How to Transcribe Music the Easy Way

How to Transcribe Music: The #1 Music Do Technique Y'all Demand to Know

It sounds crazy, only for years I didn't understand what transcribing music meant. I heard it all the fourth dimension in my musician circles and in schoolhouse, but I think I was also afraid to inquire what it really meant. It seemed like such a basic question, and considering everyone talked about it, I just assumed I should know as well.

I had ideas, simply the term didn't feel solidified — like when y'all use a word but feel guilty because you're guessing at its meaning.

This is the blog I wish I would have had and so.

Nosotros've got options when practicing.

When we go across the nuts with an instrument and begin amalgam our own practise routines based on our unique goals, we have a lot of options. Y'all've got scales, arpeggios, scale analysis, rhythm work, memorizing songs, ear training, sight-reading, new techniques, patterns, licks, etc., etc.

And some of those are specific to a single genre and/or can be transposed across all 12 keys!

It'southward just a lot, and it's no wonder it can experience overwhelming. Building an effective practice routine is a skill in itself, and it's piece of cake to autumn victim to practice paralysis — the land of feeling hopeless at all at that place is to learn and practice.

When we attach music to our sense of identity and purpose, this tin exist particularly painful. If you've e'er had a frustrating practice session because you didn't feel like what you lot were practicing was doing whatever good, felt a sense of existential despair, opened up Instagram, and had a biting flash of envy when you see a peer or influencer destroying a solo, you lot know exactly what I'one thousand talking almost.

What to do when yous experience a scrap lost

When we don't feel motivated to build out specific practice routines that fit our goals past highlighting our weaknesses and amalgam sessions to speak to them (which is the best approach when executed correctly), it's helpful to have something nosotros can e'er rely on as a source of skillful do. It may not be the best practice, simply it's better than half-assing a technical routine or repeating the aforementioned solo for weeks for no existent reason.

That tried-and-true technique I'm referencing is transcription, and musicians have a complicated relationship with information technology. Information technology seems similar anybody knows that they should practise it, but no one really talks about how to exercise it, and and so, because information technology is so ubiquitous, it feels similar teachers just assume their students are doing it, which leads to students not really doing it.

Why does this happen? For 2 principal reasons:

Transcription is really actually simple.
Musicians love to complicate information technology to extract an actress 10–20% of goodness from it.

Nosotros'll first out with the simple definition. Then, I'll nerd out a bit nearly the more complicated nature of transcription, a.m.a. ideal transcription.

What does information technology mean to transcribe music?

Transcribing music is actively learning songs and records by ear & so analyzing them by writing downwardly the notes on staff paper.

That's really it. I know. All of the other terms and techniques that surround the word "transcription" are just means to get more out of the process of learning a tape by ear. But that's really it. If you sit downwardly, learn the chords, learn a melody or phrase, write it down, and are able to play it dorsum — congratulations, you're transcribing.

That being said, I think many players equally they progress don't have to include writing down the solo or song on staff paper as part of this procedure, and some pro players wean themselves off of this equally they progress.

This isn't "transcription" exactly at this point because you're non writing anything downwardly, but players and teachers I've met talk well-nigh this process in the same way.

For the purposes of this commodity, I'll phone call this process aural transcription, which may be an oxymoron merely I think it gets the point across.

In other words, aural transcription involves the same conscientious analysis and memorization while thinking about the licks over the form, but they don't sit down and write information technology out. Or mayhap they'll learn it and so double-bank check their aural transcription against a written one that already exists.

Transcription is easily downward the best bang for your buck in the exercise room.

Transcription is the best all-around deal in the practice room. Equally master musician, after chief musician, afterward principal musician says, the best thing y'all can do is learn the songs that are played past the people you want to sound like. Many musicians across countless genres from jazz to rock didn't sit down with a volume on how to play their genre — they just threw on a record and went from at that place.

Why? Because it hits on and so many elements of musicianship at in one case — rhythm, technique, phrasing, harmony — because it's but learning to play the music!

