I am glad you have made it this far and want to get into transcribing.

The biggest secret is to start with easy stuff. This is really important. If you start with hard material you will find it too difficult and most likely you will not be able to do it and will give up the idea. I have some recommended tunes on this site complete with some handy hints to get you started off, but feel free to choose some of your own stuff to do too, but just try to pick stuff that sounds easy, slow and playable.

There are a few issues that often come up when you are learning to transcribe that I will now cover.

Tuning

Being in tune with the song you want to learn is obviously pretty important. A lot of early material (like Hendrix) is just tuned up in the studio to other musicians, not to a tuner, so sometimes the tuning can be pretty far from concert (A=440Hz).

After some time you will start to recognise the sounds of certain shapes on the guitar and will recognise when people are using an odd tuning or are using a capo. For the Song Tips I will always tell you the tuning as a starter, but you will have to figure it out yourself sometimes. So what if you work out a few songs in funny keys, you will soon figure it out as you get better.

One thing that can really help, but does not work all the time, is to play an open string note on your guitar along to the record and tune to that. It only works if you know what one of the chords are. For example Gun'n'Roses version of Knockin On Heavens Door starts with a G chord (but it's tuned down a semitone). By playing your G string along with the record, and tuning it down so that it is in tune you can then use it as a reference to tune the rest of the strings.

For many examples this will not be an issue, but it is just something to think about if things seem really hard.

A good general rule is if you can't figure out the tuning, stay in normal tuning (use your tuner).

Writing it down

Writing down the songs that you learn is a very valuable skill too. It develops your understanding of rhythm and if you write the dots in too it will help with harmony.

But that can be very challenging for a beginner, so here are the cheats I would recommend.
Start by just doing chord songs, write down the order of the chords and maybe the structure (like verses, chorus, bridge) and if you feel adventurous maybe you could figure out how many beats or bars to stay on each chord!

The next level would be to start writing some lead lines using blank tab paper (Resources) and maybe adding on some rhythms if you know how.

Once you can do this you should start doing "proper" notes and tab transcriptions.

Listen to the bass

Often listening closely to the bass is a very good way to hear the note of the chord. Of course there are times this won't work, but can be very useful 75% of the time. Really concentrate on the low sounds in the song and play the notes on the thickest strings until it seems to match up. Listen to how high or low the note is and try to work it out. Of course you will still have to figure out if it ia major or minor chord but the bass will give you the biggest clue.

Stop the song after the bit you want to figure out

A very important and helpful tip is to stop the cd as soon as the bit you are trying o work out has finished. It lets the bit linger in your head longer and allows you to find it easier, without being clouded by what follows. I remember transcribing a John Coltrane solo and stopping after almost every note! Especially with fast tunes it can be very helpful.

Slow the recording down

This last trick is wicked. There is now software available (and it is even really cheap) that lets you slow music down to anything as little as 15% of the original speed but it keeps the sound at the same pitch. It is brilliant for working out fast stuff, and also lets you hear with clarity like never before. I wish it had been available when I was learning but, maybe it is good to try to do it full on too.

The program I use is called Transcribe and it comes with a free trial and costs £25/$50. Check it out for free and see, and if you like it, buy it! It is available for most platforms including windows and mac. I highly recommend it.

There is also more excellent advice on the site on how to transcribe. I think it misses my point about putting the sounds in your head, but on the whole is a very good description of the process, by people who know what they are talking about.

Lastly....Keep at it

It is going to be hard at first, but please stick with it, the rewards are so worth it, you can't buy this skill anywhere, you just have to keep at it.

I wish you the best of luck, now you might want to check out my video for beginners before you get going!

TR-003 • Beginners Transcribing Hints

 

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