Stop Learning Riffs from Tabs (use your ears instead!)

As part of your journey as a guitar player, you'll come to a point where you need to start working out songs on your own. Using tabs, sheet music, or song tutorials to learn is great, especially if you develop your ears to tell if you sound right.

But most important than learning to play riffs and songs from tabs, you should be able to just translate to the instrument the sounds you hear in your musical imagination! But how to get songs out of your fingers? It might be easier than you think!

💡 New to JustinGuitar? This lesson is part of my free Beginner Guitar Course - Grade 3. Check out the full program here!

In this lesson, we'll explore some songs I suggest you should work out on your first attempts at transcribing. We'll also learn some tips to get you through them, but stop the video lesson before listening to them if you're feeling confident! Try working out these songs on your own, and if you need extra help, come back here for some tips on hand positions and starting notes.

5 Easy Riffs to Transcribe

Let's get started and check out 5 easy riffs that even advancing beginners can transcribe!

Easy Riff #1 - Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones

Satisfaction by The Rolling Stone has only three notes. It's really simple, and you could even play it with one finger if you wanted to. An extra tip? You'll play this riff somewhere at the first frets of your guitar neck. Have a go at it!

Easy Riff #2 - Redemption Song by Bob Marley

The riff played at the beginning of Redemption Song by Bob Marley is an easy one to transcribe! It's really naked, and there's nothing else going on there, so you should be able to hear the riff really clearly. It's at the first frets of your guitar neck, so don't try to find it at the middle-end of your fretboard!

There are quite a few hammer-ons in the original recording, but you can ignore that for now. Just go for the melody. ;)

💡 Being able to sing a song and have it clear in your musical imagination will be really helpful when transcribing! So don't forget to listen to the songs you're trying to work out on the guitar; you should be really familiar with them.

Easy Riff #3 - Another One Bites The Dust by Queen

Another One Bites the Dust by Queen is pretty easy too, but if you just look at the riff part. That's actually played by a bass guitar in the original recording, and it's relatively easy to sort it out.

💡 An extra tip, not just for this song but all of the songs, is that you want to learn how to stop! I use a specific software called Transcribe!, which always plays from the same place each time after you stop a song. Very useful.

The last thing that you hear stays in your ear, so if you can play a record from the same place, it'll be easier to get the sound of what you're trying to transcribe clearly in your ear. Check out my 4 Easy Steps to Transcribing for extra help!

Easy Riff #4 - Black Night by Deep Purple

The riff of Black Night by Deep Purple is also an easy one to transcribe! Later in this lesson, we'll learn some extra tips to help you out if you need to. For now - give it a go. And good luck!

Easy Riff #5 - Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison

This last song is a little trickier than the others, but it'll help prepare you for our next Transcribing lesson. This classic riff is faster than the previous ones, so you can use software to slow it down and help you transcribe.

💡 I use Transcribe!, but there are loads of different apps available. There's a free one called Audacity that many people like, and a much more modern one called Capo. Choose the one that works best for you!

Make sure you don't slow the song down too much, or it might get harder to transcribe. If you slow it down too much, you can't really hear the pitch of the notes. Start around 70% of the real speed and see how that goes!

You CAN Learn to Transcribe!

Before we go ahead and check out the extra tips on sorting out these riffs, let me assure you: you can learn to transcribe. You'll develop your ears, and transcribing will get easier, even if it's frustrating when you first start. In the beginning, a lot of it will be trial and error, and that's ok! Just have a positive mindset and understand it takes a little bit of grit. You have to sit down and persist! You'll get there.

💡 Transcribing might be difficult even for more experienced guitarists! Sometimes, it'll be frustrating, and sometimes very easy. It's the same for me. Some days, my ear is on fire, and I can work out any song straight away, but there are days when I have to think twice about a chord. The secret is to not give up!

Keep practicing, and develop a great relationship between what you hear and your hand. This is great for songwriting or improvising because you can hear the sounds in your musical imagination, and your fingers can make it happen. Yes, it's magical.

🚨 So, now you should try to sort out those songs without using any extra tips on hints. But if you're feeling stuck, come back here and check out the following information.

Hints to Transcribe These 5 Easy Riffs

If you're reading this, I hope you gave a go at trying to sort out those five easy riffs. But if you're feeling stuck, click on the hints below, which should help. Don't give up; you've got this!

Hint: Satisfaction

Hint: Redemption Song

Hint: Another One Bites The Dust

Hint: Black Night

Hint: Pretty Woman

Just Do This! 💪

I KNOW you can transcribe these songs! In 30 years of teaching, I've only met one student who couldn't hear the pitches and couldn't transcribe. So, transcribing is a skill you'll acquire. Just work for it!

All you need to sit down and listen to the songs you're working our until they're solid in your musical imagination. You should start learning to write simple tabs, but just making little notes about what the fingering was or the order might keep you from getting lost. Now, go for it - and happy trails.

You did it! This lesson wraps up Module 17. Next, it's a suggested practice routine for you. See you there!