Vision Music

[nylenny]

First, I should say that I initially found transcribing to be the most difficult and FRUSTRATING thing I've ever attempted in music. I say this because, no matter how bad you think your ear is, I thought mine was worse, and I am now a fairly proficient transcriber. (I even get compliments at jam sessions on how fast I pick stuff up by ear!) So you too can become a good transcriber.

It's very hard work, and you have to do it every day (for a long time ). It took me about an hour a day for one year to get my ear to the point where I began to trust and rely on it.

With that said, I've found a shortcut:

a) transcribe short phrases;

b) sing the phrase before you attempt to play it on guitar (or write it out by ear);

c) don't move on until you can do (b) perfectly and ON PITCH; and

d) figure out the lick.

Singing is the biggest shortcut for transcribing. At least for me. BTW, you don't have to have a good voice -- mine isn't. But it has allowed me to internalize sounds, which I can now quickly play or write down.

Also, when you're first starting out, figure out simple tunes (like Row Row Row Your Boat). Pick any note and make that the starting note for the tune. Then figure out the tune.

I'd be interested in reading the thoughts of others on this subject.

[Gorecki]

[Larry_DC]

Hi Nylon,

I agree with you on all those points. I had to get pushed into transcribing because it is a scary concept, even for someone who reads. A couple of years later and I'm transcribing not only solos, but the piano and bass behind them(okay, sometimes). I don't have to tell you what the positive results are!

It's interesting that you mention singing as a key learning tool. I only realized a few months into it that I had been singing the lines in order to learn them. I'm not even sure when I started, but it' sa natural way to go. I think I read that Diz and Lenny Breau used their voices in much the same way while composing.

Gorecki hits the nail on the head about slowing the music down. It used to take hours to nail down one phrase using CD's or LP's, and then accuracy was always questionable on the real fast ones.

I'm currently using Transcribe to slow the tracks down and Sibelius G7 to notate. Together they make a very useful set of tools.

[nylenny]

Hi Larry,

I use Transcribe and G7 as well. Transcribe is excellent. G7 can be frustrating at times because I can't always get the symbols that I want (for example, circled string numbers (as you would find in classical guitar music) and up and down picking marks. Do you know how to do those?

[Larry_DC]

[nylenny]

Thanks Larry, I'll give that a try. Also, I've been thinking about upgrading to the full Sibelius version, because the instruments on G7 sound kind of lame. Have you checked out the full version?

[Larry_DC]

Not yet, only because it looks like a lot more firepower than I need right now. Mozart and Beethoven could have saved a lot of time if they had used it!

What kind of sound synth or card are you using? That can have an effect on the sounds you're getting.

[nylenny]

Interesting. I am just using the sound card that came in my Dell Inspiron laptop. Nothing fancy. I haven't used any special settings.

I find it useful, by the way, to write from Band in a Box to a midi file, which I then import into G7. You can pick the style and instruments in BIAB, and G7 writes out everything that's going on, I've learned a lot of tricks with bass lines and comping from doing this. (Also about what other instruments, like drums, do.)

[Larry_DC]

Looks like you've mastered BIAB. I have but rudimentary knowledge so far. Are you using the Roland Virtual Sound Canvas to play your G7 compositions? The sounds really improved when I switched over to VSC from the lousy sound synth that ships with XP.

[Gorecki]

[nylenny]

G7 is really worth getting. It's relatively cheap $90 or so, and it's great if you transcribe a lot. It also interfaces well with BIAB. There are some free notation programs out there (Finale Notepad, for example), but G7 is really much better. I'm not familiar with Cubase -- I have Pro Tools Light, but am hopelessly incompetent at using it. I have found Audacity (which is free) to be decent recording software for simple stuff.

[nylenny]

By the way, with respect to my last post, the interface between BIAB and G7 really comes in handy if you are writing model solos or heads. You can quickly put together a rhythm section on BIAB, export to MIDI, import to G7, and then compose over the BIAB track. Once you get the hang of it, it makes it much easier to write melodies / model solos.

[Gorecki]

[Gorecki]

[Larry_DC]