TR-101 • The Process of Transcribing

[justinguitar]

Lesson Link: http://justinguitar.com/en/TR-101-BasicTranscribingSkills.php

Questions...

[Jaroot]

I'm 3 year-experienced guitar player, I learn from the videos and almost never use tabs. Also I'm not experienced at transcribing at all. All I could was just finding some chord tones, chord quality and a key. But as far as I go, I find that I start to recognize licks, simple chord changes, use of a b5 note, some intervals etc.

So question: Can experienced player (5-7 years) transcribe almost successfully (without particular practice) or can he make a good progress at transcribing just because he has been playing for a long time?

My point is as follows: I think that when you play a lot in a particular style, you start to recognize stuff that is being used all the time: common licks, chords embellishments and so on. For example, you hear a shred-lick and you know approx. what it could be. Or you hear a riff which is using harmonic minor, and you recognize what it's harmonic minor. But the hard thing is to transcribe all the notes perfectly, all the more if it's an interestic and unusual lick or whatever.

I'm fairly sure that it would be very useful to transcribe by yourself.

[justinguitar]

So question: Can experienced player (5-7 years) transcribe almost successfully (without particular practice) or can he make a good progress at transcribing just because he has been playing for a long time?

Some people can and some can't! Far too many variables for me to say!

[Latre]

Hi,
I wasn't sure where to ask this, but this topic seemed
to suit my question, so..
When transcribing, is it bad to find the riffs or chords on the guitar at the same time
as youre listening to the song?
For example, I was just listening to a power chord song, and got the chord
progression by moving the bass note around while listening. So, I got it down, but do you
think I would have learned more in the process had I done it the "listen, press pause, find the chord"-way?
Or is it all good if I just end up with the right chords?

[shadowscott007]

I would not say it is wrong.

However if you want understand the process you might want to pick a harder song.

Shadow

[Latre]

Yeah, I guess power chord songs aren't the the most complicated ones..
But I was thinking more about the ear training part, or the ear-hand relationship. When you press pause and try to find the sound, youre comparing the stuff you play to the sound in your memory. And if you play guitar with music playing in the background, youre comparing two sounds you actually hear.
So what I meant was, do you think it makes a difference when thinking about the ear-hand thingy?
A complicated thing to ask with my limited English

[shadowscott007]

The point is for fast passages, or things you can't pick up right off the bat, you make sure the last thing that is in your ear is the note or chord you are trying to get.  You stop the tune before it goes to the next note/chord whatever. 

Somewhere in the series Justin mentions that at some point you will be able to pick up clusters of notes at once.

The listen to the 'next' note and stop is for when you need to do that.

Pausing or not you are doing the same thing, hearing a sound and playing it.  So for slow simple strumming, or hit and hold power chords or very out front riffs maybe you don't need to pause.  But say transcribing a flurry of notes in the middle of an uptempo solo maybe you do.

Shadow

[fintanm]

hi everyone. my impression after watching this video (from the focus on individual notes and the importance of the pause) is that we are best served to transcribe the lead parts of a song first rather than the chords/bass part etc. this seems counter-intuitive to me as i feel i can better "understand" (for lack of better words), and more readily apply, a lead part when i already know instinctively the chord progression, and thus what chord the lead passage is being played over. what are you guys thoughts on this?

[jacksroadhouse]

I believe Justin's reason for starting with single notes is simply that identifying chords (esp. when you hear them in cpntext with the whole band playing) is a lot harder than identifying melody notes.

Personally, I don't mind about the order of transcribing. Just hoping for some tips from the master on identifying chords beyond what I know now, but that's coming later

[BrooklynRyan]

Lesson Link: http://justinguitar.com/en/TR-101-BasicTranscribingSkills.php

Questions...

At certain places on the website Justin says people should get started transcribing (and working out melodies) straight away.  But on the the transcribing part of the website it says best to wait until you've finished the intermediate course and half the lead blues course.  Seems to be a conflict.  Will a person make significant progress before being exposed to a fairly wide collection of material?  I really take what Justin says to heart about transcribing being the most important skill--makes sense to me--but I don't want to beat my head against the wall by choosing an inappropriate time to begin.

[sophiehiker]

You can start transcribing as soon as you know the open chords and power chords from the beginners class.  You can go through this list of songs and transcribe the chords.  http://www.justinguitar.com/en/TR-501-SongTips1.php  So, you can start right after the beginners course.

To transcribe blues or rock solos, you'll want to know the pentatonic scale well.  That's why Justin mentions starting the blues lead course first.

Likewise, to transcribe melodies, you'll want to know the major scale.  That's taught in the Intermediate course.

HTH