How to Train Your Ear to Transcribe Music Quickly and Easily will teach you what you need to get started transcribing music just by listening and training your ear.
- Find a song that can be downloaded as mp3.
- I’m using a song I wrote from Psalm 125, called “I’m Surrounded”.
- Using Audacity, open the file and slow it down.
- Using your mouse mark the area you want to slow down.
- Click on “Effects/Change Tempo”. The dialog box that appears on the screen offers some choices. You can do a percentage change, beats per minute, or length in seconds. I use length in seconds to slow down the tempo of the section I marked.
- This is saved with the .aup extension.
- If you need to repeat a section,
- Go to “Effect/Repeat”
- Go to “Transport/Playing/Loop Play”
- Chart the sections of the song on a piece of paper,
- Sections are the intro, verse, and chorus.
- See mine below.
- It’s a sheet of paper with 4 blocks on each group of lines.
- This is my song map. You’ll notice lyrics, song sections, like verse, and chorus, and a little rhythm marking.
- This helps me remember the progression of the song from a high level.
- Determine the Key
- Listen for root movement –
- Notice where the root of the chord is. For example, C is the root of the C chord.
- Listen to the bass line to find the key of the song.
- Listen to bass motion and chords.
- Track the bass part one note at a time.
- This helps determine the key and the chords of the song.
- Listen for Chord quality –
- Is it major or minor?
- Are the chords Diatonic? – all from the same key.
- For example, the C, F, and G chords are all from the same key.
- Use the circle of fifths
- Notice each note moving right is 5 notes higher in a circle.
- There are relationships between all the notes that are discernible in most songs
- Observing this helps us determine the harmonic direction of the song.
- Listen for root movement –
- Use a DAW to separate sections and slow down the tempo.
- This helps to understand one part before moving on,
- Figuring out one part at a time can help with repeats.
- Use relative pitch.
- Sing the note you hear.
- Stop the playback.
- “If you can sing it you can find it”
- Use a keyboard or guitar to find the note you are singing.
- If you use GarageBand, add a software track for the piano. This is how you can verify what the notes are before you write them down.
- Match the keyboard note to the one you are singing.
- Write down the name of the note by referencing the keyboard picture.
- Write notes on the staff.
- Interested in hearing the final track? You can listen here – https://smarturl.it/Sned-Lamp