So if you lot don't know what to practise and are feeling a bit lost, practise this for me:

Put on whatever song is inspiring you at the moment.
Pick out your favorite sections or licks.
Learn them slowly and learn them well (a.grand.a. Play the song as all-time as you peradventure can. Don't settle for mediocre).
If you want to do traditional transcription, which is fantastic for harmony, and then this is when you either write it down on staff paper OR double-check your memorization against a written transcription.
Record yourself playing it and encounter if information technology sounds like the record. Repeat until it does.
Try and pull out why you similar it so much and how you lot can apply it in the hereafter (this is where theory comes in handy).

This is basic transcription, and it will exercise more for you than just about anything else. Also, y'all don't accept to transcribe your own musical instrument — transcribe what motivates you. I play guitar, but I can't get enough of Stan Getz.

The Perfect Transcription Model

So if that's the basic style to transcribe, why is there all of this theory and racket effectually transcription?

Thorough transcription helps y'all frame what a musician is doing in harmonic, rhythmic, and musical context, which increases retentivity and makes what y'all transcribe go even further.

Learning a complicated lick is fun and tin can aid with technique and rhythm, but if you lot take no thought where it can go musically, you may struggle to resurface that thought in your own compositions or improvisations.

For example, if you empathize that a lick is over a 4 dominant seven chord, then you can plug that over any 4 dominant chords in the future, in whatsoever primal.

With that in mind, hither'southward how to transcribe "perfectly". This hits near every major area of musicianship and will give you some of the best practice sessions of your life if you commit to it.

How to Transcribe Music like a Pro

#1 Acquire the changes, perfectly.

Yous Take to know the chord changes — otherwise y'all don't accept context.

#2 Sing the melody or solo you want to learn then you internalize the pitches & rhythm.

To bank check yourself, sing the line(south) over the accompanying chords without the song.

#3 Write down, memorize, or read the section y'all want to learn.

The almost efficient way to memorize the solo or melody is what'southward best for you. If you are having trouble seeing where the line sits in the measures, and so writing it out on staff newspaper can be useful, just it isn't absolutely necessary. Most of the time memorizing while knowing where you are in the form is enough.

#4 Record yourself playing the solo until information technology sounds exactly how you want it.

Music is mode more than than pitches and exact rhythm. Get into the nuances. How are they making that sound? Are they leaning back on the beat? What gives it that extra "oomph" of musicality? Don't settle until it sounds like the music you want to hear.

#5 Analyze each phrase.

Pay attention to what y'all like nigh the rhythm and the scale degrees used.

#six Transpose your favorite licks or what you learned into a minimum of 3 keys.

Transpose it into the most useful keys and the keys you struggle with the near, and don't forget to think about the chords as you do it.

#7 Utilise what you lot simply learned past writing three licks or writing a vocal that emulates the original.

Use similar rhythmic and melodic motifs to internalize what you learned.

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The bottom line

Transcribing music this mode is a lot of work, merely this is the gold standard. If yous did this and nothing else for years and focused exclusively on one genre, your progress would be fantastic.

I similar to use transcribing as the foundation of what I exercise, and then I build specific drills for areas I know I'1000 weak in (these are often identified during the transcription process itself). For example, I may larn a lick that walked up in sequences of 4ths that kicked my ass. That's a sign that I could utilise some specific practicing effectually playing scales in 4ths.

Happy practicing.

P.S. This post was inspired in office by Mike, who writes at goodbyeruth.com — if y'all're a guitarist interested in learning by ear, cheque it out.

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I started a newsletter about practicing music meliorate, and it would mean the world to me if you checked it out — plus I guarantee you lot will discover something that will change how y'all arroyo practicing forever.

Go here to outset practicing smarter

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Source: https://nathandavidphelps.medium.com/how-to-transcribe-music-the-1-music-practice-technique-you-need-to-know-c4eb9e9c6869