TR-004 • The Importance Of Transcribing

[justinguitar]

This thread is for question on justin's lesson on transcribing. If you wanna discuss the problem in Sudan (Darfur) then go to the Just Chatting Forum.

Before too many people ask - I will be doing a new lesson on transcribing hints very soon (Maybe today!).

Thanks

J

Lesson Link: http://www.justinguitar.com/en/TR-004-ImportantTranscribe.php

[Nathan]

Hey
It's a great idea

It just seems hard  
so i didn't practice transcribing at all

Tried just to find the notes I'm singing while playing
I heard that singing the notes can help a lot
I guess the video will help

Good luck

[Paul]

By learning to sing in tune you're training your ear to recognise what the notes you're singing are supposed to sound like, and if you can find the notes in your voice then it would make sense that it was then a hell of a lot easier to find the same notes on your instrument.

[angelfire]

Hey Justin, am just starting transcribing. THe troggs seemed an easy place to start, I think I can only hear three chords in it. It doesn't sound quite right with open chords, would I be going in the wrong direction trying some barre chords? I think I already know the answer is to try it! Cos I don't want to look up the chords!

Anyway thanks for the website, has taken me into a more structured way of learning.

Take carex

[bahaal]

I think this is the best place to put this question so here it goes.

I've always loved the song dear mr president, but I ain't sure if this would be a good choice to start transcribing.

I've managed to find some small bits but I ain't getting close to the big picture I think
I've cheated a little trying to find the right tune and I've noticed in the video he has a capo on the 3rd fret (not sure if its regular E tuning tho)

To me it sounds like he starts off with a regular G chord and then strums the bottom strings a few times before he does a hammer on flickoff on the second fret on the G string and then switches to a chord (200233) not sure of its name but I guess its some B chord :p

The chorus sounds like C Am G to me.

Tell me the truth, am I even close?

[justinguitar]

sorry dude but I don't know the song

new lesson on transcribing for beginners I uploaded yesterday...

J

[bahaal]

hard to believe for a person with such beliefs in political injustice doesn't know this song

I'd say http://youtube.com/watch?v=6DEh0eSpNvY check it out.

I have a feeling you'll like it

edit: I don't seem to find that new video about transcribing you spoke off I only found the 100th YT video

[Quark]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt4H2zQjNBM

Try this!

W

[Cozza]

Beat me to it... LOL

Cara xx

[bahaal]

thx guys

[rick]

I just watched the 'Dear Mr President' video (didn't know it)

I would really like to know the answers to her questions:

What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street?
Who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep?
What do you feel when you look in the mirror?
Are you proud?

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Can you even look me in the eye
And tell me why?

the acoustic guitar is nice, too. Perhaps I'll try to transcribe it....

@bahaal: Do you use a capo? In the video you can see that he's using one (think it's a Kyser btw ) on the third? fret....

[justinguitar]

nice song

Not quite as potent to me as Masters Of War by Dylan - but very cool.

The "mystery chord" TAB: 2 x 0 2 3 3 - is D with and F# bass...

And you are pretty much right on - the C chords are C add 9 - you kinda leave your 3rd finger down on 3rd fret 2nd string for most of the tune...

But you doing great mate...

ok - I'm off for a beer...

[Trish]

i know i should start easy, but that's too unlike me.....

question:  is it possible, or how do you transcribe a song to acoustic if the original is done in piano?  example:  billy joel's song *honesty*.  how would i go about it?  i know, step 1, transcribe some easy guitar songs first, but let's *pretend* i did that already.  it's the songs that aren't done on guitar that i want to play on guitar.  is that such a crying shame?

[bahaal]

I am making progress on this

thx justin for the way you handled the 'times like these' song.  It motivated me to transcribe it using the chords you gave me and it worked (had a bit of trouble placing the F#m tho in the beginning)

This must be the song so far I've learned the fastest ever not even using tabs

I hope you'll consider doing future songs like this one, giving us the chords first and give us some time to work it out

I reckon this is a pretty easy song to transcribe considering A. You gave the chords and B. its not a hard progression but still
transcribed and learned the song in less than 10 minutes

[rick]

It motivated me to transcribe it using the chords you gave me and it worked

Same here! I only had an E chord at the very end. It sounds okay too, I think....

Thanks for the lesson and it's a great song btw! Lookin forward to more transcribing lessons

@Trish: If you just want a play-along-version for guitar you could transcribe the voice-part and then find chords to it.