Thu Aug 06, 2009 3:13 pm

There are a couple different ways I start.

One is to find the opening chord, sometimes this is easier than others. When that doesn't work I attempt to pick out the melody or bass line. From the melody I can usually ascertain the the key and hence the likely chords.

Another useful tool these days is to youtube a vid of it and watch them play it. Even if it doesn't give you the whole song it can provide useful info.

Also, TAB sites can be useful even if they are not 100% correct. If they can get you started it may be all you need to finish the job.

If all else fails request that Neil cover it in his lessons.:huh:


spraynard
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Thu Aug 06, 2009 3:59 pm

I'm going to talk to Neil about adding this potenially to some of the technical lessons we have coming downt the pipeline


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Thu Aug 06, 2009 4:12 pm

Matt:

That would be great! Neil has his hands full and is doing a great job (all of you are) of constructing first class lessons. I just think it would be great to learn how to do this by myself as it would certainly improve my playing skills as well. Thanks for the heads up, and I look forward to anything you guys put out.

MJ


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Thu Aug 06, 2009 4:18 pm

rcsnydley wrote:
There are a couple different ways I start.

One is to find the opening chord, sometimes this is easier than others. When that doesn't work I attempt to pick out the melody or bass line. From the melody I can usually ascertain the the key and hence the likely chords.

Another useful tool these days is to youtube a vid of it and watch them play it. Even if it doesn't give you the whole song it can provide useful info.

Also, TAB sites can be useful even if they are not 100% correct. If they can get you started it may be all you need to finish the job.

If all else fails request that Neil cover it in his lessons.:huh:
Thanks for the response. That is kind of how I get started, but I am TERRIBLE about staying focused and on track...... BAD BAD BAD habit of mine! I have a terrible ear, and just get frustrated too easily. If I hear a cover, I can usually tell if something sounds right or wrong, but I don't know the sounds by name yet. For example if someone plays me a B chord or an A chord, I could not tell you what it was by ear. I could play all the chords until I found the right one, but it may take me a while. Unlike my 8 yr old son who has perfect pitch and can name any note or chord I play instantly without watching me. Little turkey!

MJ


rcsnydley
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Thu Aug 06, 2009 4:33 pm

Music Junkie wrote:
rcsnydley wrote:

Thanks for the response. That is kind of how I get started, but I am TERRIBLE about staying focused and on track...... BAD BAD BAD habit of mine! I have a terrible ear, and just get frustrated too easily. If I hear a cover, I can usually tell if something sounds right or wrong, but I don't know the sounds by name yet. For example if someone plays me a B chord or an A chord, I could not tell you what it was by ear. I could play all the chords until I found the right one, but it may take me a while. Unlike my 8 yr old son who has perfect pitch and can name any note or chord I play instantly without watching me. Little turkey!

MJ
One thing you can try to help your "ear" is ear training. One of the parts of learning to be a good musician is ear training. Here are some free sites that offer some ear training.

http://www.cyberfret.com/guitar-inbox/2 ... popup.html

http://www.good-ear.com/servlet/EarTrainer

http://www.musictheory.net/trainers/html/id90_en.html


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Thu Aug 06, 2009 5:03 pm

Nice! I will check these out for sure. My guitar instructor told me the same thing about ear training a few years ago. We started working on it, but too many commitments cut short my lessons. I am hoping to be able to start up once more.

MJ


haoli25
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Thu Aug 06, 2009 5:07 pm

rcsnydley wrote:

One thing you can try to help your "ear" is ear training. One of the parts of learning to be a good musician is ear training. Here are some free sites that offer some ear training.

http://www.cyberfret.com/guitar-inbox/2 ... popup.html

http://www.good-ear.com/servlet/EarTrainer

http://www.musictheory.net/trainers/html/id90_en.html




Another good post Ric. Thanks


rcsnydley
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Thu Aug 06, 2009 5:12 pm

haoli25 wrote:
rcsnydley wrote:

One thing you can try to help your "ear" is ear training. One of the parts of learning to be a good musician is ear training. Here are some free sites that offer some ear training.

http://www.cyberfret.com/guitar-inbox/2 ... popup.html

http://www.good-ear.com/servlet/EarTrainer

http://www.musictheory.net/trainers/html/id90_en.html




Another good post Ric. Thanks
My pleasure, any time I can be of assistance.


AndyT
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Thu Aug 06, 2009 10:35 pm

Ear training is of course the way to go, but let me offer a way to 'cheat' and get a big jump up on finding chords.

Get your tuner out and turn it on. Set it close to your speaker (not too close) and play the song. Watch the tuner and it should give you the chords as they are played. Now if they change fast, then you need a super responsive digital tuner to get them all, but this will help you get the majority of them down and you can figure out the rest.


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