Do you transcribe?

  1. BadExampleMan
    BadExampleMan
    I just finished Joe K Walsh's 8-session workshop on improvisation on Peghead Nation and I've just started the new ear training course with Lissa Schneckenberger and they both seem to urge the same things: listen, listen, listen, and try to figure out what you're hearing. So in that spirit I went back to the first song Joe teaches in his Octave course, Sam Brown Hill by Duke Levine. There's a little 8-bar breakdown as the C part and in the recoding Joe links from the lesson (starts at about 1:12)



    Duke adds a 2nd 8 bars that Joe doesn't teach as part of his lesson. So last night I decided to finally figure out how to use TablEdit AND figure out what Duke's playing in that second 8 bars. This is what I came up with. It's not exact, but it works with the chords:



    (now let's see if posting the image works...)
    (...well it sort of does. If anyone knows how to make it resize better please tell me.)
  2. NDO
    NDO
    I’m impressed! I haven’t tried that. I’ve picked out a few songs by ear but have never tried actually transcribing it! Well done.
  3. HonketyHank
    HonketyHank
    Re image size, the forum software does not resize images to fit. So basically we need to resize them ourselves before posting them. I generally shoot for an image size of about 800 pixels. Adobe Photoshop and Corel Photopaint are two image editting packages that can do this and much more. They are spendy. A free option is IrfanView, which works fine. I even use Irfanview as my default image viewer. It is a huge bargain (free) and it is amazing what all you can do with it.

    Re transcribing, the full version of TablEdit is another bargain but not free. MuseScore is free. I have used both and they have their pluses and minuses. I mostly use TablEdit, primarily because of the vast TablEdit library now available here at Mandolin Cafe. And I do transcribe tunes manually into TablEdit. I learned to play music by reading it and thus I really need the written material in front of me before I can even start to memorize the tune.

    One other piece of software I'll mention. "Transcribe!" is the name of a program (not free but fairly priced) that will play an mp3 or other music file and indicate what notes are being played. It is kinda techy and even a bit of voodoo. But it has helped me sometimes. The problem with it is primarily that it picks up overtones and sympathetic vibrations and goodness knows maybe even spectral wails. You have to figure out which of those peaks it is hearing is the actual note being played. It includes a slowdowner, which is very handy even without the note identification. I don't use it often, but it does come in handy.
  4. JeffLearman
    JeffLearman
    I use "Transcribe!" to help with the fast parts (it plays them slower but at the same pitch, plus has a frequency domain chart which shows the frequencies present, over a piano keyboard graphic.) There's another similar program that's similar called AmazingSlowDowner. I prefer the UI of Transcribe and its frequency domain (aka FFT) chart, but ASD sounded considerably better on a few tunes I tested it with. But it's UI is more confusing and less helpful than Transcribe.

    I sometimes make charts, but haven't done that with any mando tunes yet. I'm considering making some for the tunes I've been working on, Manzanita (but there are probably plenty out there) and David Grisman's Swamp Dawg (but nobody's heard that since it's out of print and there are rights issues.)

    For guitar I use PowerTab and post at http://ultimateguitar.com . I'll have to take a look at TablEdit.

    The library here has a lot of tunes but sadly we can't search by artist. Perhaps there's a google trick for that.
  5. BadExampleMan
    BadExampleMan
    Weird thing is, I'm pretty sure I had MuseScore on my computer at some point. I couldn't quite remember its name but when I got the bug up my backside to do this transcription and scribbling on a napkin wasn't cutting it, I went looking in my applications and found TablEdit instead.
  6. Southern Man
    Southern Man
    I tried to use Musescore. I found it quite difficult to use and it caused me to basically abandon all attempts to reduce my musings to paper. I think I was already keen to focus on learning by ear.

    At some point I may try again.
  7. Mark Gunter
    Mark Gunter
    Yes, I transcribe stuff. The first tune I tackled for mandolin, when I got the Transcribe! software program, was Nancy Blake’s tune, Hangin’ Dog

    Most often though, like you, I’m just transcribing somebody’s solo, or writing the music for original stuff I’ve written.

    I also prefer Tabledit for writing music because I’m already familiar with it.

    Great job, keep at it!
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