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Posted by: Alex Feather Feb 10 2012, 04:48 PM

Hey guys! Transcribing music is a very important subject in a process of becoming a great musician it helps develop your ear and get new ideas! I want to share my tricks when I am transcribing songs and solos!
1) Find a key! Before you will start doing anything figure out the key it will help you to understand notes and chords and will make transcription much easier
2) Find the first note
3) Know your intervals If you know intervals and can recognize their sound it will also help you to transcribe faster!
4) Slow down There is a few different programs that will help you transcribe as well you can slow down your audio file up to 50% without loosing quality as much!

Soundforge is a very nice program that can slow down music without loosing quality you also can loop a few bars and keep playing until you get it! Unfortunately works only on PC
Transcribe not just has the same capabilities as soundforge but also charged with transcribing tools to make your life easier! I believe it's available for Mac and PC!

I am starting a new thread on my instructor board it will be called "Transcribing Corner" I will be uploading licks, solos and chords that you can transcribe and learn, and if you have any questions you can always ask and I will be more than happy to help out!
Good luck!

Posted by: Dinaga Feb 10 2012, 04:55 PM

This is a great topic and idea, Alex. I think many of us could and should improve our transcribing skills a lot, formally. For example, I can recognize intervals in many cases, but never sat down and learned intervals "from the book", which is a really big issue in my guitar playing. Looking forward to your Transcribing Corner mate!

Posted by: Alex Feather Feb 10 2012, 04:56 PM

I will be talking about intervals as well! I am looking forward to it as well should be fun!!!!

Posted by: Saddlefall Feb 10 2012, 05:30 PM

I've found this great program for slowing down music, and you can even change the pitch so you don't have to tune your guitar if the songs are in e flat or whatever.

It's called Amazing Slow Downer (straight forward name )

http://www.ronimusic.com/amsldowin.htm

Posted by: derper Feb 10 2012, 07:35 PM

Audacity can slow down music without changing pitch, although other programs probably can do it better. But it's what I used to figure out 30+ NES tunes for EMULATOR, so it does the trick. I should try slowing down a REAL song, as opposed to an 8-bit track, to see how it really performs.

Posted by: ElHombre Feb 10 2012, 08:17 PM

I have been transcribing some of Marco sfoglis songs and I have recieved a lot of help here on the forum.
I use the amazing slowdowner for fast parts.

I have no general method for finding a key of a song rather than guessing?
How do you find the key?

Posted by: Alex Feather Feb 10 2012, 09:22 PM

To find a key you have to figure out the chord structure first and after that you will know what key is it in

Posted by: Dinaga Feb 11 2012, 06:36 AM

I suggest you check out GMC guitar Grimoire theory book which you received when you registered. If I remember correctly, methods of systematically finding a song key are explained there in great detail.

Posted by: Alex Feather Feb 11 2012, 05:53 PM

Good idea!

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Feb 11 2012, 07:19 PM

Great tips mate! That new section in your board sounds very promising!

Posted by: Alex Feather Feb 11 2012, 09:08 PM

I am so looking forward to it!!!! I will do the first posting on Monday!!!

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Feb 11 2012, 11:31 PM

I think that sorting out things by ear and getting to know how to transcribe them is a very important trait for any musician. I am not too good with classical notation , meaning that I can't read a score like a newspaper, but I always liked to sort things out by ear

Posted by: ElHombre Feb 12 2012, 12:57 AM

yeah mate hows it going with that lick you are helping me with

Posted by: derper Feb 12 2012, 01:56 AM

I've heard of this in another post, but didn't know about it when I signed up. I hope it's still available, because I'd certainly be interested in checking it out!!

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Feb 12 2012, 08:23 AM

Hey man, I didn't get shoot once I get back home from rehearsals today I'll try and set it up...sorry for taking so long

Posted by: Dinaga Feb 13 2012, 12:58 PM

Check out the first mail you received when you registered to GMC. It should be there. If not, just let me know and I'll send it to you. It's a great e-book!

Posted by: maharzan Feb 13 2012, 01:43 PM

Awesome topic. Transcribing really helps make you a better musician. I have tried few and it really works. I still don't know how to extract the chords though. I have a really bad ear. I can't even tune with open strings. I would love to learn more.

I use QuickTime 7 Pro to slow things down (maintains pitch).

Posted by: Dinaga Feb 13 2012, 02:43 PM

I use Guitar Rig for everything - it can change the tempo without much quality loss, it can change the pitch if the song is tuned down, it can loop the backing track, record, tune the guitar, apply different presets... pretty much has everything

The only flaw is that it steals the audio resources so you can't listen to any other audio like on YouTube, Winamp, GMC etc.

Posted by: Alex Feather Feb 13 2012, 05:05 PM

This unit is pretty cool! I use to own the previous model! So what it does it can slow down any song without changing pitch and when you are ready it just will take guitar out of the track!!! so you can have a backing track for any song you want! So cool!
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/tascam-cd-gt2-portable-cd-guitar-trainer

Posted by: Alex Feather Feb 16 2012, 11:06 PM

So I posted the first chord progression to transcribe! I hope you guys will have fun with it!
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=43042