How to Transcribe Piano Transcriptions Songs by Ear
Transcribe Piano Transcriptions
Transcription is a great way to learn songs by ear, but it takes time and practice to perfect. Like most taught skills, transcription will get easier with consistent practice over time. To help speed up the process try focusing on learning one short song or jazz solo each day. This will improve your accuracy, and you’ll also be able to apply the techniques to your own music and performances.
In order to transcribe, you need to have a reference point to fix your pitch scale on. For most people that means having a piano, guitar or other instrument handy to play along with the recording. Once you’ve identified the bass note and can hear what chord the piece is in it’s a good idea to slow it down. Then it’s a lot easier to find the top notes of each chord.
One of the most challenging parts of transcribing is figuring out which pitches make up the harmony and which are melodic embellishments. A common approach is to divide the notes into “stacks of thirds” – groups of three notes that form chords based on their root position. This can be helpful but it’s important to remember that there isn’t a formula to identifying the harmonic content of a phrase.
How to Transcribe Piano Transcriptions Songs by Ear
It’s also important to remember that figuring out the notes to a solo is just step one. In order to actually see any benefit from your transcription you must ingrain the lines in your playing. This is a step that many players forget. It may be helpful to have a template in which to put your transcriptions so that you can compare them with other sources. This can be done using sheet music, online tutorials, or even other transcriptions of the same piece of music.
Once you’ve completed the bass line for a phrase or a whole solo it’s a good idea to slow down and loop the section that you are working on. This will allow you to play it over and over again until you can hear the exact notes being played. Then it’s just a matter of inputting that information into your own instrument to ingrain the sounds into your playing.
For more complex pieces and improvised solos it’s a good idea to divide the track into smaller sections. This can be the intro, first verse, bridge and chorus. This will make it easier to figure out the individual parts of a song, which will help you with the overall rhythm and feel. It can be a bit counterintuitive to work with such small chunks of a track, but if you’re focusing on getting the notes down right it will pay off in the end. Just make sure you listen to the whole passage again before moving on to avoid making mistakes.