3 Benefits of Learning to Transcribe Music

3 benefits of learning to transcribe music list some reasons it’s good to know this skill to aid your enjoyment of music.

Improve Your Accuracy and Understanding of a Song

Transcribing the notes to a song takes time.  But it definitely increases our ability to remember important details.  Analyzing a song in this way helps us better understand the message and the form.  Mastering these details is what makes a performance more memorable.  

Start by slowing down the song.  Take advantage of one of the many programs that can help you slow down a song so you can hear the notes more plainly.  Here’s one – https://www.tunetranscriber.com/  You are reading 3 benefits of learning to transcribe music.

Train Your ear to better hear the lyrics and melody

1. You might not have learned to read music when you began playing your instrument.  But training your ear can occur in other ways as well.  When learning to transcribe music the main task is to match the pitch of the tune of the recording to the one you can play.
2. For this step, grab your instrument.  Match the pitch you hear in the recording to what you play on your instrument.  I often use a keyboard for this step.  Although I’ve also used my guitar, the goal is the same – identify the note being played in the recording.

3. Knowing the name of the note you are now ready to write that note down.  Here’s some free staff paper to get you started.  If you’re not familiar with writing notes on staff paper, perhaps the image below will be helpful.

Notice there are 2 clefs, treble and bass.  For now, just pick one and write down the note you identified.  The notes in the graphic are whole notes.  They each get 4 beats.  If you’re new to reading music, concentrate on writing down the pitches for now.  Understanding how to notate rhythm is another topic for another day.

Learn a transferable skill to increase your enjoyment and understanding of music – 3 benefits of learning to transcribe music

Yes – a transferable skill like transcribing music unlocks one more way music can be understood, communicated, and enjoyed.  This blog post serves as an introduction to the greater world of music theory.  There is so much more to learn. I’ll leave you with one more link.  If you’re curious to learn more about how to transcribe music, check it out.

Free Stuff Paper  Free Music slow downer for Apple  Free Music Transcriber & Music Slow Downer