Transcribe Guitar and Piano Transcriptions
Transcribing music is an essential skill for any musician and there are many benefits to it. Not only does it help you learn songs or solos but it also teaches you how to hear music and how to break it down into parts. Having the ability to transcribe is also an extremely useful tool if you are looking to learn new chords or techniques as you can easily document them and then compare your work against that of the original artist and correct any mistakes.
The first step in any transcription is listening to the song, solo or riff that you want to learn over and over again. This will give you a good understanding of the way the music is constructed, what the main riffs are and how they change in pitch, when the melody rises and falls and how long certain notes last. It is also a great way to learn the difference between chords and how they relate to one another. Listening to the same section of the track over and over will also allow you to memorize the song or riff and then play it back in your head when the music is not playing.
Using transcription software like Transcribe! will make the process a lot easier by allowing you to loop a single note, or whole part of the music and listen for the intervals (for example a major third or perfect fifth). Using solfege (or learning it before starting to transcribe) will also really improve your chances of success as this is an easy way to identify the intervals between the notes that you are hearing.
How to Transcribe Guitar and Piano Transcriptions
Once you have listened to the music enough times and you feel comfortable that you understand the basic construction of the piece start with the easy bits. This typically means the melodies as these are usually the easiest to pick out and they will give you a solid base on which to build the rest of the transcription. It is also a good idea to transcribe songs that are played on instruments other than your own as this will force you to focus on how the same pitches sound on different instruments (or timbres) and will improve your ear training.
Once you have transcribed the music and you know it by heart either play it on your instrument or document it in some other way, for example using staff paper. This will allow you to double check that your transcription is accurate and will help you if you ever need to rework it or use it for creative purposes. It is also worth remembering that it’s not necessary for a transcription to be 100% accurate as it can just be used as a guide. Especially if you are planning to transpose the piece of music into a new key it will be easier to do that if you have all of the notes and chords documented so that you can see how it will fit with the original recording.