I'm really sorry to bump this topic. The last post was freaking 7 years ago

!
But I think my problem is most appropriate to this first video.
I'm totally beginner and I'm just starting. A few days ago I tried to play the intro of smoke on the water by ear.
I use an acoustic guitar. With nylon strings. The song was played with a guitar. So although the notes are the same, the pitch isn't. This made it very difficulty.
But one problem that I don't know yet how to overcome is: Sometimes the song sound the same, even though the notes are wrong. For example: I tried to play the intro of Seven Nation Army.
It is quite easy, using the 5th and 6th strings. Disregarding the chords, because I'm focusing on the individual notes:
If you play A A C A (on the 5th string), G F# E (on the 6th string), A A C A (5th) and G F# G F# E (6th) it will sound like the intro of Seven Nation Army. But if you go to the video where justin teaches how to play this song, you can see that it is actually:
C C D C etc... It is all different. It uses the same pattern, and I think this is why it sound like the music, but it is actually 2 notes ahead.
Is it normal to do this while transcribing? Does people play the music only to realize that all the notes are one or 2 notes higher or lower?